Chickenwing
Chickenwing is a terminal-first YouTube downloader built on yt-dlp.
It gives you:
- a global
chickenwing command
- direct link downloads with sane defaults
- search-based downloads with top 5 results
audio for MP3 mode- a dedicated
Chickenwing Downloads folder in your Windows Downloads directory
Install
Local repo
pip install .
Recommended global install
pipx install .
From GitHub
pipx install git+https://github.com/chyckenwing/chickenwing.git
If pipx is not installed yet:
py -m pip install --user pipx
py -m pipx ensurepath
Run
chickenwing
Funny alias:
wingit
Module form also works:
py -m chickenwing
Windows .exe
If you do not want to install Python, download the latest Windows build from GitHub Releases:
Inside the release zip you will get a chickenwing folder that contains chickenwing.exe.
Run it like this:
.\chickenwing.exe
Or create your own build locally:
.\scripts\build-windows-exe.ps1
Tracking downloads
For Windows .exe releases, GitHub already tracks release asset downloads.
You can check them in two ways:
py scripts\release-download-stats.py
Or from GitHub Actions:
- run the
Release Download Stats workflow
This uses GitHub's release API download counts, so it tracks actual release asset downloads without adding hidden in-app telemetry.
Usage
- Paste a YouTube link to download the best video immediately.
- Type search words to pick from the top 5 results.
- Prefix with
audio to download MP3.
- Type
settings if you want to change runtime behavior.
- Type
history to see recent saved files.
- Type
where to show the Chickenwing download folder.
- Type
quit or press Enter on an empty prompt to exit.
Download location
Chickenwing saves everything here:
%USERPROFILE%\Downloads\Chickenwing Downloads
Inside that folder it keeps:
videosaudiodownload_archive.txt
ffmpeg
Chickenwing uses ffmpeg for audio extraction, remuxing, and post-processing.
Windows release builds now bundle ffmpeg.exe and ffprobe.exe inside the Chickenwing package, so the .exe and WinGet paths do not need a separate ffmpeg package anymore.
Runtime lookup order is:
- bundled
ffmpeg inside the Chickenwing release
- system
PATH
- legacy WinGet package location fallback
If someone installs Chickenwing from GitHub with pipx instead of the bundled Windows release, they should still install ffmpeg separately.
WinGet
Chickenwing is now prepared for WinGet packaging, but the command below only works after the package is accepted into the public WinGet community repository:
winget install Chyckenwing.Chickenwing
Manifest generation and submission notes live here: