metube

MeTube

Web GUI for yt-dlp — paste a URL, pick a format, and download video or audio from YouTube and hundreds of other sites. Supports playlists, subscriptions, and custom yt-dlp options.

Why run it

yt-dlp from the command line works, but MeTube gives you a persistent queue, format selection (video/audio/best), and a browser-accessible download history without touching a terminal. Useful for pulling content to your local media library or archiving videos before they disappear.

Architecture

Browser → Traefik (HTTPS, lan-only) → MeTube :8081
                                          │
                          /downloads → /mnt/Data/Media/Downloads/Untube  (HDD)
                          /config    → /mnt/SSD/Containers/metube         (SSD — queue state)

Downloads land directly in your media storage. The queue state (what's been downloaded, subscriptions) stays on the SSD so it survives container restarts and is fast to read.

Prerequisites

• Traefik running with the traefik external network
• Host directories created before first start:

mkdir -p /mnt/Data/Media/Downloads/Untube
mkdir -p /mnt/SSD/Containers/metube
chown -R 3001:3001 /mnt/Data/Media/Downloads/Untube /mnt/SSD/Containers/metube

Quick start

cp example.env .env
# Edit .env — set METUBE_DOMAIN at minimum
docker compose up -d

Open https://<METUBE_DOMAIN> in a browser.

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
TZ	America/New_York	Timezone
PUID	3001	UID to run as
PGID	3001	GID to run as
UMASK	002	File creation mask — group-writable so arr services can read downloads
METUBE_DOMAIN	—	FQDN exposed via Traefik, e.g. metube.virtuallyboring.com
METUBE_PORT	8091	Host port (direct access fallback)
METUBE_MAX_CONCURRENT	3	Max simultaneous downloads

Optional yt-dlp tuning (uncomment in compose.yaml)

Variable	Example	Description
YTDL_OPTIONS	{"writesubtitles": true}	JSON object passed directly to yt-dlp
OUTPUT_TEMPLATE	%(title)s.%(ext)s	yt-dlp filename template

Full list of yt-dlp options: https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#usage-and-options

Notes

• The UI is restricted to LAN (10.0.0.0/20) via lan-only@file middleware — MeTube has no built-in auth.
• UMASK=002 matches the arr stack convention so downloaded files are group-writable.
• Audio-only downloads go to the same folder as video; set AUDIO_DOWNLOAD_DIR in compose.yaml if you want a separate path.
• Subscriptions and queue history live in /mnt/SSD/Containers/metube/ — back this up if you use subscriptions heavily.