SW-DLT: running yt-dlp and gallery-dl from an iOS Shortcut

A shell on iOS, and a Shortcut on top of it

SW-DLT expands to Shortcuts Wrapper for -DL Tools, and the name is accurate about the construction. It is an iOS shortcut that lets you use, install and manage yt-dlp and gallery-dl, the two open source download utilities.

The enabling piece is a-Shell. The README's first step is to download either the a-Shell or a-Shell Mini app, and the feature list confirms support for both. Those apps give iOS a Unix shell, which is what makes running yt-dlp and gallery-dl possible at all on the platform. The shortcut then drives that shell.

The other half is that a Shortcut is a signed, structured workflow rather than a script, and that has consequences in three directions. It can be invoked from the Shortcuts app or from the Share Sheet, so the entry point is a URL or a shared link rather than a terminal. It can prompt the user interactively, so the select the option you need step in the usage flow is a real menu. And it exports through the Share menu, so the output goes to Files, to a messaging app or to wherever the user chooses.

That combination is the project's actual value proposition. It turns a command line workflow into a share-sheet action, and it is aimed squarely at a person on a phone who wants to save a video they just watched rather than at a pipeline operator.

The compatibility target is stated as iOS and iPadOS 18 and 26, and the README says the shortcut aims to be compatible with the collections of supported websites of yt-dlp and gallery-dl, with both projects' supported sites lists linked.

The whole implementation is a plist file

The repository layout is small. There is a src/ directory, a Docs.md, a LICENSE, a README.md, an images/ directory and a .github/ directory. The primary language is recorded as Python, which reflects the tools it wraps rather than the shortcut itself, and the shortcut source is a single plist.

The build instructions give the whole procedure.

Download the shortcut plist source code from src/SW-DLT.plist, change the extension from '.plist' to '.shortcut', sign the shortcut with Apple, and import the signed .shortcut file to the Shortcuts app.

That is a genuinely open distribution model. A shortcut normally has to be signed by Apple before it will run, and the project handles this by publishing the unsigned plist and documenting how to sign it yourself. The README points at Apple's own documentation for running shortcuts from the command line on a Mac, and for the iPad and iPhone case it points at a remote signing tool, Shortcuts Source Helper, credited to @gluebyte.

There is a fallback for people who cannot sign at all. If you do not want to use a remote service to sign the shortcut, nor have access to a Mac, you can still preview the source code as Shortcuts actions. Follow the first two steps of the build instructions, then from the iPhone or iPad Files app hold on the .shortcut file, then press on the QuickLook option.

QuickLook will not run the workflow, but it will show you the actions, which is a reasonable way to audit what a shortcut does before you sign and run it. For anyone considering a shortcut that reaches the network and writes files, that preview is worth doing first.

The download features, and what the roadmap says is missing

The main feature list is short and describes the media types rather than the mechanics.

Download video at custom qualities and framerates. Download audio, audio only or extracted from video. Download playlists, with video or audio choices available. Download images, clips and GIFs, from single items to massive albums. And support for both the a-Shell and a-Shell Mini apps.

The full documentation is in Docs.md, and the README asks readers to check that page for a complete description of the available features. The separation is sensible, since the plist source is not where you want to read about configuration.

The roadmap shows what is not there yet, and the items are specific enough to be useful. There is an unchecked box to implement a full progress bar on gallery-dl downloads, an unchecked box to add quality options for video playlists, an unchecked box to add an option to customize yt-dlp and gallery-dl with persistent settings, and an unchecked box to allow file inputs with multiple URLs.

The progress bar item is the one to notice. yt-dlp prints a progress line, and a Shortcut can capture that output, but gallery-dl downloads are the case where the user is told to wait for the process to finish, and the absence of a progress bar means a large album download gives no feedback at all. The usage flow's step 5 is literally wait for the process to finish.

The persistent settings item points at a real constraint. Without it, every invocation of the shortcut starts from the tool's defaults, so a preference you set once in a-Shell is not remembered by the shortcut.

The disclaimer is the part to read first

The disclaimers section of the README is unusually direct, and it is the part that should shape how anyone evaluates this project.

