Import from YouTube and other sites via yt-dlp

.env.example

@@ -58,6 +58,27 @@ MEDIA_URL_TTL_SECONDS=3600
 JOB_HEARTBEAT_SECONDS=30
 JOB_STALE_MINUTES=40
 
+# ─── Import from URL ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+#
+# Pasting a YouTube (or Rumble, Odysee, Vimeo, …) link downloads it with yt-dlp. See
+# docs/url-import.md, including what to do when imports start failing — YouTube
+# changes under yt-dlp every few weeks, and the fix is to bump its pin and rebuild.
+
+# Tallest video to fetch. 1080p is the highest YouTube offers as H.264, which plays in
+# every browser; above it you get VP9/AV1, which Safari may refuse.
+URL_IMPORT_MAX_HEIGHT=1080
+
+# Most videos one playlist or channel link may queue.
+URL_IMPORT_MAX_PLAYLIST_ITEMS=200
+
+# Optional. A Netscape cookies.txt *inside the container*, for YouTube's "confirm you're
+# not a bot" wall (common on VPS/datacenter IPs) and age-restricted videos. Mount it
+# read-only, e.g. in docker-compose.override.yml:
+#   services: { backend: { volumes: ["./secrets/cookies.txt:/app/secrets/cookies.txt:ro"] } }
+# and set: URL_IMPORT_COOKIES_FILE=/app/secrets/cookies.txt
+# Treat that file like a password — it is a signed-in session for the account it came from.
+URL_IMPORT_COOKIES_FILE=
+
 # ─── Development only ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 # "development" enables DEV_AUTH_USER below. Anything else, and it is ignored.

README.md

@@ -36,6 +36,10 @@ user row. The changes that makes possible are specified in
 
 - **Ingest with no friction** — drop files in with a name and nothing else. Everything
   beyond that is optional and can be filled in later, by hand or by AI.
+- **Import from a link** — paste a YouTube (or Rumble, Odysee, Vimeo…) URL and it arrives
+  titled, attributed, tagged and split into its chapters, with the site's captions as a
+  transcript when there is no Deepgram key. Playlists too. See
+  [`docs/url-import.md`](docs/url-import.md).
 - **Find the moment** — full-text search over names, descriptions, summaries, tags and
   transcripts, fused with semantic search so half-remembered wording still lands. Hits
   in audio and video come back with a timestamp you can jump straight to.

backend/app/config.py

@@ -70,6 +70,19 @@ class Settings(BaseSettings):
     # long upload, both of which contend with serving the API from the same container.
     enrichment_concurrency: int = 1
 
+    # ─── import from URL ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+    # The tallest video an import will fetch. 1080p is where YouTube stops offering
+    # H.264, which is the codec every browser (Safari included) plays without a
+    # re-encode — and a ninety-minute interview is ~1-2 GB here against 4-8 GB at 4K.
+    url_import_max_height: int = 1080
+    # A channel's "videos" tab is a playlist too, and can hold thousands. One paste
+    # should not be able to queue a week of downloads.
+    url_import_max_playlist_items: int = 200
+    # A Netscape-format cookies.txt, as a path inside the container. Empty by default.
+    # For YouTube's "confirm you're not a bot" wall on datacenter IPs, and for
+    # age-restricted or members-only videos; mount the file read-only and point here.
+    url_import_cookies_file: str = ""
+
     # ─── development ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
     # Bypasses token verification and acts as this user id. Refused unless
     # `environment` is "development", so it cannot be switched on in production by