Clients

YouTube answers each of its apps differently: one plays age-restricted videos, another plays live streams, another needs a PO token. Ytdl asks the clients in clients in order, and the first one that plays wins.

import { Client, Ytdl } from "@distube/ytdl-core";

const yt = new Ytdl({ clients: [Client.WebEmbedded, Client.Tv] });

Client lists only the clients that played a video when asked alone. DEFAULT_CLIENTS is all six in this order: visionos, web_embedded, tv, mweb, web_creator and web_music. An unknown name, such as a 4.x client like "android", throws INVALID_ARGUMENT.

• mweb, web_creator and web_music need a PO token, which the instance mints itself unless you pass getPoToken.
• web_music is the YouTube Music website. It plays songs and music live streams and answers “Video unavailable” for other videos, so it comes last. It has no signed-in attempt.
• With a cookie, a client that accepts one is asked again signed in, right after its signed-out request. web_creator is only asked signed in.
• A client whose media URLs keep failing counts as blocked for ten minutes and moves to the end of the list.

What each client plays

The signed-out table comes from a run of one client at a time on 2026-10-21, over one to three videos per class. The web_music row comes from a run on 2026-10-30 over three normal, one made-for-kids and two age-restricted videos and one music live stream. It also played the Creative Commons song 4jTzgLFd5_4. Cells are ✅ when getInfo returned a playable format for every video, ❌ when it did for none, and “some” when the result depended on the video. The signed-in table comes from a cookie run on 2026-10-22 and is narrower, see below.

Without a cookie:

Client	Normal	Age-restricted	Made for kids	Embedding disabled	Live HLS	Live DASH
visionos	✅	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅
web_embedded	✅	some	✅	❌	✅	✅
tv	✅	❌	✅	✅	❌	✅
mweb	✅	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅
web_music	❌	❌	❌	not measured	✅	✅

• web_embedded played one of two age-restricted videos and reported AGE_RESTRICTED for the other. Pass a cookie when age-restricted videos matter.
• visionos answers a made-for-kids video with no formats, so ytdl-core moves on to web_embedded.
• tv lists live formats without an HLS manifest. For an upcoming live event, tv reports NOT_STARTED like the others, without a start time when YouTube gives none.
• visionos lists a live stream’s video variants with no audio. The audio comes as a separate HLS rendition, which getInfo lists as an audio-only format with isHLS. Choose it with filter: { hasAudio: true, hasVideo: false }, or use a variant that reports hasAudio.

With a cookie, the table lists what each signed-in attempt returned. Error codes are YtdlErrorCode values. A YouTube status is marked as such. visionos has no signed-in attempt, so it plays signed out even when you pass a cookie. “Not measured” means no run asked that client signed in for that class.

Client	Normal	Age-restricted	Made for kids	Live	Region-blocked
web_embedded	not measured	YouTube status ERROR (1 of 2 videos asked)	not measured	not measured	NOT_FOUND
tv	not measured	played (1 of 1 asked)	not measured	not measured	REGION_BLOCKED
mweb	not measured	not measured	not measured	not measured	REGION_BLOCKED
web_creator	✅	✅	✅	✅	REGION_BLOCKED

• web_creator was the only client in the run, with a cookie and a PO token provider, over seven videos. It played every video except the region-blocked one. The sweep did not separate HLS from DASH live streams.
• web_embedded played the age-restricted video HtVdAasjOgU signed out, so its signed-in attempt was never asked. For Tq92D6wQ1mg it returned UNPLAYABLE signed out and ERROR signed in, and tv played it signed in after LOGIN_REQUIRED signed out.
• On the region-blocked video the signed-in web_embedded attempt reported NOT_FOUND and the other attempts REGION_BLOCKED. NOT_FOUND ranks after REGION_BLOCKED, so the error is REGION_BLOCKED.