This software is only intended to provide a way to archive and/or download content with yt-dlp and gallery-dl that you have explicit permission to download, for instance content owned by you. Use of this software to download copyrighted content could lead to breach of Terms of Service of hosting websites. License of this software does not include liability.

The tools are general purpose and legally ambiguous at the edges; the responsibility for what you fetch is the user's, and the licence explicitly disclaims liability for it.

The second disclaimer is a practical note rather than a legal one. It is recommended to have the VLC app or another universal media player app to play unsupported media formats in iOS and iPadOS, because a downloaded file in a container iOS does not natively handle will not play in the Photos app.

The third covers the software itself. All software used, naming yt-dlp, gallery-dl, yt-dlp-apple-webkit-jsi, SW-DLT and a-Shell, is open source and free. The mention of yt-dlp-apple-webkit-jsi is the most technically interesting detail in that list.

The licence is MIT, in the LICENSE file at the repository root.

How the shortcut is used, step by step

The How to Use section is the shortest thing in the README, and it is worth walking through because the sequence tells you how the pieces fit.

First, download either the a-Shell or the a-Shell Mini app. Second, copy a link to the clipboard, or use the share button if applicable. Third, run the shortcut from either the Shortcuts app, if using a copied link, or from the Share Sheet. Fourth, select the option you need. Fifth, wait for the process to finish. Sixth, use the Share menu to export the download to your chosen destination.

The order matters in one specific way. The a-Shell app has to be installed before anything else works, because it is the environment the download tools run in. The shortcut is the orchestrator on top of it.

The clipboard step and the share sheet are alternatives, and they correspond to the two entry points. A copied link goes through the Shortcuts app, while the share button route goes through the Share Sheet, which is the path that feels native on iOS since the extension appears where you already share things.

Step four is where the shortcut earns its keep. The interactive menu is what turns a command line into something a person can use without remembering flags, and it is also why the feature list talks about custom qualities and framerates rather than a fixed set of options.

Step six is the one that limits the tool. The output goes through the Share menu, so the file lands in whatever app the user picks next. That is convenient, and it also means the destination is limited to what iOS offers, rather than a path you specify.

Version 4.2.2, an active tree, and the shape of the project

The release history shows 4.2.2 on 2026-07-27, 4.2.1 on 2025-11-21 and 4.2 on 2025-11-12, and the last push was on 2026-10-07, so the tree is being worked on well past the newest tag.

The version scheme is worth noting. The project is at 4.x, which means the plist format and the shortcut's internal structure have been revised several times, and the gap between 4.2 and 4.2.1 in November 2025 followed by 4.2.2 eight months later is a pattern of a mature release line with occasional fixes rather than rapid churn.

The repository itself is a distribution point rather than a development project. The src/ directory holds the plist source, the images/ directory holds the screenshots, Docs.md is the feature documentation, and the .github/ directory is presumably for the workflows that cut a release with a signed shortcut attached. There is no build system, no test suite and no package manifest, because there is nothing to compile: a Shortcut is a plist file, and the build is a rename plus a signature.

That has an important consequence for anyone thinking of extending it. Since the entire implementation is a plist, extending it means either editing that plist in the Shortcuts app and re-signing, or writing a new shortcut that calls the same tools. There is no plugin interface and no shared library. For a personal tool that is the right trade, since there is nothing to version beyond the file. For an organisation that wants to standardise on it, the signed artefact is the unit of deployment, and each signed copy is a fork.

Editorial conclusion

SW-DLT suits an iPhone user who needs to archive media they have permission to download, and who wants the workflow to end in the Share sheet rather than in a desktop file manager, because the shortcut is the whole interface and the export target is whatever the Share menu offers. It is the wrong tool for a team that needs scripted, unattended or scheduled downloads, since a Shortcut is an interactive foreground flow, and it is the wrong choice on a device without a-Shell, since that app is the shell the tools run inside. Before you set it up, read Docs.md for the complete feature list, and read the disclaimer section in the README, which states plainly that you need explicit permission to download what you fetch.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. net00-1/SW-DLT on GitHub
4. README
5. Releases