Sangrah yt-dlp, the clean way

Install yt-dlp with pipx so it never fights Ubuntu's system Python, force mp4 as your default output, and wire up an animated download progress bar. Seven steps, no venv to babysit.

setup_sangrah.sh

One-shot script: venv + yt-dlp + rich + deno + mp4 config + ytdl-nice progress wrapper.

download

Note — pipx still uses a virtual environment under the hood. What you're skipping is managing it yourself; pipx creates and hides it for you.

step 1

Install pipx

pipx installs Python CLI tools into their own isolated environments automatically. This is the officially recommended way around Ubuntu's externally-managed-environment restriction.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y pipx
pipx ensurepath

step 2

Restart your shell

Picks up the PATH changes pipx just made, so the pipx and later yt-dlp commands are found.

source ~/.bashrc

or just close and reopen the terminal window.

step 3

Install yt-dlp with pipx

Drops a working yt-dlp command on your PATH, backed by its own isolated environment — you never have to think about that environment again.

pipx install yt-dlp

step 4

Inject rich into yt-dlp's environment

Adds the rich library into that same isolated environment, so a custom script can import both yt_dlp and rich together for the animated progress bar.

pipx inject yt-dlp rich

step 5

Install deno (JS runtime)

Clears the "No supported JavaScript runtime" warning and restores full format extraction on YouTube.

curl -fsSL https://deno.land/install.sh | sh

restart your terminal again after this one.

step 6

Force mp4 output by default

Writes a config so plain yt-dlp always merges video + audio into .mp4, instead of whatever container the source streams happen to use.

mkdir -p ~/.config/yt-dlp
printf '%s\n' \
  '-f "bestvideo[ext=mp4]+bestaudio[ext=m4a]/best[ext=mp4]/best"' \
  '--merge-output-format mp4' \
  >> ~/.config/yt-dlp/config

step 7

Verify it works

Confirm the command resolves and (optionally) that mp4 is the default merge format.

which yt-dlp

yt-dlp --print merge-output-format

should print mp4.

Before you start

These steps assume Ubuntu/Debian with apt available. If pipx is already installed, step 1 is a no-op — apt will just confirm it's up to date.

Each step is independent to run — if one fails partway, fix that step and continue from there rather than starting over.