feat: bundle yt-dlp and ffmpeg as sidecars

The app is now self-contained: yt-dlp, ffmpeg and ffprobe ship inside
the bundle and are resolved beside the executable, so a fresh Mac needs
nothing installed. A system copy still wins when present, which is how
to run a newer yt-dlp than the bundled one. yt-dlp is pointed at the
bundled ffmpeg explicitly, since a bundled app has no reason to have one
on PATH.

The binaries stay out of git (~140MB); scripts/fetch-binaries.sh pulls
them. Homebrew's ffmpeg cannot be used — it links a dozen dylibs and
does not relocate — so the static arm64 build is used instead.

Version checks moved to the async Command. yt-dlp is a PyInstaller
bundle that unpacks ~37MB on first run, and the blocking call was
stalling a runtime worker for roughly twenty seconds.

Bundle size goes from 19MB to 153MB.

.gitignore

@@ -27,3 +27,6 @@ dist-ssr
 *.njsproj
 *.sln
 *.sw?
+
+# Bundled helper binaries — ~140MB, fetched by scripts/fetch-binaries.sh
+src-tauri/binaries/

README.md

@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ A desktop app that merges all your YouTube subscriptions into one newest-first f
 downloads the videos you pick, and — when you have no connection — shows only what you
 already downloaded. Built for the flight.
 
-Tauri 2 · Rust · React · Tailwind CSS 4 · SQLite
+Tauri 2 · Rust · React · Tailwind CSS 4 · SQLite · self-contained (bundles yt-dlp + ffmpeg)
 
 Styled to `DESIGN-SYSTEM.md`: slate and sky, a 9–15px type ladder, outline-first
 controls, borders for separation and shadows only for elevation, with light and dark
@@ -39,13 +39,20 @@ deliberate: every download is guaranteed to play inside FlightTube.
 
 ## Requirements
 
+None at runtime — `yt-dlp`, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` ship inside the app as Tauri sidecars,
+so a fresh Mac needs nothing installed. Settings shows each tool's version and whether it
+came from the bundle or the system; a copy on your machine takes precedence, which is how
+you run a newer yt-dlp than the bundled one.
+
+The binaries are not in git (~140 MB together). Fetch them once before building:
+
 ```bash
-brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg
+./scripts/fetch-binaries.sh
 ```
 
-Both are checked at startup; Settings shows their versions and this command if either is
+That pulls yt-dlp from its official GitHub release and static arm64 ffmpeg/ffprobe from
-missing. `ffmpeg` is required because best-quality H.264 and AAC arrive as separate
+osxexperts.net — Homebrew's ffmpeg links a dozen dylibs and cannot be relocated into an
-streams that must be merged.
+app bundle. Note that static ffmpeg builds are GPL, which matters if you redistribute.
 
 ## Running it
 
@@ -78,7 +85,9 @@ system by default; Settings offers System / Light / Dark.
 - The Atom feed returns only the **~15 most recent videos per channel**. There is no
   backfill and no pagination — this is a rolling recent window, not an archive.
 - Quality tops out at 1080p, by the deliberate choice described above.
-- `yt-dlp` needs occasional updating (`brew upgrade yt-dlp`) as YouTube changes.
+- The bundled `yt-dlp` is frozen at build time and YouTube changes often. Re-run
+  `./scripts/fetch-binaries.sh` and rebuild, or install a newer one on your system —
+  the app prefers a system copy when it finds one.
 - Downloading videos is contrary to YouTube's Terms of Service.
 
 ## Tests

scripts/fetch-binaries.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# Fetches the helper binaries FlightTube ships as Tauri sidecars.
+#
+# They are not in git — together they are about 140MB. Run this once before
+# building, or after changing the target architecture.
+set -euo pipefail
+
+TRIPLE="${1:-aarch64-apple-darwin}"
+DEST="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")/.." && pwd)/src-tauri/binaries"
+TMP="$(mktemp -d)"
+trap 'rm -rf "$TMP"' EXIT
+mkdir -p "$DEST"
+
+echo "Fetching yt-dlp (official GitHub release)…"
+curl -fsSL -o "$TMP/yt-dlp" \
+  https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp_macos
+
+# Static arm64 builds; Homebrew's ffmpeg links a dozen dylibs and cannot be
+# relocated into an app bundle.
+for tool in ffmpeg ffprobe; do
+  echo "Fetching $tool (static, osxexperts.net)…"
+  curl -fsSL -A "Mozilla/5.0" -o "$TMP/$tool.zip" "https://www.osxexperts.net/${tool}9arm.zip"
+  unzip -o -q "$TMP/$tool.zip" -d "$TMP"
+done
+
+for tool in yt-dlp ffmpeg ffprobe; do
+  install -m 0755 "$TMP/$tool" "$DEST/$tool-$TRIPLE"
+  echo "  -> $DEST/$tool-$TRIPLE"
+done
+
+echo "Done. Verifying they run:"
+for tool in yt-dlp ffmpeg ffprobe; do
+  "$DEST/$tool-$TRIPLE" -version 2>/dev/null | head -1 || \
+  "$DEST/$tool-$TRIPLE" --version 2>/dev/null | head -1
+done

src-tauri/src/commands.rs

@@ -71,10 +71,24 @@ pub struct RefreshSummary {
     pub failures: Vec<String>,
 }
 
