VidBee/README.md

🐝 VidBee

Download videos from almost any website worldwide

Best-in-class UI interface - Clean, intuitive, and powerful

Built with Electron, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, and shadcn/ui.

✨ Core Features

🌍 Global Video Download Support

• 1000+ Sites Supported - Download videos from almost any website worldwide through yt-dlp engine
• Smart Platform Detection - Automatically detect video platforms and optimize download parameters
• Multi-format Support - Videos, audio tracks, playlists to meet all download needs

🎨 Best-in-class UI Experience

• Modern Design - Clean and beautiful interface
• Intuitive Operations - One-click pause/resume/retry
• Real-time Progress - Detailed download progress tracking and status management
• Theme Switching - Support for system/light/dark themes for comfortable viewing

⚡ Powerful Features

• 🎯 Automatically detect platform-friendly formats and store files in custom locations
• 🎨 Localized interface support in many languages

📥 Download & Install

1. Download the latest release from GitHub Releases
2. Choose your platform:
   • Windows: Download vidbee-x.x.x-setup.exe
   • macOS: Download vidbee-x.x.x.dmg
   • Linux: Download vidbee-x.x.x.AppImage
3. Install and run the application

📸 Screenshots

Clean and intuitive interface with download queue management

Comprehensive download queue with progress tracking and status management

🌐 Supported Sites

VidBee supports hundreds of video and audio platforms through yt-dlp. Here are the most popular platforms:

🎬 Video Platforms

• 📺 YouTube - Long-form and livestream video from creators worldwide
• 🎵 TikTok - Short-form mobile videos, effects, and live streams
• 📘 Facebook - Feed, Watch, and Reels videos from public pages
• 📷 Instagram - Feed, Stories, Reels, and Highlights content
• 🐦 X (Twitter) - Timeline posts, Spaces recordings, and broadcasts
• 🎥 Vimeo - High-quality creator and business video hosting
• 🌍 Dailymotion - Global news, sports, and entertainment clips
• 🎮 Twitch - Gaming, music, and IRL live streams and VODs
• 💼 LinkedIn - Professional talks, webinars, and learning videos
• 📌 Pinterest - Idea pins, how-to reels, and lifestyle inspiration videos
• 🎨 Tumblr - Creative short-form media and fan edits
• 🇯🇵 Niconico - Japanese animation, music, and live broadcast archive
• ⚡ Kick - Creator live streams and replays on the Kick platform

🎵 Audio Platforms

• 🎶 YouTube Music - Official music videos, albums, and live performances
• 🎧 SoundCloud - Music tracks, playlists, and DJ sets
• 🎛️ Mixcloud - DJ mixes, radio shows, and long-form audio
• 🎸 Bandcamp - Independent artist albums and community releases

🔗 Other Platforms

• 🤖 Reddit - Embedded clips and hosted videos from communities

💡 Note: VidBee uses yt-dlp under the hood, which supports 1000+ sites. For the complete list, visit the yt-dlp supported sites documentation.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Runtime: Electron 38, electron-vite, electron-builder
• Frontend: React 19, React Router, Jotai, React Hook Form, Tailwind CSS 4, shadcn/ui, Lucide icons
• Tooling: TypeScript 5, pnpm, Biome, dayjs, electron-log, electron-store, electron-updater, i18next, next-themes

🛠️ Development Setup

📋 Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or newer
• pnpm 8 or newer

📦 Install dependencies

pnpm install

🏃‍♂️ Run the app in development

pnpm dev

The Electron app and Vite dev server launch together with hot module replacement.

📜 Useful Scripts

Command	Description
pnpm dev	Run the Electron and Vite development environment
pnpm start	Preview the production build locally
pnpm run typecheck	Type-check the main and renderer projects
pnpm build	Run type checks and produce production bundles
pnpm build:win / pnpm build:mac / pnpm build:linux	Create platform-specific distributables
pnpm build:unpack	Produce unpacked output directories
pnpm run check	Format and lint the codebase with Biome

📁 Project Structure

src/
├─ main/            # Electron main process, IPC services, configuration
├─ preload/         # Context bridge and preload helpers
└─ renderer/
   ├─ src/
   │  ├─ pages/      # Application routes (Home, Settings, Playlist, etc.)
   │  ├─ components/ # UI components, download views, shared controls
   │  ├─ data/       # Static datasets such as popularSites.ts
   │  ├─ hooks/      # Custom hooks and global atoms
   │  ├─ lib/        # Utilities shared across the renderer
   │  └─ assets/     # Global styles and icons
   └─ index.html

🌍 Internationalization

The renderer uses i18next with English (en) and Simplified Chinese (zh-CN) namespaces. Update strings in src/renderer/src/locales/en.json; other locales are maintained separately.

⚙️ Configuration and Storage

• Persistent settings are stored with electron-store and exposed through IPC helpers
• User-facing preferences such as download paths and themes live in src/main/settings.ts and related services
• Logs are recorded with electron-log to simplify troubleshooting

📦 Packaging

Run one of the following commands after a successful build:

pnpm build:win
pnpm build:mac
pnpm build:linux

Artifacts are generated under dist/. Use pnpm build:unpack to create unpacked directories for manual inspection.

🤝 Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Keep changes focused, document user facing updates, and run pnpm run check before opening a PR.

📄 License

This project is distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

🙏 Thanks

• Electron
• React
• Vite
• Tailwind CSS
• shadcn/ui
• yt-dlp