xiaoyiv/douyin-skill

Overview

This skill downloads Douyin (TikTok China) videos and fetches basic video metadata like title, author, and engagement stats. It accepts both short links (v.douyin.com) and full Douyin URLs. Use it to save videos locally or to retrieve video info without downloading the media. The tool uses headless browser automation to access and extract content reliably.

How this skill works

The skill drives a browser session to resolve short links, navigate to the video page, and extract metadata and the direct media URL. It can run in a pre-configured browser profile so authenticated or geo-specific content is accessible. You can run download mode to save the video file or info-only mode to return title, author, and stats without saving the media.

When to use it

• You want to download a Douyin video for offline viewing or archiving.
• You need video metadata (title, author, views, likes, comments) without downloading the file.
• You have a short Douyin link (v.douyin.com) and need to resolve it to the full video page.
• You require a programmatic way to batch-download or script downloads via the command line.
• You need to access region-locked or login-gated content using a stored browser profile.

Best practices

• Preconfigure and authenticate a browser profile to access content that requires login or region settings.
• Use info-only mode when you only need metadata to avoid unnecessary downloads.
• Respect copyright and the platform's terms of service; obtain permission before redistributing content.
• Specify an output directory for downloads to keep files organized and avoid overwriting.
• Validate short links before running large batches to avoid broken or malicious redirects.

Example use cases

• Resolve a v.douyin.com short link and download the associated video to a local folder.
• Fetch title, author, and view/like counts for a video without saving the media (info-only).
• Automate nightly archiving of a set of Douyin videos for a research project.
• Download content requiring login by using a saved browser profile that has active authentication.
• Integrate the tool into a pipeline that processes video metadata for analytics.