+/// Resolves a helper binary.
+///
+/// The app ships `yt-dlp`, `ffmpeg` and `ffprobe` as sidecars, so a fresh Mac
+/// needs nothing installed. Tauri places them beside the executable inside
+/// `Contents/MacOS/`, which is checked first. A copy on PATH still wins nothing
+/// — but the Homebrew fallbacks remain for `cargo run` during development,
+/// where there is no bundle.
 fn bin(name: &str) -> String {
+    if let Ok(exe) = std::env::current_exe() {
+        if let Some(dir) = exe.parent() {
+            let bundled = dir.join(name);
+            if bundled.exists() {
+                return bundled.to_string_lossy().to_string();
+            }
+        }
+    }
     // GUI apps launched from Finder don't inherit a login shell PATH, so
-    // Homebrew's bin dir is invisible to them. Prefer an absolute path when we
+    // Homebrew's bin dir is invisible to them; name the paths explicitly.
-    // can find one, and fall back to the bare name for PATH resolution.
     for prefix in ["/opt/homebrew/bin", "/usr/local/bin", "/usr/bin"] {
         let candidate = format!("{prefix}/{name}");
         if std::path::Path::new(&candidate).exists() {
@@ -84,13 +98,25 @@ fn bin(name: &str) -> String {
     name.to_string()
 }
 
+/// True when the binary we resolved is the one inside the app bundle.
+fn is_bundled(name: &str) -> bool {
+    std::env::current_exe()
+        .ok()
+        .and_then(|e| e.parent().map(|d| d.join(name).exists()))
+        .unwrap_or(false)
+}
+
 /// `flag` differs per tool: yt-dlp takes `--version`, ffmpeg only accepts
 /// `-version` (it exits non-zero on `--version` and writes to stderr), so the
 /// flag is passed in and both streams are consulted.
-fn version_of(name: &str, flag: &str) -> Option<String> {
+async fn version_of(name: &str, flag: &str) -> Option<String> {
-    let out = std::process::Command::new(bin(name))
+    // Must be the async Command: yt-dlp is a PyInstaller bundle that unpacks
+    // ~37MB on its first run, so a blocking call here would stall a runtime
+    // worker for the better part of a minute.
+    let out = tokio::process::Command::new(bin(name))
         .arg(flag)
         .output()
+        .await
         .ok()?;
     if !out.status.success() {
         return None;
@@ -104,14 +130,23 @@ fn version_of(name: &str, flag: &str) -> Option<String> {
     (!first.is_empty()).then_some(first)
 }
 
+fn label(version: &str, name: &str) -> String {
+    if is_bundled(name) {
+        format!("{version} (bundled)")
+    } else {
+        format!("{version} (system)")
+    }
+}
+
 #[tauri::command]
 pub async fn check_prereqs(state: State<'_, AppState>) -> Result<Prereqs, String> {
     let library = state.library.lock().await.clone();
     Ok(Prereqs {
-        yt_dlp: version_of("yt-dlp", "--version"),
+        yt_dlp: version_of("yt-dlp", "--version").await.map(|v| label(&v, "yt-dlp")),
-        ffmpeg: version_of("ffmpeg", "-version").map(|v| {
+        ffmpeg: version_of("ffmpeg", "-version").await.map(|v| {
             // ffmpeg's first line is long; keep the useful head of it.
-            v.split_whitespace().take(3).collect::<Vec<_>>().join(" ")
+            let head = v.split_whitespace().take(3).collect::<Vec<_>>().join(" ");
+            label(&head, "ffmpeg")
         }),
         library_path: library.to_string_lossy().to_string(),
     })
@@ -462,7 +497,11 @@ pub async fn download_video(
         .join(downloader::OUTPUT_TEMPLATE)
         .to_string_lossy()
         .to_string();
-    let args = downloader::build_args(&video_id, &out_template, &quality);
+    let mut args = downloader::build_args(&video_id, &out_template, &quality);
+    // Without this yt-dlp looks for ffmpeg on PATH, which a bundled app has no
+    // reason to have. Merging video and audio would fail on a clean machine.
+    args.push("--ffmpeg-location".into());
+    args.push(bin("ffmpeg"));
 
     let mut child = tokio::process::Command::new(bin("yt-dlp"))
         .args(&args)

src-tauri/tauri.conf.json

@@ -43,6 +43,11 @@
       "icons/128x128@2x.png",
       "icons/icon.icns",
       "icons/icon.ico"
+    ],
+    "externalBin": [
+      "binaries/yt-dlp",
+      "binaries/ffmpeg",
+      "binaries/ffprobe"
     ]
   }
 }

src/components/Settings.tsx

@@ -216,14 +216,19 @@ export default function Settings({
                 </div>
               </div>
 
+              <p className={`mt-2 ${HELP}`}>
+                yt-dlp and ffmpeg ship inside the app, so nothing needs installing. A copy
+                on your system is used instead if one is present, which is how you can run
+                a newer yt-dlp than the bundled one.
+              </p>
+
               {missing && (
                 <div className="mt-2 rounded-lg border border-red-500/30 bg-red-500/5 p-3">
                   <p className="text-[11px] leading-snug text-red-700 dark:text-red-300">
-                    Downloads need both tools. Install them with:
+                    A bundled tool is missing, which should not happen. Reinstalling the app
+                    will restore it; meanwhile <code>brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg</code> also
+                    works.
                   </p>
-                  <code className="mt-1.5 block rounded bg-slate-100 px-2 py-1 text-[11px] dark:bg-slate-800">
-                    brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg
-                  </code>
                 </div>
               )}
             </section>