# FlightTube

A desktop app that merges all your YouTube subscriptions into one newest-first feed,
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

## How it works

**Subscriptions come from Google Takeout, not the API.** Export *YouTube subscriptions*
from [Takeout](https://takeout.google.com/) and import the `subscriptions.csv` in
Settings. No OAuth, no API key, no Google Cloud project, nothing secret on disk.

**Video metadata comes from YouTube's public Atom feed** — one request per channel to
`youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=…`, fetched 8 at a time and merged into a single
feed sorted by publish date. Thumbnails are mirrored to local disk so the feed still
renders with no network.

**Downloads shell out to `yt-dlp`,** pinned to H.264 video + AAC audio in an MP4
container. That caps quality at 1080p — YouTube only serves H.264 that high, and anything
above it is VP9 or AV1, which the app's own player cannot reliably decode. The tradeoff is
deliberate: every download is guaranteed to play inside FlightTube.

## Requirements

```bash
brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg
```

Both are checked at startup; Settings shows their versions and this command if either is
missing. `ffmpeg` is required because best-quality H.264 and AAC arrive as separate
streams that must be merged.

## Running it

```bash
npm install && npm run tauri dev
```

Build a real app bundle:

```bash
npm run tauri build
```

## Using it

1. **Settings → Import subscriptions.csv** — point it at your Takeout export.
2. **Refresh** — pulls the latest videos from every channel.
3. **Download** on any video — progress shows live on the button; click again to cancel.
4. Click a **downloaded** video to play it in the app. Click an undownloaded one to open
   it on YouTube.
5. **Offline** — the app detects a lost connection and collapses the feed to your
   downloads. The connectivity pill also toggles a forced offline mode for testing.

Videos land in `~/Movies/FlightTube` (changeable in Settings).

## Limitations

- 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.
- Downloading videos is contrary to YouTube's Terms of Service.

## Tests

```bash
cd src-tauri && cargo test
```

37 unit tests cover the three places malformed input actually bites: Takeout CSV parsing,
Atom feed parsing (against a captured real response), and `yt-dlp` progress-line parsing —
plus the database rule that a refresh must never clobber download state.

Two network-dependent tests are excluded by default:

```bash
cargo test --test pipeline -- --ignored --nocapture      # full pipeline vs. live feeds
cargo test --test seed_real_db -- --ignored --nocapture  # populate the installed app's db
```

## Layout

```
src-tauri/src/
  takeout.rs     subscriptions.csv -> channels        (pure, tested)
  feed.rs        Atom XML -> videos, plus fetching    (parse is pure, tested)
  downloader.rs  yt-dlp arguments and progress lines  (pure, tested)
  db.rs          schema and every SQL statement
  thumbs.rs      local thumbnail cache
  net.rs         reachability probe
  commands.rs    Tauri command surface — delegates only
src/
  components/    Sidebar, TopBar, VideoRow, DownloadButton, Player, Settings
  hooks/         useFeed, useDownloads, useConnectivity
```

Design notes and the implementation plan are in `docs/superpowers/`.