media.rip()

A self-hostable yt-dlp web frontend. Paste a URL, pick quality, download — with session isolation, real-time progress, and a cyberpunk default theme.

Features

• Paste & download — Any URL yt-dlp supports. Format picker with live quality extraction.
• Real-time progress — Server-Sent Events stream download progress to the browser instantly.
• Session isolation — Each browser gets its own download queue. No cross-talk.
• Playlist support — Collapsible parent/child jobs with per-video status tracking.
• Three built-in themes — Cyberpunk (default), Dark, Light. Switch in the header.
• Custom themes — Drop a CSS file into /themes volume. No rebuild needed.
• Admin panel — Session management, storage info, manual purge, error logs. Protected by bcrypt auth.
• Cookie auth — Upload cookies.txt per session for paywalled/private content.
• Auto-purge — Configurable scheduled cleanup of old downloads and logs.
• Zero telemetry — No outbound requests. No CDN, no fonts, no analytics. CSP enforced.
• Mobile-friendly — Responsive layout with bottom tabs on small screens.

Quickstart

docker compose up

Open http://localhost:8080 and paste a URL.

Downloads are saved to ./downloads/.

Docker Volumes

Mount	Purpose	Persists
/downloads	Downloaded media files	✅ Bind mount recommended
/data	SQLite database, session cookies, error logs	✅ Named volume recommended
/themes	Custom theme CSS overrides (optional)	Read-only bind mount
/app/config.yaml	YAML config file (optional)	Read-only bind mount

Important: The /data volume contains the database (download history, admin state, error logs) and session cookie files. Use a named volume or bind mount to persist across container restarts.

Configuration

All settings have sensible defaults — zero config required. Override via environment variables or mount a config.yaml:

Core Settings

Variable	Default	Description
MEDIARIP__SERVER__PORT	8000	Internal server port
MEDIARIP__SERVER__LOG_LEVEL	info	Log level (debug, info, warning, error)
MEDIARIP__DOWNLOADS__MAX_CONCURRENT	3	Maximum parallel downloads
MEDIARIP__SESSION__MODE	isolated	isolated, shared, or open
MEDIARIP__SESSION__TIMEOUT_HOURS	72	Session cookie lifetime (hours)

Admin Panel

Variable	Default	Description
MEDIARIP__ADMIN__ENABLED	true	Enable admin panel
MEDIARIP__ADMIN__USERNAME	admin	Admin username
MEDIARIP__ADMIN__PASSWORD_HASH	(empty)	Bcrypt hash of admin password

Auto-Purge

Variable	Default	Description
MEDIARIP__PURGE__ENABLED	true	Enable automatic cleanup of old downloads
MEDIARIP__PURGE__MAX_AGE_MINUTES	1440	Delete completed downloads older than this (minutes)
MEDIARIP__PURGE__CRON	* * * * *	Purge check schedule (cron syntax)
MEDIARIP__PURGE__PRIVACY_MODE	false	Aggressive cleanup — removes downloads + logs on schedule
MEDIARIP__PURGE__PRIVACY_RETENTION_MINUTES	1440	Retention period when privacy mode is enabled

UI Customization

Variable	Default	Description
MEDIARIP__UI__DEFAULT_THEME	dark	Default theme (dark, light, cyberpunk, or custom)
MEDIARIP__UI__WELCOME_MESSAGE	(built-in)	Header subtitle text shown to users

yt-dlp Tuning

Variable	Default	Description
MEDIARIP__YTDLP__EXTRACTOR_ARGS	{}	JSON object of yt-dlp extractor args (see below)

Use extractor_args to tune YouTube player client selection or pass arguments to any yt-dlp extractor:

# config.yaml
ytdlp:
  extractor_args:
    youtube:
      player_client: ["web_safari", "android_vr"]

Or via environment variable:

MEDIARIP__YTDLP__EXTRACTOR_ARGS='{"youtube": {"player_client": ["web_safari"]}}'

Note: Internal paths (SERVER__DB_PATH, SERVER__DATA_DIR, DOWNLOADS__OUTPUT_DIR) are pre-configured in the Docker image. Only override these if you change the volume mount points.

Session Modes

• isolated (default): Each browser session has its own private queue.
• shared: All sessions see all downloads. Good for household/team use.
• open: No session tracking at all.

Admin Panel

The admin panel is enabled by default. On first run, you'll be prompted to set a password in the browser. Or pre-configure via environment:

# docker-compose.yml environment section
MEDIARIP__ADMIN__ENABLED: "true"
MEDIARIP__ADMIN__USERNAME: "admin"
MEDIARIP__ADMIN__PASSWORD_HASH: "$2b$12$..."  # see below

Generate a bcrypt password hash:

docker run --rm python:3.12-slim python -c \
  "import bcrypt; print(bcrypt.hashpw(b'YOUR_PASSWORD', bcrypt.gensalt()).decode())"

Admin state (login, settings changes) persists in the SQLite database at /data/mediarip.db.

Custom Themes

1. Create a folder in your themes volume: ./themes/my-theme/
2. Add metadata.json:

   { "name": "My Theme", "author": "You", "description": "A cool theme" }
   

3. Add theme.css with CSS variable overrides:

   [data-theme="my-theme"] {
     --color-bg: #1a1a2e;
     --color-accent: #e94560;
     /* See base.css for all 50+ tokens */
   }
   

4. Restart the container. Your theme appears in the picker.

See the built-in themes in frontend/src/themes/ for fully commented examples.

Secure Deployment

For production with TLS, use the included Caddy reverse proxy:

cp docker-compose.example.yml docker-compose.yml
cp .env.example .env
# Edit .env with your domain and admin password hash
docker compose up -d

Caddy automatically provisions Let's Encrypt TLS certificates for your domain.

Development

Backend

cd backend
python -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
.venv/bin/pip install pytest pytest-asyncio pytest-anyio httpx ruff
.venv/bin/python -m pytest tests/ -v -m "not integration"

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev       # Dev server with hot reload
npx vitest run    # Run tests
npm run build     # Production build

API

Endpoint	Method	Description
/api/health	GET	Health check with version + uptime
/api/config/public	GET	Public configuration
/api/downloads	GET	List downloads for current session
/api/downloads	POST	Start a new download
/api/downloads/{id}	DELETE	Cancel/remove a download
/api/formats	GET	Extract available formats for a URL
/api/events	GET	SSE stream for real-time progress
/api/cookies	POST	Upload cookies.txt for authenticated downloads
/api/cookies	DELETE	Remove cookies.txt for current session
/api/themes	GET	List available custom themes
/api/admin/*	GET/POST	Admin endpoints (requires auth)

Architecture

• Backend: Python 3.12 + FastAPI + aiosqlite + yt-dlp
• Frontend: Vue 3 + TypeScript + Pinia + Vite
• Transport: Server-Sent Events for real-time progress
• Database: SQLite with WAL mode
• Styling: CSS custom properties (no Tailwind, no component library)
• Container: Multi-stage build, non-root user, amd64 + arm64

License

MIT