GrabVid 1.1.0

GrabVid

Interactive CLI for downloading videos via yt-dlp with a guided step-by-step experience.

Paste a URL, confirm the video details, pick a destination folder, and watch the progress bar — that's it.

Requirements

• .NET 10 SDK or runtime
• yt-dlp — installed automatically on first run if missing (requires Homebrew on macOS, pip3 on Linux, or downloads the .exe on Windows)

Installation

dotnet tool install -g GrabVid

To upgrade to the latest version:

dotnet tool update -g GrabVid

To uninstall:

dotnet tool uninstall -g GrabVid

Usage

grabvid

The tool walks you through these steps:

1. yt-dlp check — detects whether yt-dlp is installed; offers to install it automatically if not
2. URL input — prompts for a video URL and validates it with yt-dlp before continuing
3. Cookie file (optional) — prompts for a Netscape-format cookie file path; press Enter to skip if the content is publicly accessible
4. Metadata — fetches and displays the video title, uploader, duration, and format in a table
5. Destination — prompts for a download folder; creates it if it doesn't exist
6. Download — streams the file with a live progress bar showing percentage, speed, and ETA

GrabVid supports every site that yt-dlp supports — YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, Vimeo, Twitch, Reddit, and 1000+ more.

Downloading members-only or age-restricted content

Some platforms require you to be logged in to access certain videos. GrabVid supports this via a cookie file.

How to get your cookie file:

1. Install the Get cookies.txt LOCALLY Chrome extension
2. Log in to the site in your browser
3. Click the extension and export cookies for that site — this saves a .txt file in Netscape format
4. When GrabVid prompts for a cookie file path, enter the full path to that file

The cookie file is passed directly to yt-dlp via --cookies and is never modified or stored by GrabVid. Press Enter at the prompt to skip cookie auth for publicly accessible content.

Supported platforms

License

MIT