Streaming YouTube in the terminal because I can

Real time video streaming terminal player based on yt-dlp, ffmpeg, and the Kitty graphics protocol.

Disclaimer: This is a hobby project. I wanted to learn more about Rust and video formats, and I did. It's not meant to be a legitimate alternative to an actual YouTube client or any other video streaming platform.

Demo

2026-01-28.22-18-10.mp4

Dependencies

• yt-dlp to extract data from video websites
• ffmpeg for video and audio decoding
• a terminal that supports the Kitty graphics protocol, e.g. Kitty, Ghostty

Usage

1. Clone the repository
2. Run or build with cargo

Run without arguments to start the TUI. Alternatively, you can pass the -u or --url option to play a specific video, or -s or --search to search YouTube and play the first result.

git clone git@github.com:ThbltLmr/yt-term.git  # or use HTTPS or the GitHub CLI
cd yt-term
cargo build --release # or cargo run

FAQ

1. Is this an actual useful program?

No.

2. Should I use this?

Probably not.

3. Does it technically work?

Yes, kind of.

4. Why does it not work for this video / my terminal / my OS / etc?

This is a Rust terminal program built by a TypeScript web developer, what did you expect?

5. I read the source code and now my eyes are bleeding

First, that is not a question. Also, see question 4.