quixotic/.serena/memories/progress_note_youtube_fix.md

YouTube Bot Detection Fix - Progress Note

Problem Identified

YouTube was blocking requests with "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" error when trying to download audio streams.

Solutions Implemented

1. Installed yt-dlp system dependency - More reliable YouTube downloader that better handles bot detection
2. Updated YouTubeService - Added fallback mechanism:
   • First tries play-dl (existing method)
   • If that fails, falls back to yt-dlp system command
   • yt-dlp gets direct audio URL then creates stream via axios

Code Changes

• Added spawn import for child process execution
• Modified getAudioStream() to try both methods
• Added new getAudioStreamWithYtDlp() method as fallback

Next Steps

User should restart server to test the fix. If still issues, they can set up YouTube cookies as documented in YOUTUBE_SETUP.md.