A Patreon downloader written in Node.js.
- Access to patron-only content through cookie
- Download posts by user, in a collection or single post
- Download products (aka shop purchases)
- Items included in downloads:
- videos
- images
- audio
- attachments
- Save campaign and content info
- Extensively configurable
You can run patreon-dl from the command-line or use it as a library for your project. Node.js v16.16.0 or higher required.
- Embedded videos, other than those from YouTube, are not supported (e.g. Vimeo). Only info about these embeds is saved.
- Likewise, embedded links are not followed; only info about the embed is saved.
FFmpeg is required when downloading:
- videos that are provided only in streaming format; and
- embedded YouTube videos.
Not all video downloads require FFmpeg, but you should have it installed on your system anyway.
patreon-dl supports downloading embedded YouTube videos. In addition, if you have a YouTube Premium subscription, you can connect patreon-dl to your account and download videos at qualities available only to Premium accounts (e.g. '1080p Premium'). For CLI users, you would configure patreon-dl as follows:
$ patreon-dl --configure-youtube
For library usage, see Configuring YouTube connection.
npm i -g patreon-dl
The -g option is for installing patreon-dl globally and have the CLI executable added to the PATH. Depending on your usage, you might not need this.
$ patreon-dl [OPTION]... URL
Options
-h, --help Display this usage guide
-C, --config-file <file> Load configuration file for setting full options
-c, --cookie <string> Cookie for accessing patron-only content
-f, --ffmpeg <string> Path to FFmpeg executable
-o, --out-dir <dir> Path to directory where content is saved
-l, --log-level <level> Log level of the console logger: 'info', 'debug',
'warn' or 'error'; set to 'none' to disable the
logger.
-y, --no-prompt Do not prompt for confirmation to proceed
--configure-youtube Configure YouTube connection
// Product
https://www.patreon.com/<creator>/shop/<slug>-<product_id>
// Posts
https://www.patreon.com/<creator>/posts
// Single post
https://www.patreon.com/posts/<slug>-<post_id>
// Posts in collection
https://www.patreon.com/collection/<collection_id>
Content is saved with the following directory structure:
out-dir
├── campaign
├── campaign_info
├── posts
│ ├── post 1
│ │ ├── post_info
│ │ ├── images
│ │ ├── ...
│ ├── post 2
│ ├── post_info
│ ├── images
│ ├── ...
├──shop
├── product 1
├── product_info
├── content_media
├── ...
Command-line options are limited. To access the full range of options, create a configuration file and pass it to patreon-dl with the (capital) -C option.
Refer to the example config to see what options are offered. Also see How to obtain Cookie.
Note that you can override an option from a configuration file with one provided at the command-line, provided of course that a command-line equivalent is available.
To use patreon-dl in your own project:
import PatreonDownloader from 'patreon-dl';
const url = '....';
const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(url, [options]);
await downloader.start();
Here, we first obtain a downloader instance by calling PatreonDownloader.getInstance(), passing to it the URL we want to download from (one of the supported URL formats) and downloader options, if any.
Then, we call start() on the downloader instance to begin the download process. The start() method returns a Promise that resolves when the download process has ended.
- To monitor status and progress, see Workflow and Events.
- To abort a download process, see Aborting.
An object with the following properties (all optional):
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
cookie |
Cookie to include in requests; required for accessing patron-only content. See How to obtain Cookie. |
useStatusCache |
Whether to use status cache to quickly determine whether a target that had been downloaded before has changed since the last download. Default: true |
pathToFFmpeg |
Path to ffmpeg executable. If not specified, ffmpeg will be called directly when needed, so make sure it is in the PATH. |
pathToYouTubeCredentials |
Path to file storing YouTube credentials for connecting to a YouTube account when downloading embedded YouTube videos. Its purpose is to allow YouTube Premium accounts to download videos at higher than normal qualities. For more information, see Configuring YouTube connection. |
outDir |
Path to directory where content is saved. Default: current working directory |
dirNameFormat |
How to name directories: (object)
|
filenameFormat |
Naming of files: (object)
|
include |
What to include in the download: (object)
|
request |
Rate limiting and retry on error: (object)
|
fileExistsAction |
What to do when a target file already exists: (object)
Supported actions:
|
logger |
See Logger |
Format to apply when naming campaign directories. A format is a string pattern consisting of fields enclosed in curly braces.
