kieraneglin/pinchflat
Pinchflat
Pinchflat is a self-hosted web application for automatically downloading videos from YouTube channels and playlists on a scheduled basis. It integrates with yt-dlp to construct download commands, optionally injecting browser cookies to access private, unlisted, or age-restricted content. The platform stores download metadata and state in a local SQLite database and organizes downloaded media into a folder structure optimized for playback in media center applications like Plex or Jellyfin. Automated retention policies can delete older items after a configurable number of days, with the ability to exempt specific files.
What distinguishes Pinchflat is its fine-grained control over what gets downloaded and how. Users can define customizable download rules per source or globally, filtering by title, date, content type, audio-only mode, and additional yt-dlp options. The application also supports lifecycle event scripts that run user-defined shell commands on download, deletion, or other events, receiving structured JSON data to trigger notifications, transcoding, or integration with external systems. A notification system can send alerts via various services, and application performance metrics are exposed with pre-built dashboards for monitoring.
The platform also provides password-based access control to restrict the web interface to authenticated users.
Features
- yt-dlp Download Servers - Provides a self-hosted web application to manage and automate video downloads via yt-dlp from YouTube and other sources.
- Self-Hosted Archiving Systems - Runs a self-hosted server for archiving video content with automated scheduling and retention.
- Cookie-Based Session Authentication for Downloads - Enables downloading private, unlisted, or age-restricted content by injecting browser cookies into download commands.
- yt-dlp Engine Wrappers - Wraps yt-dlp as a managed subprocess with custom options and cookie injection.
- Media Library Structuring - Organizes downloaded YouTube content with customizable naming and folder structure for Plex, Jellyfin, or similar media centers.
- Download Filters - Applies fine-grained filters by title, date, and content type to control what gets saved.
- YouTube Archiving - Periodically downloads entire YouTube channels and playlists to maintain a local library.
- Scheduling Loops - Periodically checks sources for new content using a background scheduler loop.
- Media Organization - Organizes downloaded media with naming and folder structures optimized for media centers.
- Automated Feed Downloaders - Periodically polls feeds to automatically download new media items from channels.
- Custom Download Options - Lets users fine-tune yt-dlp behavior with per-source or global custom options.
- Lifecycle Script Execution - Runs user-defined shell scripts on download, deletion, and other lifecycle events.
- Library Organizers - Structures downloaded content for playback in Plex, Jellyfin, and similar media centers.
- Cookie-Based Authentication Bridges - Injects browser cookies into yt-dlp to access restricted YouTube content.
- Download Managers - Media manager specifically for YouTube content.
Star history
How this analysis was created: This summary and feature list were written by an AI model that read the project's README and public documentation pages. Each feature links to the documentation it came from; stars, license and language come straight from the GitHub API. The model does not read the source code, and the analysis is refreshed when the project is re-analysed. Learn more on our About page.
