YouTube Audio Download

Name: youtube-get-audio
Rating: 78
Author: kouko

Download video audio file (best available format, no conversion).

Quick Start

code

/youtube-get-audio <URL> [output_dir] [browser]

Parameters

Parameter	Required	Default	Description
URL	Yes	-	YouTube video URL
output_dir	No	/tmp/youtube-audio	Output directory for audio file
browser	No	auto	Browser for cookies (chrome, firefox, safari, edge, brave)

Examples

•/youtube-get-audio https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx - Download with auto cookie fallback
•/youtube-get-audio https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx ~/Music - Save to custom directory
•/youtube-get-audio https://youtube.com/watch?v=xxx /tmp chrome - Use Chrome cookies

How it Works

•Execute: {baseDir}/scripts/audio.sh "<URL>" "<output_dir>" "<browser>"
•First attempt: download without authentication
•If failed: retry with browser cookies (auto-detect or specified)
•Parse JSON output to get file path

code

┌─────────────────────────────┐
│   First attempt (no auth)   │
└──────────────┬──────────────┘
               │
       ┌───────┴───────┐
       │               │
    Success         Failed
       │               │
       ▼               ▼
   [Return]    ┌─────────────────────┐
               │ Retry with cookies  │
               │ chrome → firefox →  │
               │ safari → edge →     │
               │ brave               │
               └──────────┬──────────┘
                          │
                  ┌───────┴───────┐
                  │               │
               Success         Failed
                  │               │
                  ▼               ▼
              [Return]        [Error]

Output Format

Success:

json

{
  "status": "success",
  "file_path": "/tmp/youtube-audio/video_title.m4a",
  "file_size": "5.2M"
}

Error:

json

{
  "status": "error",
  "message": "Download failed (tried with and without cookies)"
}

Browser Cookie Fallback

When download fails (e.g., member-only or age-restricted content), the script automatically:

•Tries each browser: chrome → firefox → safari → edge → brave
•For Chrome: tries all profiles (Default, Profile 1, Profile 2, ...)
•Uses first successful browser/profile combination

Supported browsers:

Browser	Parameter	Chrome Profile Support
Chrome	`chrome`	Yes (auto-detect all profiles)
Firefox	`firefox`	Default profile only
Safari	`safari`	Default profile only
Edge	`edge`	Default profile only
Brave	`brave`	Default profile only

Use Cases

•Download audio for speech-to-text when video has no subtitles
•Podcast or music download
•Member-only or age-restricted content (with browser cookies)

Notes

•On first run, if yt-dlp or jq is not installed, it will be auto-downloaded
•No ffmpeg required (uses best available format without conversion)
•Output format depends on source (typically m4a, webm, or opus)
•Cookie fallback only activates when initial download fails
•Using cookies may risk YouTube account suspension - use secondary account if needed