What is a campaign directory?
When you download content, a directory is created for the campaign that hosts the content. Content directories, which stores the downloaded content, are then placed under the campaign directory. If campaign info could not be obtained from content, then content directory will be created directly under
outDir.
A format must contain at least one of the following fields:
creator.vanitycreator.namecreator.idcampaign.namecampaign.id
Characters enclosed in square brackets followed by a question mark denote conditional separators. If the value of a field could not be obtained or is empty, the conditional separator immediately adjacent to it will be omitted from the name.
Default: '{creator.vanity}[ - ]?{campaign.name}'
Fallback: 'campaign-{campaign.id}'
Format to apply when naming content directories. A format is a string pattern consisting of fields enclosed in curly braces.
What is a content directory?
Content can be a post or product. A directory is created for each piece of content. Downloaded items for the content are placed under this directory.
A format must contain at least one of the following unique identifier fields:
content.id: ID of contentcontent.slug: last segment of the content URL
In addition, a format can contain the following fields:
content.name: post title or product namecontent.type: type of content ('product' or 'post')
Characters enclosed in square brackets followed by a question mark denote conditional separators. If the value of a field could not be obtained or is empty, the conditional separator immediately adjacent to it will be omitted from the name.
Default: '{content.id}[ - ]?{content.name}'
Fallback: '{content.type}-{content.id}'
Filename format of a downloaded item. A format is a string pattern consisting of fields enclosed in curly braces.
A format must contain at least one of the following fields:
media.id: ID of the item downloaded (assigned by Patreon)media.filename: can be one of the following, in order of availability:- original filename included in the item's API data; or
- filename derived from the header of the response to the HTTP download request.
In addition, a format can contain the following fields:
media.type: type of item (e.g. 'image' or 'video')media.variant: where applicable, the variant of the item (e.g. 'original', 'thumbnailSmall'...for images)
If
media.variantis not included in the format, it will be appended to it ifallMediaVariantsistrue.
Sometimes media.filename could not be obtained, in which case it will be replaced with media.id, unless it is already present in the format.
Characters enclosed in square brackets followed by a question mark denote conditional separators. If the value of a field could not be obtained or is empty, the conditional separator immediately adjacent to it will be omitted from the name.
Default: '{media.filename}'
Fallback: '{media.type}-{media.id}'
In its simplest form, the process of connecting patreon-dl to a YouTube account is as follows:
- Obtain credentials by having the user visit a Google page that links his or her account to a 'device' (which in this case is actually
patreon-dl). - Save the credentials, as a JSON string, to a file.
- Pass the path of the file to
PatreonDownloader.getInstance()
To obtain credentials, you can use the YouTubeCredentialsCapturer class:
import { YouTubeCredentialsCapturer } from 'patreon-dl';
// Note: you should wrap the following logic inside an async
// process, and resolve when the credentials have been saved.
const capturer = new YouTubeCredentialsCapturer();
/**
* 'pending' event emitted when verification data is ready and waiting
* for user to carry out the verification process.
*/
capturer.on('pending', (data) => {
// `data` is an object: { verificationURL: <string>, code: <string> }
// Use `data` to provide instructions to the user:
console.log(
`In a browser, go to the following Verification URL and enter Code:
- Verification URL: ${data.verificationURL}
- Code: ${data.code}
Then wait for this script to complete.`);
});
/**
* 'capture' event emitted when the user has completed verification and the
* credentials have been relayed back to the capturer.
*/
capturer.on('capture', (credentials) => {
// `credentials` is an object which you need to save to file as JSON string.
fs.writeFileSync('/path/to/yt-credentials.json', JSON.stringify(credentials));
console.log('Credentials saved!');
});
// When you have added the listeners, start the capture process.
capturer.begin();
Then, pass the path of the file to PatreonDownloader.getInstance():
const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(url, {
...
pathToYouTubeCredentials: '/path/to/yt-credentials.json'
});
You should ensure the credentials file is writable, as it needs to be updated with new credentials when the current ones expire. The process of renewing credentials is done automatically by the downloader.
