Snare

Self-hosted media download manager with a web interface.

Snare wraps yt-dlp and gallery-dl with a clean dashboard UI. Submit URLs from your browser, track download progress in real-time, manage cookie profiles for authenticated downloads, and browse/stream/download your archived files — all without touching the command line.

Features

Download queue — Submit any URL and track progress live with real-time log streaming
Auto tool detection — Automatically picks yt-dlp or gallery-dl based on the URL domain
Cookie authentication — Import browser cookies to download from authenticated sites (Patreon, YouTube memberships, Instagram, etc.)
File browser — Browse downloaded files by folder directly in the UI
Media preview — Stream video, audio, and images right in the browser
Direct download — Pull any archived file to your local machine with one click
Disk monitoring — Live disk usage in the sidebar
Settings panel — Configure download directory, concurrency, and request delays

Screenshots

Dashboard	Queue

Archive Browser	Media Preview

Cookie Profiles	Settings

Supported Sites

Snare inherits full site support from its underlying tools:

Tool	Examples
yt-dlp	YouTube, Twitter/X, TikTok, Vimeo, Twitch, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, SoundCloud, Bandcamp, Bilibili, and 1000+ more
gallery-dl	DeviantArt, Flickr, Pixiv, ArtStation, Danbooru, Imgur, Tumblr, Patreon, and 300+ more

Installation

Requirements

Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, or 24.04
512 MB RAM minimum
sudo / root access
Internet access to reach package mirrors and GitHub

Step 1 — Download Snare

Either clone from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/snare.git
cd snare

Or download and extract the zip:

unzip snare.zip
cd snare

Step 2 — Run the installer

sudo bash installer/install.sh

The installer will:

Install system dependencies (ffmpeg, python3, curl, p7zip, etc.)
Download and install yt-dlp to /usr/local/bin
Install gallery-dl via pip
Create a dedicated snare system user
Set up a Python virtual environment at /opt/snare/venv
Copy all application files to /opt/snare
Write a config file at /opt/snare/.env
Install and start a systemd service

Step 3 — Open the web interface

When the installer completes, it will print your URL:

Web Interface:  http://YOUR-SERVER-IP:8080

Open that in your browser — Snare is ready to use.

Post-Install Configuration

Change the port

SNARE_PORT=9090 sudo bash installer/install.sh

Or edit /opt/snare/.env manually and restart:

sudo nano /opt/snare/.env
sudo systemctl restart snare

Change the download directory

Edit /opt/snare/.env:

SNARE_DOWNLOAD_DIR=/your/custom/path

Or use the Settings page in the web UI. Make sure the snare system user has write access to the directory:

sudo mkdir -p /your/custom/path
sudo chown snare:snare /your/custom/path

Then restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart snare

Adjust concurrency and sleep delay

In the web UI go to Settings and adjust:

Max Concurrent Downloads — how many jobs run in parallel (default: 3)
Sleep Between Requests — polite delay passed to yt-dlp/gallery-dl (default: 1s)

Service Management

# Check status
sudo systemctl status snare

# View live logs
sudo journalctl -u snare -f

# Restart
sudo systemctl restart snare

# Stop
sudo systemctl stop snare

# Start
sudo systemctl start snare

# Disable autostart
sudo systemctl disable snare

Cookie Authentication

Some sites require you to be logged in to download content (Patreon posts, YouTube memberships, Instagram private accounts, etc.). Snare handles this via cookie profiles.

Setup

Install the Cookie-Editor extension in Chrome or Firefox
Log into the target website in your browser
Click the Cookie-Editor icon → click Export → Export as JSON → copy to clipboard
In Snare, go to Cookie Profiles → New Profile
Enter a name (e.g. My YouTube) and the domain (e.g. youtube.com)
Click Import Cookies on your new profile and paste the JSON
When submitting a download job, select your cookie profile from the dropdown

Supported cookie formats

Snare accepts the standard JSON format exported by Cookie-Editor, which is compatible with both yt-dlp and gallery-dl.

⚠️ Security warning: Cookie files grant full access to your accounts. Only run Snare on a trusted private network. Never expose it to the public internet without a reverse proxy and authentication layer in front of it.

🔒 Reverse Proxy Setup (Recommended)

For access outside your local network, put Snare behind Nginx with HTTPS.

