ytdl-rmcp

yt-dlp search, download, metadata, delivery, and Plex workflows over MCP and CLI.

Written in Rust on the rmcp crate. yt-dlp and ffmpeg are auto-downloaded into a per-user cache on first run, so the host needs neither pre-installed — the one binary is the whole install.

30-second path: npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl setup -> configure a target path -> call youtube_search or youtube_probe; use youtube_download only after the destination and trust boundary are clear.

Status: production personal-media MCP server. Read-only search/probe/stats paths are safe; download, playlist, queue-drain, and tag-writing paths create or move state and are intended for trusted callers.

Not for: a generic web-downloader SaaS, a multi-tenant media ingestion boundary, a replacement for yt-dlp's upstream site handling, or an arbitrary filesystem writer for untrusted MCP callers.

Contents

• Naming
• Capabilities And Boundaries
• Install
• Quickstart
• Client Configuration
• Runtime Surfaces
• MCP Tool Reference
• CLI Reference
• Configuration
• Authentication
• Safety And Trust Model
• Architecture
• Distribution Contract
• Development
• Verification
• Deployment
• Troubleshooting
• Related Servers
• Documentation
• License

Naming

Surface	This repo
Repository	dinglebear-ai/rytdl
Cargo crate	ytdl-rmcp
npm package	@dinglebear/rytdl
CLI / binary	rytdl
MCP tools	youtube_search, youtube_search_ui, youtube_download, youtube_probe, youtube_identify, youtube_stats, youtube_plex_playlist, youtube_transfer_queue
Env prefix	YTDLP_*, plus FFMPEG_*, FPCALC_PATH, and YTDLP_LOG
Transport	stdio only — no HTTP listener, no service port

The crate and npm package use the *-rmcp family naming pattern, while the repository and runtime binary are rytdl so local shells get a short Rust-native command.

Capabilities And Boundaries

• Searches YouTube through yt-dlp without downloading media.
• Downloads audio, video, or both into a staging tree, tags audio metadata, and transfers the result to local, SSH, or rclone destinations.
• Optionally fingerprints audio through AcoustID/MusicBrainz and syncs completed audio downloads into a Plex playlist.
• Builds Plex playlists from successful transfer history and drains server-made retained-staging transfer manifests.
• Exposes an MCP App search UI for hosts that can render embedded widgets.
• Keeps a JSONL ledger for repeat-safe downloads and stats.

This repo owns	Upstream owns	Explicitly out of scope
MCP tools, CLI setup, media staging, tagging, transfer policy, queue manifests, config validation, response shaping, plugin/package metadata.	yt-dlp extraction behavior, source-site availability, ffmpeg media conversion, Plex library indexing, SSH/rclone authentication.	Multi-tenant isolation, arbitrary local writes for untrusted callers, credential brokering, site-specific scraping guarantees, media-server replacement.

---

Features

• Audio, video, or both — audio-first by default, with separate targets for audio and video.
• Proper tagging — embeds title / artist / album / date and cover art, and organizes output as Artist/Title [id].ext so media servers (Plex, etc.) index it cleanly. A non-greedy Artist - Title parse recovers the artist from free-form video titles. Source .info.json, thumbnail, and description sidecars are preserved next to the media for future retagging/indexing. Common YouTube title noise like (Official Video), [Official Audio], and trailing channel handles is stripped from embedded title metadata by default.
• Self-contained paths — the binary downloads/caches yt-dlp + ffmpeg when run directly; the container image bakes in ffmpeg, fpcalc, SSH, and rsync for media-host batch jobs.
• Self-installing — ytdl-rmcp setup registers the server into Claude Code, Codex, and/or Gemini CLI via each tool's own mcp add.
• Robust transfers — local paths (/path) are copied in-process by the binary itself, SSH targets (host:/path) use rsync -a --partial --protect-args with an scp fallback when rsync is missing, and rclone targets (remote:path or rclone:remote:/path) use rclone copy. On transfer failure the local staging copy is kept for retry and recorded as a drainable manifest for youtube_transfer_queue.
• Repeat-safe — use_archive records downloaded IDs (per mode) and skips them on later runs; YouTube mix/radio URLs are auto-cleaned to the seed video.
• Stats-ready ledger — every completed download call appends a JSONL entry with timestamp, destinations, files, bytes, uploader, and transfer status.
• Plex playlist sync — when Plex credentials are configured, downloaded audio is added to yt-dlp Downloads by default.

