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:

• ok — succeeded with files.
• partial — an error occurred but some files were still produced.
• failed — errored with no files.
• skipped — nothing new (already in the archive).

Optional keys are attached only when the relevant stage ran:

• metadata_retag — MusicBrainz/AcoustID auto-retag summary (attempted, matched, written, skipped, errors, or an error string); present when YTDLP_ACOUSTID_CLIENT_KEY is configured.
• plex_playlist — Plex playlist summary (playlist, matched, added, already_present, missing); plex_playlist_error is set instead if the Plex update failed (a Plex failure does not fail the download).
• history_error — set when the download succeeded but the JSONL ledger append failed.

youtube_probe takes urls and response_format.

youtube_plex_playlist

Build or preview Plex audio playlists from successful ytdl-rmcp download history.

Actions:

| Action | Meaning | | --- | --- | | list_candidates | Return audio candidates from history entries where transferred is true. | | preview | Resolve selected candidates against Plex without mutating Plex. | | apply | Add selected candidates to a Plex audio playlist idempotently. |

Candidates are history-derived and audio-only. Failed or retained-staging transfers are intentionally excluded.

apply can return plexamp_url, plex_web_url, and playback_link_status. plexamp_url is a best-effort generated listen.plex.tv playback link, not an official Plexamp API guarantee. The regular Plex playlist API calls use the official Plex Media Server API.

youtube_transfer_queue

List and drain server-created transfer failure manifests.

Actions:

| Action | Meaning | | --- | --- | | list | Show pending retained-staging transfer manifests. | | retry | Retry one manifest by opaque manifest_id. | | retry_all | Retry all pending manifests. | | prune | Remove manifests whose staging directory is gone. |

The queue never accepts arbitrary filesystem paths. Retry uses the original target paths recorded at failure time and re-checks local target policy before transfer. Manifests are created by the local s