Installation

Prebuilt binaries

Every release carries archives for Linux, macOS, and Windows on amd64 and arm64, plus deb, rpm, and apk packages for Linux. Download, unpack, put ytb on your PATH, done. The checksums.txt on each release is signed with keyless cosign if you want to verify before running.

With Go

go install github.com/tamnd/ytb-cli/cmd/ytb@latest

That puts ytb in $(go env GOPATH)/bin, which is ~/go/bin unless you moved it. Make sure that directory is on your PATH.

With Docker

docker run --rm ghcr.io/tamnd/ytb video dQw4w9WgXcQ -o json

Mount a volume and point --db at it to keep a SQLite store across runs:

docker run --rm -v "$PWD/data:/data" ghcr.io/tamnd/ytb \
  channel @MrBeast --videos --db /data/yt.db

From source

git clone https://github.com/tamnd/ytb-cli
cd ytb-cli
make build        # produces ./bin/ytb
./bin/ytb version

Optional: ffmpeg

ytb download has a built-in pure-Go engine, so basic downloads need nothing extra. Combining a separate high-resolution video track with its audio, converting audio to mp3/opus/flac, and embedding cover art shell out to ffmpeg when it is on your PATH (or set via --ffmpeg-bin / YTB_FFMPEG_BIN). Without ffmpeg the engine still downloads any single progressive or adaptive stream; commands that need merging report a clear error and exit with code 6. The ytb binary never links ffmpeg, so the install stays small and pure Go.

Optional: yt-dlp

A couple of paths can still use yt-dlp when it is on your PATH:

• ytb download --use-yt-dlp and ytb extract delegate media downloads to it, and
• ytb transcript text, when YouTube gates the raw caption endpoint behind a proof-of-origin token (it usually does now). Listing tracks with transcript --list never needs it.

If yt-dlp is absent, those paths report a clear, actionable error and exit; everything else in ytb works without it. The ytb binary never links yt-dlp, so the install stays small and pure Go.

Requirements

• Go 1.26 or later to build. The released binary has no Go requirement.
• ffmpeg (optional) only to merge high-resolution video+audio, convert audio, or embed thumbnails.
• A yt-dlp binary (optional) only for download --use-yt-dlp, extract, and gated-transcript text.

That is the whole list. No API key, no config file, no database to provision, no daemon.

Checking the install

ytb version

prints the version and exits. Then confirm it can reach YouTube:

ytb suggest "lofi"

should print a handful of autocomplete suggestions. If you see those, you are ready for the quick start.