Setup yt-dlp for GitHub Actions

Setup yt-dlp (a youtube-dl fork) on GitHub Actions to use yt-dlp.

This action installs yt-dlp for use in actions by installing it on tool cache using AnimMouse/tool-cache.

This action is implemented as a composite action.

Usage

To use yt-dlp, run this action before yt-dlp.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    
  - run: yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc

FFmpeg

To improve yt-dlp's handling of formats, like merging bestvideo+bestaudio instead of just using best, it is recommended to install FFmpeg.
By default, this action will install FFmpeg automatically.

For Linux & Windows, this action will install yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds with some patches necessary for smooth integration with yt-dlp using AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/ffmpeg@v3.
For macOS, you need to run AnimMouse/setup-ffmpeg first as yt-dlp/FFmpeg-Builds currently does not have macOS builds.

Disable

If you don't want to install FFmpeg automatically, set ffmpeg to false.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    with:
      ffmpeg: false

aria2

It is recommended to use aria2 as the downloader for yt-dlp, this will improve the downloading process and aria2 is already preinstalled in GitHub Actions.
By default, this action will write to yt-dlp config to use aria2 automatically.

Disable

If you don't want to use aria2, set aria2 to false.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    with:
      aria2: false

YouTube cookies

Currently, YouTube requires data center IP addresses to be signed in.
The error Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot. This helps protect our community. Learn more appears.

To bypass this, use the AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/cookies@v3 action to sign in and pass cookies.
Follow the instructions at yt-dlp wiki to get the cookies.txt file.

Encode the cookies.txt file in Base64 using this command base64 -w 0 cookies.txt and paste it to the YOUTUBE_COOKIES secret.

Caution

Do not use your personal account for cookies. Use a dummy account, and create a brand account inside of it, and use that to sign in. This passing the cookies method may result in your account being blocked.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    
  - name: Setup yt-dlp YouTube cookies
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/cookies@v3
    with:
      cookies: ${{ secrets.YOUTUBE_COOKIES }}
      
  - run: yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc

By default, this action will write to yt-dlp config to pass cookies automatically

Disable

If you don't want to pass cookies automatically, set enable to false.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    
  - name: Setup yt-dlp YouTube cookies
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/cookies@v3
    with:
      cookies: ${{ secrets.YOUTUBE_COOKIES }}
      enable: false
      
  - run: yt-dlp --cookies ~/.cache/yt-dlp/youtube/cookies.txt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc

Update cookies

Cookies have expiration, which means it has to be refreshed, or else it will expire and it will not work anymore. To prevent expiration, yt-dlp automatically refreshes the cookies as needed.
To update those cookies in GitHub secrets, use the AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/cookies/update@v3 action to update those cookies.

This requires a fine-grained personal access token that has read and write access to the secrets scope in the current repository to update the secret as the default GITHUB_TOKEN does not have access to the secrets scope.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    
  - name: Setup yt-dlp YouTube cookies
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/cookies@v3
    with:
      cookies: ${{ secrets.YOUTUBE_COOKIES }}
      
  - run: yt-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaW_jenozKc
    
  - name: Update yt-dlp YouTube cookies
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp/cookies/update@v3
    with:
      cookies_secret_name: YOUTUBE_COOKIES
      token: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}

Specific version

You can specify the version you want. By default, this action downloads the latest version if the version is not specified.

Specific stable

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    with:
      version: 2022.02.04

Latest nightly

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    with:
      nightly: true

Specific nightly

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    with:
      version: 2024.02.04.232659
      nightly: true

GitHub token

This action automatically uses a GitHub token in order to authenticate with the GitHub API and avoid rate limiting. You can also specify your own read-only fine-grained personal access token.

steps:
  - name: Setup yt-dlp
    uses: AnimMouse/setup-yt-dlp@v3
    with:
      token: ${{ secrets.GH_PAT }}