The main config

The main config file is located in ~/.config/youtube-tui/main.yml.

Example main.yml

mouse_support: true
invidious_instance: https://invidious.fdn.fr
write_config: Try
allow_unicode: true
message_bar_default: All good :)
images: Sixels
refresh_after_modifying_search_filters: true
syncing:
  download_images: true
  sync_channel_info: true
  sync_channel_cooldown_secs: 86400
  sync_videos_cooldown_secs: 600
limits:
  watch_history: 50
  search_history: 75
  commands_history: 75
image_index: 4
provider: YouTube
shell: sh
legacy_input_handling: false
env:
  video-player: mpv
  download-path: ~/Downloads/%(title)s-%(id)s.%(ext)s
  terminal-emulator: konsole -e
  youtube-downloader: yt-dlp
  save-path: ~/.local/share/youtube-tui/saved/
  browser: firefox

Below are the description of each of the fields:

mouse_support

Whether mouse click events are supports, if false then mouse will not do anything to the program.

Accept: true/false

invidious_instance

The Invidious instance you want to use, a full list of Invidious instances can be found here here.

Accept: string of a valid url to an Invidious instance

write_config

Whether to write to config after every read, this allows for auto-formatting the config files, as well as removing any error/deprecated options and adding new options.

main.yml is a loaded with Try no matter what.

Accept: Must/Try/Dont

allow_unicode

Enable unicode in video and playlist names, doing so may cause unwanted behaviors like video name continuing into the info field to the right.

Accept: true/false

message_bar_default

The default message displayed in the message bar.

Accept: any string

images

How to display thumbnails, if None is selected video thumbnails will not be downloaded in the first place.

Accept: Sixels/HalfBlocks/None

refresh_after_modifying_search_filters

Whether to refresh the current search page after search filters are modified

Accept: true/false

download_images

Whether to download images for all subscription videos

Accept: true/false

sync_channel_info

Whether to also request an updated version of the channel info when syncing feeds. Disabling this halves the number of requests sent to Invidious, but channel info will not be updated (the videos will).

Accept: true/false

sync_channel_cooldown_secs

Sync all do not sync channel info if it has been synced in the past n seconds.

Accept: integer value seconds

sync_videos_cooldown_secs

Sync all do not sync videos from channel if it has been synced in the past n seconds.

Accept: integer value seconds

limits

The maximum length that the watch/search/command history can hold, a value higher will record more items, but will also result in a larger file size in storage.

Accept: positive integer below 2^{your CPU architecture} - 1

image_index

The index in the array of thumbnail qualities you want to download

Typically these are the avaliable qualities:

Usually you don't want to use the max resolution as it will create a large gap between the page being loaded and before the thumbnails are started to get displayed

Accept: integer that is a valid index

provider

This changes the ${url} and ${embed-url} of videos, allowing you to watch videos from Invidious if it is restricted on YouTube.

(Don't always use Invidious if YouTube is working, because first of all the load time if gonna be much slower, and secondly you will be DDoSing Invidious)

Accept: YouTube/Invidious

shell

Shell used to run commands, such as sh (default), bash or even zsh.

Accept: any valid path to a shell binary

legacy_input_handling

Switch back the old key input handling where the selected item captures all input (except escape).

env

Env are variables that can be used in commands.yml, this allows you to change multiple commands by modifying just one env variable. And not to be confused with system/terminal environment variables, these are just "a thing" that you can use in the TUI.

Accept: string_key: string_value pairs