ez-dlp

A simple and convenient CLI tool built on top of yt-dlp, designed to make downloading videos and audio easier. Includes progress bars, configurable defaults, and support for multiple formats.

Features

• Simple command-line interface for downloading videos and audio
• Persistent configuration for default settings
• Supports a variety of video formats: mp4, webm, mkv, etc.
• Extract audio in formats like mp3, flac, wav, aac, ogg, opus, m4a, alac
• Control video and audio quality
• Set output directories and filenames
• Batch downloads supported
• Always shows a clean progress bar with spinner

Requirements

• Node.js v14 or higher
• yt-dlp installed and accessible in your PATH
  • yt-dlp GitHub

Installation

Install globally via npm:

npm install -g ez-dlp

Or run directly without installing:

npx ez-dlp <url>

Usage

Download a single video

ez-dlp <url>

Download multiple videos

ez-dlp <url1> <url2> <url3>

Options

• --format <format> - Output format (default: mp4)

  • Video formats: mp4, webm, mkv
  • Audio formats: mp3, flac, wav, aac, ogg, opus, m4a, alac

• --v-quality <1-5|resolution> - Video quality

  • 1-5: Presets (1 = 20%, 2 = 40%, 3 = 60%, 4 = 80%, 5 = 100% of original resolution)
  • Or specify a resolution: 1920x1080, 1280x720, etc.

• --fps <number> - Force FPS

• --mute - Remove audio from video

• --a-quality <1-5> - Audio quality (default: 3)

  • 1: 64K, 2: 96K, 3: 128K, 4: 192K, 5: 320K

• -o, --output <filename> - Set output filename

• --output-dir <dir> - Set output directory (default: current directory)

• --best - Download best video + audio automatically

• --embed-thumbnail - Embed thumbnail in video/audio

• --embed-metadata - Embed metadata in file

• --safe-filenames - Sanitize filenames (remove special characters)

• --set-config - Save current options as default configuration

• --settings - Open interactive settings menu to configure defaults

Examples

# Download video in best quality
ez-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLzxrzFCyOs --best

# Download as MP3
ez-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLzxrzFCyOs --format mp3

# Download with specific resolution
ez-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLzxrzFCyOs --v-quality 1920x1080

# Download with custom output
ez-dlp https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLzxrzFCyOs -o myvideo.mp4 --output-dir ./downloads

# Set default configuration via command line
ez-dlp --set-config --format mp3 --output-dir ~/Music --a-quality 5

# Open interactive settings menu
ez-dlp --settings

Configuration

Settings are saved in ~/.ez-dlp.json. You can configure your defaults in three ways:

1. Menu (recommended): Run ez-dlp --settings to open an interactive menu where you can select all your preferences
2. Command line flags: Use the --set-config flag along with other options to save them as defaults
3. Manual edit: Edit the ~/.ez-dlp.json file directly

Example config:

{
  "format": "mp4",
  "outputDir": "~/Downloads",
  "aQuality": "3",
  "embedMetadata": true,
  "embedThumbnail": false,
  "safeFilenames": false,
  "mute": false,
  "best": false
}