youtube-music-cast
Download music from YouTube/YouTube Music and stream to Chromecast via Home Assistant. Complete CLI toolset with web server integration, configuration wizard, and playback controls.
Install via CLI (Recommended)
clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/aidanthebandit/ytm-castWhat This Skill Does
YouTube Music Cast is a comprehensive toolset that bridges the gap between local media storage and your home audio infrastructure. At its core, the tool automates the process of extracting high-quality audio (320K MP3) from YouTube and YouTube Music URLs using robust downloading backends. Beyond simple downloading, the skill integrates a local Python-based HTTP server. This server is crucial because it transforms local file paths into network-accessible URLs, a requirement for Home Assistant's media_player service to successfully "cast" media to hardware endpoints like Google Home, Nest Audio, or smart speakers. By handling the download, metadata extraction, and hosting internally, it allows users to manage their music libraries locally without relying on paid cloud subscriptions.
Installation
To install this skill, use the ClawHub command-line interface. Ensure you have Python 3 installed on your host system as it serves as the foundation for the local web server.
Command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/aidanthebandit/ytm-cast
Once installed, execute the cast-setup command to initialize your configuration files. This setup process creates the necessary directories and connection parameters for your Home Assistant instance.
Use Cases
- Offline Music Library: Maintain a permanent, ad-free collection of music that survives internet outages.
- Home Automation Integration: Incorporate audio playback into complex Home Assistant automations, such as playing specific playlists when entering a room.
- Custom Radio Stations: Utilize the "Radio Mode" to generate continuous streams of related content for parties or focus sessions.
- Multi-room Audio: Synchronize tracks across multiple Chromecast-enabled devices throughout your home for a unified audio experience.
Example Prompts
- "Download the latest playlist from the provided YouTube URL and queue it for playback on the living room speaker."
- "Search for jazz music on YouTube, download the top results, and start a local web server to host them for my smart home system."
- "Sync my downloaded music folder to the Chromecast and begin playing in multi-room mode across the kitchen and bedroom."
Tips & Limitations
- Network Requirements: The machine running the
cast-servermust remain on and accessible on the local network while playback occurs; if the server shuts down, the Chromecast will lose access to the media stream. - Home Assistant Dependency: This skill requires an active and correctly configured Home Assistant instance to perform the actual casting function.
- Storage Management: Since this skill performs local file-write operations, ensure your host machine has adequate disk space for high-quality audio files, especially when downloading large playlists.
- Security: Ensure that the port used by the
cast-serveris not exposed to the public internet; keep this service restricted to your local LAN.
Metadata
Not sure this is the right skill?
Describe what you want to build — we'll match you to the best skill from 16,000+ options.
Find the right skillPaste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.
{
"plugins": {
"official-aidanthebandit-ytm-cast": {
"enabled": true,
"auto_update": true
}
}
}Tags(AI)
Flags: network-access, file-write, file-read