Nginx config

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name snare.yourdomain.com;
    return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name snare.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/snare.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/snare.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    # Optional: basic auth to restrict access
    auth_basic "Snare";
    auth_basic_user_file /etc/nginx/.htpasswd;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8080;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_buffering off;
        proxy_read_timeout 300s;
    }
}

Get an SSL certificate with Certbot

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d snare.yourdomain.com

Add basic auth

sudo apt install apache2-utils
sudo htpasswd -c /etc/nginx/.htpasswd yourusername
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Updating Snare

cd snare
git pull
sudo bash installer/install.sh

The installer is fully idempotent — safe to re-run. It will update all files and restart the service.

Project Structure

snare/
├── backend/
│   ├── main.py                  # FastAPI app entry point + lifespan
│   ├── core/
│   │   ├── database.py          # SQLite schema & init
│   │   ├── downloader.py        # yt-dlp / gallery-dl subprocess wrapper
│   │   └── queue_manager.py     # Async job queue with semaphore concurrency
│   └── api/routes/
│       ├── jobs.py              # Job CRUD, cancel, log streaming
│       ├── cookies.py           # Cookie profile management
│       ├── archive.py           # File browser, streaming, download
│       └── system.py            # System info & settings
├── frontend/
│   ├── templates/index.html     # Single-page app shell
│   └── static/
│       ├── css/app.css          # Full UI stylesheet (IBM Plex, dark theme)
│       └── js/app.js            # SPA router, all page renderers, API client
├── installer/
│   └── install.sh               # Ubuntu installer script
├── docker/
│   ├── Dockerfile
│   └── docker-compose.yml
├── docs/
│   └── screenshots/             # UI screenshots (add your own here)
└── requirements.txt

Troubleshooting

Service won't start

sudo journalctl -u snare -n 50 --no-pager

Permission denied on downloads directory

sudo chown -R snare:snare /opt/snare/downloads

yt-dlp is outdated

sudo yt-dlp -U

gallery-dl is outdated

sudo pip3 install -U gallery-dl --break-system-packages

Port 8080 already in use

Edit /opt/snare/.env, change SNARE_PORT, then:

sudo systemctl restart snare

Reset everything and reinstall

sudo systemctl stop snare
sudo rm -rf /opt/snare
sudo userdel snare
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/snare.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
# Then re-run the installer
sudo bash installer/install.sh

License

MIT — do whatever you want with it.

Credits

Snare is a frontend and orchestration layer built on top of:

yt-dlp — the best media downloader
gallery-dl — image gallery downloader
FFmpeg — media processing
FastAPI — Python web framework

⬆️ Upgrading Snare

Upgrading preserves your existing downloads, settings, database, and config file. Only application code and dependencies are updated.

From git

cd snare
git pull
sudo bash installer/install.sh --upgrade

From a zip download

unzip snare.zip
cd snare
sudo bash installer/install.sh --upgrade

The upgrade process:

Updates system packages
Updates yt-dlp to the latest release
Updates gallery-dl to the latest release
Updates Python packages in the venv
Stops the running service
Replaces application files
Preserves your .env config
Preserves all downloaded files
Preserves your database (jobs, cookie profiles, settings)
Restarts the service

What's new in each version

See CHANGELOG.md for full release notes.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 5 Commits
backend		backend
docker		docker
docs/screenshots		docs/screenshots
frontend		frontend
installer		installer
.gitattributes		.gitattributes
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
README.md		README.md
requirements.txt		requirements.txt

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

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Snare

Features

Screenshots

Supported Sites

Installation

Requirements

Step 1 — Download Snare

Step 2 — Run the installer

Step 3 — Open the web interface

Post-Install Configuration

Change the port

Change the download directory

Adjust concurrency and sleep delay

Service Management

Cookie Authentication

Setup

Supported cookie formats

🔒 Reverse Proxy Setup (Recommended)

Nginx config

Get an SSL certificate with Certbot

Add basic auth

Updating Snare

Project Structure

Troubleshooting

Service won't start

Permission denied on downloads directory

yt-dlp is outdated

gallery-dl is outdated

Port 8080 already in use

Reset everything and reinstall

License

Credits

⬆️ Upgrading Snare

From git

From a zip download

What's new in each version

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