VidBee is a self-hosted media download manager that wraps the yt-dlp engine to download videos and audio from over 1000 websites. It functions as both a desktop client and a Fastify-based web service, managing downloads through a persistent queue with pause, resume, retry, and real-time progress tracking. The application uses cookie-based authentication to access login-gated, age-restricted, or subscriber-only content by importing browser cookies or Netscape-format cookie files.
The application distinguishes itself through automated download workflows, including RSS and Atom feed monitoring that periodically checks subscribed feeds and queues new items based on keyword filters. It supports downloading entire playlists and can limit RSS feeds to only the latest unseen video. A custom protocol handler registers a vidbee:// URI scheme with the operating system, enabling one-click downloads directly from a browser by intercepting custom protocol links.
VidBee provides configurable output formats and containers, allowing users to select between MP4, MKV, WebM, or the original container for merged downloads, and supports audio-only extraction. Filename customization is available through yt-dlp-compatible templates. The application can be deployed locally or in Docker, exposing a REST API and embedded web client for remote download management.
