YouTube increasingly requires a per-video Proof-of-Origin token bound
to each video ID before handing back format URLs. Without one, yt-dlp
sees empty formats and downloads fail. The upstream solution is the
Brainicism bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider Python plugin paired with a
long-running server that mints tokens via BotGuard.
We integrate the Rust port (jim60105/bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider-rs) so
the server is a single static binary, no Node.js required.
## Architecture
- bgutil-pot binary lives alongside the bundled deno + yt-dlp at
~/.local/share/yt-offline/bin/bgutil-pot.
- The matching Python plugin is pip-installed into the bundled venv:
python -m pip install bgutil-ytdlp-pot-provider.
- Downloader spawns the server lazily on first job (port 4416,
loopback only) and kills it on Drop.
- Each yt-dlp invocation gets
--extractor-args "youtubepot-bgutilhttp:base_url=http://127.0.0.1:4416"
appended in spawn_job when use_pot_provider is on and the server
child is alive.
## UX
- Settings → "POT token provider" row with toggle + Install/Update
button (mirrors the bundled yt-dlp row).
- Disabled unless use_bundled_ytdlp is also on (plugin lives in that
venv).
- Refuses install if the bundled yt-dlp venv isn't there yet, with a
helpful 428 error.
## Lifecycle
- Lazy spawn: ensure_pot_server() runs at the top of start() so the
server is up before yt-dlp queries the plugin.
- Drop: kill_server() on Downloader drop so we don't leave an orphaned
process bound to 4416.
- start_pot_provider_update() kills the running child first so the
install can overwrite the binary in place (no ETXTBSY).
3 new unit tests cover URL/extractor-args formatting; 77 total pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
