podcast-dl

A humble CLI for downloading and archiving podcasts.

How to Use

npx

Node Required

npx podcast-dl --url <PODCAST_RSS_URL>

Binaries

Visit the releases page and download the latest binary for your system.

podcast-dl --url <PODCAST_RSS_URL>

More Examples

Options

Either --url or --file must be provided.

Type values surrounded in square brackets ([]) can be used as used as boolean options (no argument required).

Option	Type	Required	Description
–url	String	true*	URL to podcast RSS feed.
–file	String	true*	Path to local RSS file.
–out-dir	String	false	Specify output directory for episodes and metadata. Defaults to “./{{podcast_title}}”. See “Template Options” for more details.
–threads	Number	false	Determines the number of downloads that will happen concurrently. Default is 1.
–attempts	Number	false	Sets the number of download attempts per individual file. Default is 3.
–archive	[String]	false	Download or write out items not listed in archive file. Generates archive file at path if not found. Defaults to “./{{podcast_title}}/archive.json” when used as a boolean option. See “Template Options” for more details.
–episode-template	String	false	Template for generating episode related filenames. See “Template Options” for details.
–episode-custom-template-options	<String…>	false	Provide custom options for the episode template. See “Template Options” for details.
–include-meta		false	Write out podcast metadata to JSON.
–include-episode-meta		false	Write out individual episode metadata to JSON.
–include-episode-images		false	Download found episode images.
–include-episode-transcripts		false	Download found episode transcripts.
–offset	Number	false	Offset starting download position. Default is 0.
–limit	Number	false	Max number of episodes to download. Downloads all by default.
–after	String	false	Only download episodes after this date (i.e. MM/DD/YYY, inclusive).
–before	String	false	Only download episodes before this date (i.e. MM/DD/YYY, inclusive)
–episode-regex	String	false	Match episode title against provided regex before starting download.
–episode-digits	Number	false	Minimum number of digits to use for episode numbering (e.g. 3 would generate “001” instead of “1”). Default is 0.
–episode-num-offset	Number	false	Offset the acquired episode number. Default is 0.
–episode-source-order	String	false	Attempted order to extract episode audio URL from RSS feed. Default is “enclosure,link”.
–episode-transcript-types	String	false	List of allowed transcript types in preferred order. Default is “application/json,application/x-subrip,application/srr,application/srt,text/vtt,text/html,text/plain”.
–add-mp3-metadata		false	Attempts to add a base level of episode metadata to each episode. Recommended only in cases where the original metadata is of poor quality. (ffmpeg required)
–adjust-bitrate	String (e.g. “48k”)	false	Attempts to adjust bitrate of episodes. (ffmpeg required)
–mono		false	Attempts to force episodes into mono. (ffmpeg required)
–override		false	Override local files on collision.
–always-postprocess		false	Always run additional tasks on the file regardless if the file already exists. This includes --add-mp3-metadata, --adjust-bitrate, --mono, and --exec.
–reverse		false	Reverse download direction and start at last RSS item.
–info		false	Print retrieved podcast info instead of downloading.
–list	[String]	false	Print episode list instead of downloading. Defaults to “table” when used as a boolean option. “json” is also supported.
–exec	String	false	Execute a command after each episode is downloaded. See “Template Options” for more details.
–parser-config	String	false	Path to JSON file that will be parsed and used to override the default config passed to rss-parser.
–proxy		false	Enable proxy support. Specify environment variables listed by global-agent.
–help		false	Output usage information.

Archive

• If passed the --archive [path] option, podcast-dl will generate/use a JSON archive at the provided path.
• Before downloading an episode or writing out metadata, it’ll check if the item was saved previously and abort the save if found.

Template Options

Options that support templates allow users to specify a template for the generated filename(s) or option. The provided template will replace all matched keywords with the related data described below. Each keyword must be wrapped in two braces like so:

--out-dir "./{{podcast_title}}"

--episode-template "{{release_date}}-{{title}}"

--out-dir & --archive

• podcast_title: Title of the podcast feed.
• podcast_link: link value provided for the podcast feed. Typically the homepage URL.

--episode-template

• title: The title of the episode.
• release_date: The release date of the episode in YYYYMMDD format.
• release_year: The release year (YYYY) of the episode.
• release_month: The release month (MM) of the episode.
• release_day: The release day (DD) of the episode.
• episode_num: The location number of where the episodes appears in the feed.
• url: URL of episode audio file.
• duration: Provided mm:ss duration (if found).
• podcast_title: Title of the podcast feed.
• podcast_link: link value provided for the podcast feed. Typically the homepage URL.
• guid: The GUID of the episode.

--episode-custom-template-options

Each matcher provided will be used to extract a value from the episode title. Access these values in the template using the custom_<n> keyword where <n> is the index of the matcher provided (starting from 0).

If no match is found, the custom_<n> keyword will be replaced with an empty string.

--exec

• episode_path: The path to the downloaded episode.
• episode_path_base: The path to the folder of the downloaded episode.
• episode_filename: The filename of the episode.
• episode_filename_base: The filename of the episode without its extension.
• url: URL of episode audio file.

Log Levels

By default, all logs and errors are outputted to the console. The amount of logs can be controlled using the environment variable LOG_LEVEL with the following options:

• static: All logs and errors are outputted to the console, but disables any animations.
• quiet: Only important info and non-critical errors will be logged (e.g. episode download started).
• silent: Only critical error messages will be be logged.

OS Filename Limits

By default, the max length of a generated filename is 255. If your OS has different limitations, or if you’re running into issues with non-standard feeds, you can adjust the limit via the environment variable MAX_LENGTH_FILENAME.