YTDL RMCP

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

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.

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

youtube_download parameters

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:

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:

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:

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 server when a transfer fails while the staging directory, manifest ID, file list, and original targets still match.

youtube_identify parameters

youtube_identify runs Chromaprint fpcalc, sends the fingerprint to AcoustID, and returns MusicBrainz recording candidates. When the best candidate is high-confidence, it also fetches the MusicBrainz recording/release data and includes a retag_preview showing the canonical artist, title, release, release date, release type, track number, and MusicBrainz IDs. By default it is preview-only. With write_tags=true, it writes the preview to the file with Lofty, including common title/artist/album/date/track fields plus MusicBrainz recording, release, release-group, and release-type tags. It requires YTDLP_ACOUSTID_CLIENT_KEY; set FPCALC_PATH if fpcalc is not on PATH.

youtube_search parameters

youtube_search_ui accepts the same input and returns the same search payload, plus MCP App metadata for hosts that can render the embedded UI. Hosts without app rendering still receive the normal search result text and structured data.

MCP App pattern

youtube_search_ui is the widget-backed entry point for this repo:

• The tool descriptor advertises _meta.ui.resourceUri.
• The server exposes ui://ytdl-rmcp/youtube-search.html through resources/list and resources/read.
• The resource uses text/html;profile=mcp-app and an explicit CSP metadata block.
• .mcpb / .dxt packaging installs the local server; UI resources are still advertised through the MCP tools/resources protocol and are host-rendered.

youtube_stats parameters

JSON stats include total_downloads, total_files, total_bytes, skipped_entries, by_kind, by_uploader, and recent. Bucket fields include downloads (compatibility alias for call count), calls, items, files, bytes, and human-readable size. Malformed ledger lines are skipped and counted instead of failing the whole stats call. If a download succeeds but the ledger append fails, the download response still succeeds and includes history_error in JSON output.

CLI Reference

The CLI owns process setup and diagnostics; media operations are exposed as MCP tools.

The npm launcher exposes the same binary:

npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl doctor
npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl serve

Install

Run the guided installer through npm:

npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl setup

Or install the command globally:

npm i -g @dinglebear/rytdl
ytdl-rmcp setup

The npm package downloads the matching GitHub Release binary during postinstall; the installed command is the Rust binary served through a tiny Node launcher. You can also use the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dinglebear-ai/rytdl/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Or download the binary tarball for your platform from Releases, or build it (see below). The guided setup fetches yt-dlp + ffmpeg, prompts for your audio/video target paths, detects which agent CLIs are present, and registers the server into the ones you pick.

Quickstart

After setup, prove the read-only path first:

npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl doctor

For raw MCP clients, call a read-only tool with JSON-RPC tools/call:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "youtube_search",
    "arguments": {
      "query": "lcd soundsystem live",
      "limit": 3,
      "response_format": "json"
    }
  }
}

Then probe a known URL before downloading:

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 2,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "youtube_probe",
    "arguments": {
      "urls": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
    }
  }
}

Use youtube_download only after YTDLP_TARGET_PATH or YTDLP_VIDEO_TARGET_PATH points at a destination you are comfortable letting trusted MCP callers write into.

Client Configuration

Run without subcommands, npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl serves MCP over stdio. Register it yourself:

# Claude Code
claude mcp add -s user @dinglebear/rytdl -e YTDLP_TARGET_PATH=tootie:/media/music -e YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS=youtube:player_client=android -- npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl
# Codex
codex  mcp add --env YTDLP_TARGET_PATH=tootie:/media/music --env YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS=youtube:player_client=android @dinglebear/rytdl -- npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl
# Gemini CLI (command is positional, env last)
gemini mcp add -s user @dinglebear/rytdl npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl -e YTDLP_TARGET_PATH=tootie:/media/music -e YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS=youtube:player_client=android

If you already installed a standalone binary with npm i -g @dinglebear/rytdl, scripts/install.sh, or a release tarball, you can use that binary path in place of npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl.

For raw MCP JSON configs, include the required target path env var and the YouTube extractor override:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ytdl-rmcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@dinglebear/rytdl"],
      "env": {
        "YTDLP_TARGET_PATH": "tootie:/mnt/user/data/media/music/yt-dlp",
        "YTDLP_VIDEO_TARGET_PATH": "tootie:/mnt/user/data/media/movies/yt-dlp",
        "YTDLP_AUTO_UPDATE": "1",
        "YTDLP_MAX_AGE_DAYS": "1",
        "YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS": "youtube:player_client=android"
      }
    }
  }
}

The checked-in .mcp.json is also a complete raw MCP profile: it declares the same user_config keys used by the plugin/bundle manifests, supplies defaults for local gateway imports, and maps every setting into the server environment. For reliable YouTube search/probe behavior it defaults YTDLP_EXTRACTOR_ARGS to youtube:player_client=android; official music-video results frequently reject yt-dlp's default YouTube clients during metadata extraction.

Runtime Surfaces

Distribution Contract

• npm launcher — npx -y @dinglebear/rytdl downloads and runs the matching GitHub Release binary. Run without subcommands, it serves MCP ove