YouTube Helper Client

This is an official TUI implementation of a client for the YouTube Helper server.

This is a simple self-hosted client/server setup for YouTube subscriptions.

This project started in July 2025 because I got tired of using YouTube's official UI. To make this client useful, you need a matching server with your subscriptions setup.

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Installation: Linux and macOS

This assumes you have a basic understanding of the CLI and already have a server setup.

1. Clone this repository into a directory somewhere on your local machine, then cd to it in a terminal.

2. Install dependencies:

   • Deno
   • yt-dlp
   • FFmpeg
   • aria2 (Available on Homebrew for macOS and most Linux package managers)

3. Install Deno packages:

   • deno install

4. Create config file

   • cp config.json.example config.json
   • Edit config.json
   • Replace INSERT_AUTHORIZATION_TOKEN_HERE with the auth token you set for your server
   • Replace INSERT_HOSTNAME_HERE with the hostname your server is listening on

Running

Start the client with:

deno run ./src/index.ts

If you wish to set an alias for this command (for instance, if you wish to alias the command yt to running this program), you can add an alias to your .bashrc or equivalent:

alias yt="deno run /path/to/YouTube-Helper-Client/src/index.ts"

Features

• Download videos: d
• Filter subscriptions: f
• Open in MPV (requires installing MPV media player): o
• Copy Link: c
• Mark Unread/Read: m
• Download Queue: e
  • Downloads can be retried
  • "Retry w/ cookie" uses the cookies from the browser specified in config.json, see yt-dlp documentation
• Search (Beta, searches through subscriptions): /
• Jump to top: gg
• Native SponsorBlock integration for full-video segments

Contributing

Feel free to leave issues or pull requests. AI-generated contributions will not be accepted.