YouTube to RSS Podcast Converter

A self-hosted solution that converts YouTube channels into podcast RSS feeds. Subscribe to your favorite YouTube channels in any podcast app, with automatic SponsorBlock integration to remove ads and promotional segments.

Features

• Automatic Video Downloads: Monitor YouTube channels and download new videos in 720p MP4 format
• SponsorBlock Integration: Automatically remove sponsored segments, self-promotion, and other unwanted content
• Podcast RSS Feeds: Generate standard RSS feeds compatible with any podcast app
• Per-Channel Scheduling: Individual refresh controls with configurable intervals for each channel
• Episode Playback: Click episodes to play directly in your browser
• Web Interface: Web UI with episode, individual channel refresh, and status monitoring

Quick Start

The easiest way to get started is using the pre-built Docker image:

# Create necessary directories
mkdir -p appdata/config appdata/podcasts

# Run the container
docker run -d \
  --name yt2rss \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000 \
  -v $(pwd)/appdata/config:/app/appdata/config \
  -v $(pwd)/appdata/podcasts:/app/appdata/podcasts \
  cubicalbatch/yt2rss

# Optional: Run with SOCKS5 proxy support
docker run -d \
  --name yt2rss \
  -p 5000:5000 \
  -e BASE_URL=http://localhost:5000 \
  -e YT_DLP_PROXY=socks5://proxy.example.com:1080 \
  -v $(pwd)/appdata/config:/app/appdata/config \
  -v $(pwd)/appdata/podcasts:/app/appdata/podcasts \
  cubicalbatch/yt2rss

Access Your Podcasts

• Web Interface: Visit http://localhost:5000 to manage channels and view status
• RSS Feeds: Subscribe to http://localhost:5000/feeds/channel_name in your podcast app
• Direct Access: Podcasts served at http://localhost:5000/podcasts/channel_name/filename.mp4

Usage

Web Interface

The web interface provides:

• Channel Management: Add, edit, and delete YouTube channels
• Episode Browser: Click episode counts to view detailed episode modals with thumbnails and descriptions
• Episode Playback: Click individual episodes to play them directly in your browser
• Per-Channel Refresh: Individual refresh buttons for each channel with real-time status
• Status Monitoring: View download progress and last refresh times
• Configuration: Adjust refresh intervals and settings per channel

Podcast Apps

Any standard podcast app can subscribe to your feeds:

1. Copy the RSS feed URL from the web interface
2. Add it as a new podcast subscription
3. Videos will appear as episodes with thumbnails
4. Automatic updates based on your refresh interval

Channel Configuration

Add new channels through the web interface or by editing appdata/config/channels.yaml:

default_interval_hours: 24  # Default refresh interval for new channels
check_delay_seconds: 30     # Delay between video metadata checks to avoid rate limiting
channels:
  - name: example_channel
    url: https://www.youtube.com/@ExampleChannel
    max_episodes: 15
    download_delay_hours: 12
    refresh_interval_hours: 24  # Individual channel refresh interval
    sponsorblock_categories:
      - sponsor
      - selfpromo

SponsorBlock Categories

Available categories for automatic removal:

• sponsor: Paid promotion segments
• selfpromo: Self-promotion and channel announcements
• interaction: Subscribe reminders and interaction requests
• intro: Channel intro sequences
• outro: End screens and credits
• preview: Video previews and recaps
• music_offtopic: Non-music segments in music videos
• filler: Filler content and tangents

Environment Variables

• BASE_URL: Base URL for RSS feeds and podcast URLs (default: http://localhost:5000)

  • Example: BASE_URL=https://your-domain.com
  • Used in RSS feed URLs and media file links

• YT_DLP_PROXY: SOCKS5/HTTP/HTTPS proxy for yt-dlp downloads (optional)

  • Supports SOCKS5, HTTP, and HTTPS proxies
  • Examples:
    • YT_DLP_PROXY=socks5://proxy.example.com:1080
    • YT_DLP_PROXY=socks5://user:[email protected]:1080
    • YT_DLP_PROXY=http://proxy.example.com:8080
  • When set, all YouTube downloads and metadata fetches will use the specified proxy

Development Setup

For development or manual installation, this project uses UV for dependency management:

# Install UV if not already installed
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Install dependencies and run
uv run python main.py

Requirements:

• Python 3.13+
• FFmpeg (for video processing)
• UV package manager

Security Notes

• Designed for local network use
• No authentication required
• All content served over HTTP

Contributing

This is a self-hosted personal project. Feel free to fork and modify for your needs.

Acknowledgments

This project is built with the help of several excellent open-source tools:

• yt-dlp - For downloading YouTube videos
• SponsorBlock - For community-driven sponsor segment detection
• FFmpeg - For video processing and manipulation

Special thanks to the maintainers and contributors of these projects.

License

Open source - modify and distribute freely.