untube

A lightweight YouTube metadata and streaming URL scraper for Node.js, featuring proxy and cookie support. Ported from yt-dlp.

Features

• ✅ Fetch complete video metadata.
• ✅ Automatic streaming URL decryption (Signature Cipher & NSFW bypass).
• ✅ HTTP/HTTPS Proxy support via undici.
• ✅ Automatic Cookie management.
• ✅ Full TypeScript support.

Installation

npm install untube

Usage

import { getVideoInfo } from 'untube';

async function main() {
    try {
        const info = await getVideoInfo('videoId', {
            // Optional: Path to cookies file (Netscape format)
            cookieFile: './cookies.txt',
            // Optional: Use proxy to avoid rate limits or blocks
            proxy: 'http://user:pass@my-proxy.com:8080'
        });

        console.log('Title:', info.title);
        console.log('Channel:', info.uploader);
        
        // List available video & audio formats
        info.formats.forEach(format => {
            console.log(`[${format.format_id}] ${format.resolution} - ${format.url}`);
        });
    } catch (error) {
        console.error('Failed to fetch info:', error);
    }
}

main();

Cookie Handling

Using cookies is highly recommended to avoid rate limits, access age-restricted (NSFW) videos, or videos only available in specific regions.

How to Get Cookies:

1. Install a browser extension like "Get cookies.txt LOCALLY" (available on Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons).
2. Open YouTube and ensure you are logged in (optional, but recommended).
3. Click on the extension and select "Export as Netscape format".
4. Save the file as cookies.txt in your project directory.
5. Provide the file path in the cookieFile option when calling getVideoInfo.

⚠️ Security: Never share your cookies.txt file with anyone as it contains your login session. Ensure cookies.txt is added to your .gitignore.

Disclaimer

This project is created for educational and research purposes only. Users are solely responsible for how they use this tool. Ensure you comply with YouTube's Terms of Service and applicable copyright laws in your region. The author is not responsible for any misuse of this tool.

License

Unlicense