Logging is optional, but provides useful information about the download process. You can implement your own logger by extending the Logger abstract class:
import { Logger } from 'patreon-dl';
class MyLogger extends Logger {
log(entry) {
// Do something with log entry
}
// Called when downloader ends, so you can
// clean up the logger process if necessary.
end() {
// This is not an abstract function, so you don't have to
// implement it if there is no action to be taken here. Default is
// to resolve right away.
return Promise.resolve();
}
}
Each entry passed to log() is an object with the following properties:
level:info,debug,warnorerror, indicating the severity of the log message.originator: (string orundefined) where the message is coming from.message: array of elements comprising the message. An element can be anything such as a string, Error or object.
The patreon-dl library comes with the following Logger implementations that you may utilize:
-
ConsoleLoggerOutputs messages to the console:
import { ConsoleLogger } from 'patreon-dl'; const myLogger = new ConsoleLogger([options]); const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(url, { ... logger: myLogger });options: (object)Option Description enabledWhether to enable this logger. Default: truelogLevelinfo,debug,warnorerror. Default:infoOutput messages up to the specified severity level.
includeWhat to include in log messages: (object) dateTime: show date / time of log messages. Default:truelevel: show the severity level. Default:trueoriginator: show where the messsage came from. Default:trueerrorStack: for Errors, whether to show the full error stack. Default:false
dateTimeFormatThe pattern to format data-time strings, when
include.dateTimeistrue.Date-time formatting is provided by dateformat library. Refer to the README of that project for pattern rules.
Default: 'mmm dd HH:MM:ss'
-
FileLoggerLike
ConsoleLogger, but writes messages to file.import { FileLogger } from 'patreon-dl'; const myLogger = new FileLogger(init, [options]); const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(url, { ... logger: myLogger });init: values that determine the name of the log file (object)Property Description targetURLThe url passed to PatreonDownloader.getInstance()outDirValue of outDirspecified inPatreonDownloader.getInstance()options, orundefinedif none specified (in which case defaults to current working directory).date(optional)
Dateinstance representing the creation date / time of the logger. Default: current date-timeYou might want to provide this if you are creating multiple
FileLoggerinstances and filenames are to be formatted with the date, otherwise the date-time part of the filenames might have different values.options: allConsoleLoggeroptions plus the following:Option Description logDirPath to directory of the log file.
The path can be a string pattern consisting of the following fields enclosed in curly braces:
out.dir: value ofoutDirprovided ininit(or the default current working directory if none provided).target.url.path: the pathname oftargetURLprovided ininit, sanitized as necessary.datetime.<date-time format>: the date-time of logger creation, as represented bydateininitand formatted according to<date-time format>(using pattern rules defined by the dateformat library).
logFilenameName of the log file.
The path can be a string pattern consisting of the following fields enclosed in curly braces:
target.url.path: the pathname oftargetURLprovided ininit, sanitized as necessary.datetime.<date-time format>: the date-time of logger creation, as represented bydateininitand formatted according to<date-time format>(using pattern rules defined by the dateformat library).
Default: '{datetime.yyyymmdd}-{log.level}.log'
fileExistsActionWhat to do if log file already exists? One of the following values:
append: append logs to existing fileoverwrite: overwrite the existing file
Default:
append -
ChainLoggerCombines multiple loggers into one single logger.
import { ConsoleLogger, FileLogger, ChainLogger } from 'patreon-dl'; const consoleLogger = new ConsoleLogger(...); const fileLogger = new FileLogger(...); const chainLogger = new ChainLogger([ consoleLogger, fileLogger ]); const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(url, { ... logger: chainLogger });
To prematurely end a download process, use AbortController to send an abort signal to the downloader instance.
const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(...);
const abortController = new AbortController();
downloader.start({
signal: abortController.signal
});
...
abortController.abort();
// Downloader aborts current and pending tasks, then ends.
- Downloader analyzes given URL and determines what targets to fetch.
- Downloader begins fetching data from Patreon servers. Emits
fetchBeginevent. - Downloader obtains the target(s) from the fetched data for downloading.
