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Browser extensions

The extension passes the current tab's URL to your ytdl-material frontend and can select audio-only downloading. It uses your browser's existing app session rather than a shared server API key.

Chromium

  1. Download the current Chromium package and extract it, or clone the repository.
  2. Open chrome://extensions and enable Developer mode.
  3. Select Load unpacked and choose the extracted directory containing manifest.json (or the repository's chrome-extension directory).
  4. Open the extension's options, set Frontend URL to your instance, and save.
  5. Sign into the app if it uses accounts, then open a supported source page and use the extension.

The Chromium build uses Manifest V3 and a service worker.

Firefox

Use the Firefox package, which has its own Manifest V2 manifest and project-owned extension ID. The root manifest.json in the source tree is the Chromium version.

For local development, extract the Firefox package and load its manifest through about:debugging → This Firefox → Load Temporary Add-on. Temporary installation lasts for the browser session. Normal persistent Firefox installation requires a signed package; the repository ZIP alone does not establish that it has been signed. See Mozilla's temporary-installation guide.

Older wiki links refer to a previous extension listing and Android collection. They are not installation instructions for the current repository package.

When the icon is unavailable

The extension enables its action only on the source hostnames listed in its implementation; it is narrower than yt-dlp's full supported-site list. Paste other supported links directly into the app, or use the Bookmarklet under Settings → Extra → Browser extensions.

If clicking the icon opens the wrong instance, correct Frontend URL in the extension options. If it opens a login page, finish signing in before retrying the download.

Build the packages

Contributors can regenerate both packages from source:

npm run package:extension
npm run test:extension

Packaging requires the zip command. node chrome-extension/package.mjs --check verifies the committed archives match the source.