# trizen/youtube-viewer

Lightweight YouTube client for Linux

Repository: https://github.com/trizen/youtube-viewer
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/trizen-youtube-viewer
Homepage: https://trizenx.blogspot.com/2012/03/gtk-youtube-viewer.html
Language: Perl
License: Artistic-2.0
License Family: other
Topics: youtube-viewer, perl
Last push: 2026-06-15T07:58:31+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 69/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 87, release rhythm 28, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5681, "days_push": 79, "days_rel": 498, "gap_med": 45.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1312, forks 91 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:20.168550+00:00)

## What it is
A lightweight Perl application for searching and playing YouTube videos from the command line, with an optional GTK3 graphical interface (gtk-youtube-viewer). It streams videos via external players like MPV, MPlayer, or VLC and supports OAuth 2.0 authentication for accessing subscriptions, playlists, and liked videos.

## Use cases
- search and play YouTube videos from the terminal
- watch YouTube without a browser on Linux
- browse YouTube subscriptions and playlists in a lightweight GTK app
- filter YouTube search results by criteria or regex
- stream YouTube videos at a chosen resolution with captions

## When to choose
- you want a fast, minimal YouTube client on Linux or macOS
- you prefer terminal-based video browsing with advanced search options
- you want to use your own video player like MPV or VLC
- you need OAuth access to your YouTube account from a lightweight client

## When to avoid
- you need a full-featured graphical YouTube experience with comments and thumbnails
- you are on Windows without Perl tooling
- you want a modern GUI application rather than a Perl/GTK3 tool
- you rely on features that break frequently with YouTube API changes

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: http-client, cli, gui, search-engine
- domain: media, developer-tools, cross-platform
- platform: bsd, cli
- tags: youtube-client, video-player, perl, gtk3, yt-dlp, oauth2, lightweight, command-line, linux, macos, desktop

## Member repositories
- trizen/youtube-viewer (main) score 69

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:20.168550+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:49:25.938665+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/trizen/youtube-viewer (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:20.168550+00:00, sha ba6bcedf558c)
  - homepage: https://trizenx.blogspot.com/2012/03/gtk-youtube-viewer.html (fetched 2026-08-29T12:07:41.169661+00:00, sha 96595d181a2f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.