- For each target (which can be a campaign, product or post):
- Downloader emits
targetBeginevent. - Downloader determines whether the target needs to be downloaded, based on downloader configuration and target info such as accessibility.
- If target is to be skipped, downloader emits
targetEndevent withisSkipped: true. It then proceeds to the next target, if any.
- If target is to be skipped, downloader emits
- If target is to be downloaded, downloader saves target info (subject to downloader configuration), and emits
phaseBeginevent withphase: saveInfo. When done, downloader emitsphaseEndevent. - Downloader begins saving media belonging to target (again, subject to downloader configuration). Emits
phaseBeginevent withphase: saveMedia.- Downloader saves files that do not need to be downloaded, e.g. embedded video / link info.
- Downloader proceeds to download files (images, videos, audio, attachments, etc.) belonging to the target in batches. For each batch, downloader emits
phaseBeginevent withphase: batchDownload. When done, downloader emitsphaseEndevent withphase: batchDownload.- In this
phaseBeginevent, you can attach listeners to the download batch to monitor events for each download. See Download Task Batch.
- In this
- Downloader emits
phaseEndevent withphase: saveMedia. - Downloader emits
targetEndevent withisSkipped: false, and proceeds to the next target.
- Downloader emits
- When there are no more targets to be processed, or a fatal error occurred, downloader ends with
endevent.
const downloader = await PatreonDownloader.getInstance(...);
downloader.on('fetchBegin', (payload) => {
...
});
downloader.start();
Each event emitted by a PatreonDownloader instance has a payload, which is an object with properties containing information about the event.
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
fetchBegin |
Emitted when downloader begins fetching data about target(s). Payload properties:
|
targetBegin |
Emitted when downloader begins processing a target. Payload properties: |
targetEnd |
Emitted when downloader is done processing a target. Payload properties:
If
|
phaseBegin |
Emitted when downloader begins a phase in the processing of a target. Payload properties:
If
|
phaseEnd |
Emitted when a phase ends for a target. Payload properties: |
end |
Emitted when downloader ends. Payload properties:
|
Files are downloaded in batches. Each batch is provided in the payload of phaseBegin event with phase: batchDownload. You can monitor events of individual downloads in the batch as follows:
downloader.on('phaseBegin', (payload) => {
if (payload.phase === 'batchDownload') {
const batch = payload.batch;
batch.on(event, listener);
}
})
Note that you don't have to remove listeners yourself. They will be removed once the batch ends and is destroyed by the downloader.
Each download task in a batch is represented by an object with the following properties:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
id |
ID assigned to the task. |
src |
The source of the download; URL or otherwise file path if downloading video from a previously-downloaded m3u8 playlist. |
srcEntity |
The Downloadable item from which the download task was created. |
retryCount |
The current retry count if download failed previously. |
resolvedDestFilename |
The resolved destination filename of the download, or null if it has not yet been resolved. |
resolvedDestFilename |
The resolved destination file path of the download, or null if it has not yet been reoslved. |
getProgress() |
Function that returns the download progress. |
Each event emitted by a download task batch has a payload, which is an object with properties containing information about the event.
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
taskStart |
Emitted when a download starts. Payload properties:
|
taskProgress |
Emitted when a download progress is updated. Payload properties:
|
taskComplete |
Emitted when a download is complete. Payload properties:
|
taskError |
Emitted when a download error occurs. Payload properties:
|
taskAbort |
Emitted when a download is aborted. Payload properties:
|
taskSkip |
Emitted when a download is skipped. Payload properties:
If
|
taskSpawn |
Emitted when a download task is spawned from another task. Payload properties:
|
complete |
Emitted when the batch is complete and there are no more downloads pending. Payload properties: none |
v1.2.2
- Fix wrong file extension for some content types
- Fix YouTube API requests throwing errors due to YT changes
v1.2.1
- Bug fixes
v1.2.0
- Add support for granular control over:
- posts to include in download based on type of media contained
- the type of media to download
- Bug fixes
v1.1.1
- Fix initial data parsing following Patreon changes
v1.1.0
- Add support for downloading embedded YouTube videos
v1.0.1
- Fix missing types when importing as library
- Fix link in this README
v1.0.0
- Initial release
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