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Browser extension and local backend that automatically archives YouTube videos

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Starchive

A browser extension and local backend system that automatically archives YouTube videos when visited. The system consists of a Firefox extension that detects YouTube video pages and a Go backend that downloads the videos using yt-dlp.

Components

Backend (Go)

HTTP Server ( main.go ): Runs on port 3009 with two endpoints: / : Basic health check endpoint /youtube : POST endpoint that accepts video IDs and triggers downloads

( ): Runs on port 3009 with two endpoints: Video Downloader ( youtube.go ): Uses yt-dlp and ffmpeg to download YouTube videos and convert them to MOV format with h264_videotoolbox encoding

( ): Uses yt-dlp and ffmpeg to download YouTube videos and convert them to MOV format with h264_videotoolbox encoding Subtitle Support: Downloads English subtitles in VTT format (currently disabled in retry loop)

Browser Extension (Firefox)

Manifest ( manifest.json ): Defines extension permissions and structure

( ): Defines extension permissions and structure Content Script ( content.js ): Automatically detects YouTube video pages and extracts video IDs from URLs

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