pipe-viewer searches and plays YouTube videos from Linux, according to its project description.
Open source
24 alternativesYouTube-Viewer
Search and play YouTube videos on Linux using youtube-viewer, according to its project description.
About YouTube-Viewer
YouTube-Viewer is a lightweight application for searching and playing videos from YouTube. It ships with two interfaces: a command-line client (youtube-viewer) and a GTK+ client (gtk-youtube-viewer). It is packaged for a number of Linux distributions, including Alpine, Arch, Fedora, FreeBSD, Gentoo, Slackware, Solus, Ubuntu/Linux Mint and Void Linux, and can also be installed on macOS through Homebrew. Building from source uses Perl's Build.PL, with a --gtk option to include the graphical interface.
Playing videos depends on yt-dlp or youtube-dl, and other Perl modules are needed for features such as local caching, readline history, faster JSON handling and fixed-width formatting. Logging in is optional and configured through ~/.config/youtube-viewer/api.json, where users set a YouTube API key and, for login, OAuth client ID and secret values from a Google Cloud project with the YouTube Data v3 API enabled. The related fork pipe-viewer parses the YouTube website directly and does not require an API key.
Key features
- Command-line interface for searching and playing YouTube videos
- Separate GTK+ graphical interface, gtk-youtube-viewer
- Packaged for many Linux distributions and installable via Homebrew on macOS
- Optional API key and OAuth login configured in ~/.config/youtube-viewer/api.json
- Optional Perl modules enable local cache, readline history and faster JSON parsing
- Requires yt-dlp or youtube-dl to play videos
Best for: Linux users who want to search and play YouTube videos from a terminal or a lightweight GTK+ client.
Good for
- Open source, with package builds listed for many Linux distributions and macOS Homebrew
- Offers both command-line and GTK+ interfaces from the same project
- Optional modules add caching, readline history, faster JSON and fixed-width formatting
Watch out for
- Video playback depends on yt-dlp or youtube-dl being installed
- Logging in requires a Google Cloud project with the YouTube Data v3 API enabled and OAuth client credentials
- Installing from source requires running Perl Build.PL steps
YouTube-Viewer at a glance
- Category
- Software & Utilities › Linux Apps
- Type
- Open-source project
- Pricing
- Not confirmed. Check the site
- Platforms
- Linux
- Open source
- Yes · Source code
- Language
- English
- Last checked
- Oct 6, 2026 · Online when checked
- Listed
- Oct 5, 2026
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YouTube-Viewer FAQ
Does YouTube-Viewer require a YouTube API key?
An API key is configured through ~/.config/youtube-viewer/api.json, which requires creating a Google Cloud project with the YouTube Data v3 API enabled. OAuth client ID and secret values can optionally be added to log in. The fork pipe-viewer parses the YouTube website directly and does not require an API key.
How is YouTube-Viewer installed?
It is available through package repositories for several Linux distributions and via Homebrew on macOS. From source, install with perl Build.PL, sudo ./Build installdeps and sudo ./Build install, adding --gtk to also build gtk-youtube-viewer.
What is needed to play videos?
The application depends on libwww-perl, LWP::Protocol::https, Data::Dump, JSON and either yt-dlp or youtube-dl. The GTK+ interface additionally requires Gtk3 and File::ShareDir.
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