MCP Tool Reference

Tool	Purpose
youtube_search	Search YouTube with yt-dlp and return result URLs without downloading.
youtube_search_ui	Open an interactive YouTube search UI in MCP App-capable hosts.
youtube_download	Download one or more URLs (audio/video/both) and transfer them to a target path.
youtube_probe	Read-only: resolve title/duration/uploader/format counts without downloading.
youtube_identify	Fingerprint local audio with fpcalc, return AcoustID/MusicBrainz candidates, preview canonical tags, and optionally write high-confidence tags.
youtube_stats	Summarize the download ledger: totals, file kinds, uploaders, and recent entries.
youtube_plex_playlist	Build or preview Plex audio playlists from successful transferred audio history.
youtube_transfer_queue	List and drain retained-staging transfer failure manifests.

youtube_download parameters

Param	Default	Meaning
urls	— (required)	One URL string or an array of URLs.
mode	audio	audio, video, or both.
audio_format	env YTDLP_AUDIO_FORMAT → mp3	mp3/m4a/opus/flac/wav/best.
audio_quality	0	yt-dlp quality for lossy codecs: 0–9 or a bitrate like 192K.
max_height	best	Cap video resolution (e.g. 1080).
container	mp4	mp4 or mkv for video.
target_path	env YTDLP_TARGET_PATH	Destination for audio. Use /path for local, host:/path for SSH, or remote:path or rclone:remote:/path for rclone.
video_target_path	env YTDLP_VIDEO_TARGET_PATH → target_path	Destination for video when it should land somewhere different from audio. Same target forms.
keep_local	false	Keep the local staging copy after transfer.
use_archive	false	Record + skip already-downloaded IDs (per mode).
plex_playlist	env YTDLP_PLEX_PLAYLIST → yt-dlp Downloads when Plex is configured	Plex playlist title or ID to add downloaded audio tracks to. Requires YTDLP_PLEX_URL and YTDLP_PLEX_TOKEN.
response_format	markdown	markdown or json.

When Plex credentials are configured, successful downloads that produced audio files search Plex for each downloaded track, create the target playlist if needed, and add missing tracks while skipping entries already present. The default playlist is yt-dlp Downloads; set YTDLP_PLEX_PLAYLIST or pass plex_playlist to override it. Plex errors are reported as plex_playlist_error and do not make the completed download fail. JSON responses include a plex_playlist summary with matched, added, already_present, and missing counts.

Canonical metadata matching through MusicBrainz/AcoustID is documented in docs/musicbrainz-acoustid.md. youtube_download automatically runs high-confidence MusicBrainz retagging for downloaded audio when YTDLP_ACOUSTID_CLIENT_KEY is configured; youtube_identify remains available for previewing or repairing existing library files, with manual tag writes enabled by write_tags=true.

youtube_download JSON response

With response_format=json, the call returns a single object describing the batch:

Field	Meaning
transferred	true if every produced subtree reached its target.
transfer_error	null on success, else the failure/timeout message (string).
target_path / destination / destinations	The per-kind target destination(s) actually used.
staging_kept_at	Local staging path retained for retry (set when the transfer failed or keep_local was requested).
total_files / total_bytes / total_size	Aggregate counts across all items.
partial_items	Count of items that errored but still produced files.
failed_items	Count of items that errored and produced no files.
items[]	Per-URL results, each with a status, title, video_id, error, and a files[] list.

Each items[].status is one of: