Grabvideo

A super-simpler video downloader based on yt-dlp.

The reason I built this instead of just using yt-dlp is that there are people that might not be familiar with the terminal, but that could still want to download a video to use for work, e.g.: some teachers that might not comfortable using the terminal but that want to work with a video on class when internet connection is unreliable.

Install macOS application bundle

You can install GrabVideo as a ready-to-use macOS application bundle (no Terminal knowledge required):

Go to the latest release page and download the GrabVideo.zip file. Unzip it, then move GrabVideo.app to your Desktop or Applications folder.

First launch: macOS may say the app "could not be verified" (the app is open-source and not signed with an Apple certificate). Use Right-click → Open and then click "Open" in the dialog. Or System Settings → Privacy & Security and use “Open Anyway” when the app is blocked.

After that you can open it normally by double-clicking.

The app will open your Terminal, run the video downloader, and close the window for you when it finishes (or leave it open with an error if something went wrong).

What the internal shell script does does

1. Ensures yt-dlp is installed – Creates ~/.grabvideo if needed, checks the latest release on GitHub, and downloads the Python (platform-independent) yt-dlp into that directory when it’s missing or outdated. Runs it with python3 or python.

2. Installs dialog – Uses dialog for the TUI. On macOS it installs via Homebrew if missing; on other platforms it prints instructions to install it.

3. Prompts for a URL – If the clipboard contains a URL (starting with http:// or https://), it shows a confirmation dialog. Otherwise it asks you to enter a URL.

4. Downloads the video – Runs python ~/.grabvideo/yt-dlp with the URL as argument.

Supported platforms

• macOS, Linux (any architecture with Python 3)

Usage

./grabvideo.sh

macOS app

On macOS, you can build a double-clickable app that opens Terminal and runs grabvideo from the Desktop:

./build-app.sh

This creates GrabVideo.app. Move it to your Desktop or Applications. When you double-click it, Terminal opens, changes to the Desktop, runs grabvideo, and closes on success or stays open with an error message on failure.

Dependencies

• curl – for downloading yt-dlp
• python3 or python – for running yt-dlp
• dialog – for the TUI (auto-installed on macOS via Homebrew)
• ffmpeg – recommended for yt-dlp (merging, post-processing)