arcdlp

What ArcDLP is

ArcDLP is an open source desktop application for downloading videos and audio from the web. The readme describes it as a desktop video downloader powered by yt-dlp, the well known command line extraction tool. A user pastes a URL, picks a quality, and downloads. The supported sites include YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter or X, SoundCloud, Instagram, and thousands of other destinations that yt-dlp already understands. Everything runs locally on the user's machine, with no cloud, no accounts, and no tracking. The downloadable builds bundle yt-dlp and ffmpeg inside the app, so there are no separate dependencies to install. Binaries are offered for macOS as a .dmg, Windows as a .exe installer, and Linux as an AppImage. On macOS the readme warns that the first launch shows a security warning because the app is not yet code signed, and it walks through the Privacy and Security Open Anyway step, which is needed only once. The Windows installer is per user and does not require admin rights, and it can be removed from Settings, Apps. The project reports 211 stars and 25 forks on GitHub. The positioning is a friendly graphical front end over a tool that many users already run from a terminal.

Features and workflow

The feature set centers on convenience. Single video downloads fetch metadata, preview it, choose a quality from 4K down to 240p, and save as MP4 or extract audio as MP3. Several URLs can be fetched back to back, with each result shown in a side panel for quick review and queueing. A video codec selection lets the user prefer Auto, H.264, VP9, or AV1 in settings, applied as a preference rather than a hard filter so a video missing that codec still downloads with the best available one. Playlist support lets a user paste a playlist URL, choose which items to grab, pick a format, and queue them together. Instagram saved collections can be scraped by pasting a saved collection URL, and the app queues every post link it finds. A download queue processes items one by one with per item progress, retry, cancel, and skip, so one failure never stops the rest. Sign in options reach age restricted, private, and members only YouTube content through a built in browser login window, and the same approach works for private Instagram saved collections, with credentials sent directly to Google or Instagram. A download history keeps quick access to past fetches with cached metadata. Multi site compatibility follows whatever yt-dlp supports, and the app checks for updates on startup.

Usage notes and licensing

Using ArcDLP follows a simple loop. Paste a video or playlist URL and click Fetch, pick a quality or choose MP3 for audio, click Add to Queue, and the files land in a default folder of ~/Downloads/ArcDLP that can be changed in settings. The interface lets the user paste and fetch additional URLs while reviewing results, with each fetched video appearing in the side panel for inspection before queueing, and adding one item automatically loads the next. The app offers light and dark mode that follows the system preference, with macOS vibrancy supported. The readme presents ArcDLP as a local, account free tool, and the bundled yt-dlp means the underlying extraction is the same engine many power users already trust. As with any downloader, what a person chooses to fetch is their responsibility under the terms of the sites they use. The project is distributed under the MIT license and is published openly so the community can inspect how the wrapper drives yt-dlp and ffmpeg. The combination of a familiar engine with a point and click queue makes it a practical option for users who prefer a window to a command line. Because ffmpeg is bundled, the app needs no system wide install to produce MP3 audio files.

Editorial conclusion

The repository is published under the MIT license and its most recent commit was on 2026-08-26.