a171cae417
Desktop YouTube player with no login and no ads. Extracts direct video/audio streams with yt-dlp and plays them in a native window via zero-native (Zig + system WebView) for a tiny footprint vs Electron. - Dual-stream engine: muted video synced with separate audio track for high quality without ffmpeg muxing; progressive fallback - On-device playlists, watch history, audio-only mode - Full custom controls: seek, volume, speed, quality, fullscreen, queue - Zig bridge handlers spawn yt-dlp and return slimmed JSON to the web UI - Cinematic dark UI: Bricolage/Hanken/JetBrains Mono, vermilion accent
98 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
98 lines
3.9 KiB
Markdown
# YT Player
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A lightweight, **ad-free YouTube player** with on-device playlists. No login, no
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tracking, no ads — it extracts direct video/audio streams with `yt-dlp` and plays
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them in a native window.
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Built on [**zero-native**](https://github.com/vercel-labs/zero-native) (Zig + the
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system WebView) instead of Electron, so the binary is tiny — no bundled Chromium
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or Node runtime.
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## Features
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- 🔍 **Search** YouTube without an account
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- 🚫 **No ads** — plays the raw stream, never the YouTube player
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- 📺 **High quality** via a dual-stream engine: a muted video track synced with a
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separate audio track (1080p+) with no `ffmpeg` muxing required; progressive
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formats are used as a fallback
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- 🎵 **Audio-only mode** — great for music, saves bandwidth
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- 📂 **On-device playlists** — create, rename, delete, add/remove videos. Stored
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locally as JSON; nothing leaves your machine
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- 🕘 **Watch history**
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- ⏯ Full controls: seek, volume, playback speed, quality switching, fullscreen,
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next/prev, and keyboard shortcuts (`space`, `←/→`, `f`, `m`)
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## Architecture
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```
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frontend/ Static web UI (no framework, no build step)
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index.html
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styles.css
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app.js Player engine + UI; calls window.zero.invoke(...)
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src/
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main.zig App definition + bridge handler registration
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bridge.zig Native handlers: spawn yt-dlp, slim its JSON, local store
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scripts/
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setup-ytdlp.js Downloads the standalone yt-dlp binary into ./bin
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bin/ yt-dlp lands here (gitignored)
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app.zon App manifest (window, engine, permissions, frontend dir)
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```
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The web UI talks to the Zig side over the zero-native bridge:
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| `window.zero.invoke(...)` | Native handler | Returns |
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|---|---|---|
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| `yt.search { query }` | `ytSearch` | `{ ok, results:[…] }` |
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| `yt.streams { videoId }` | `ytStreams` | `{ ok, data:{ meta, audioUrl, qualities[] } }` |
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| `store.load {}` | `storeLoad` | playlists / history / settings |
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| `store.save { data }` | `storeSave` | `{ ok }` |
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Because the bridge is size-limited, the Zig handlers parse `yt-dlp`'s large JSON
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and return only the compact fields the UI needs.
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## Prerequisites
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- **Zig** (0.14.x recommended) — <https://ziglang.org/download/>
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- **zero-native** CLI: `npm install -g zero-native`
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- **Node.js** (only to run the yt-dlp downloader script)
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- No system `yt-dlp` needed — the setup script bundles it. (On Linux/macOS the
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bundled build is self-contained; Python is not required.)
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## Setup & run
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```bash
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# 1. Download the yt-dlp binary into ./bin
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npm run setup # or: node scripts/setup-ytdlp.js
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# 2. Generate the zero-native build files for your installed version
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# (build.zig, build.zig.zon, src/runner.zig). Run this in a scratch dir and
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# copy the generated build.zig / build.zig.zon next to this project, OR run
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# init here and keep your files:
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zero-native init ytplayer --frontend none
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# 3. Merge: keep THIS repo's frontend/, src/main.zig, src/bridge.zig and app.zon.
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# (src/main.zig shows exactly how the handlers are registered — fold that into
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# the generated App if the scaffold differs.)
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# 4. Build & launch the native window
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zig build run
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```
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To refresh yt-dlp later (YouTube changes often): `npm run update-ytdlp`.
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## Notes & caveats
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- **zero-native is pre-1.0.** The bridge handler signature used here follows its
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documented contract (`fn(context, invocation, output) anyerror![]const u8`).
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If your installed version exposes the `Invocation` type or `BridgeDispatcher`
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fields slightly differently, only the wiring in `src/main.zig` and the
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`payloadField` helper need adjusting — the handler logic is self-contained.
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- Stream URLs from `yt-dlp` are IP-locked and expire after a few hours; the app
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re-fetches them each time you play a video, so this is transparent.
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- This is for **personal use**. Respect YouTube's Terms of Service and the
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rights of content creators.
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## License
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MIT
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