Universal Video Downloader

Problem

Engineers often need to pull videos from YouTube, Bilibili, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Twitter/X, and other platforms, but raw downloaders run into uneven link formats, login-gated errors like Unable to download webpage, and batch jobs with limited preflight checks, validation, and error isolation. This is useful when turning shared links into local files, collecting media assets, or building offline backups.

How it works

This skill wraps yt-dlp into a download workflow: it accepts a single link or a batch URL list, parses the target first, downloads with single-item or batch templates, and verifies that the output file exists and is non-empty. It checks title and format before downloading to reduce wasted requests. Key capabilities include merging bestvideo+bestaudio streams, retry with rate limits, metadata export, restricted filenames, and helper scripts such as download_video.sh and batch_download.py. The scripts provide progress feedback and failure summaries, making it easier to isolate bad links.

• Single download: quick retrieval from a shared link.
• Batch download: reads one URL per line and reports progress plus failures.
• Cookie guidance: for higher-risk platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin, use cookies from a dedicated browsing account rather than mixing in automation-account credentials.

Limits and notes

yt-dlp is required, and ffmpeg is needed for audio/video stream merging. YouTube and Bilibili can often be downloaded without login; Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and similar platforms may require login. If Unsupported URL appears, update yt-dlp or verify the link; private or deleted videos cannot be downloaded.