diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b971f9042..6bb96d430 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -38,3 +38,9 @@ rust/target/
 strawApp/src/main/jniLibs/
 # UniFFI-generated Kotlin bindings (regen'd from .so on every build)
 strawApp/src/main/java/uniffi/
+
+# Rust build artifacts
+rust/target/
+strawApp/src/main/jniLibs/
+# UniFFI-generated Kotlin bindings (regen'd from .so on every build)
+strawApp/src/main/java/uniffi/
diff --git a/rust/strawcore/Cargo.toml b/rust/strawcore/Cargo.toml
index 590a12e12..1d82915cc 100644
--- a/rust/strawcore/Cargo.toml
+++ b/rust/strawcore/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,10 +19,27 @@ crate-type = ["cdylib", "staticlib"]
 uniffi = { version = "0.28", features = ["cli", "tokio"] }
 # Tokio multi-thread runtime — rustypipe is async-first.
 tokio = { version = "1", features = ["rt-multi-thread", "macros", "sync"] }
-# rustypipe — the actual YouTube Innertube client. Phase U-2 wires search.
+# rustypipe — the actual YouTube Innertube client. Phase U-2 wires search,
+# U-3 wires streamInfo, U-4 wires channels.
+#
+# Points at the Sulkta-Coop fork (kayos/m1-sig-port branch, tag v0.11.5-sulkta.2)
+# because upstream 0.11.4 hard-failed at init when YT rotated the
+# player.js to a shape its sig-regex doesn't recognise (player c2f7551f, May 2026).
+# The fork:
+#   - skips player.js deobf entirely for the iOS/Android client paths
+#     (pre-signed URLs, no &s= cipher, no &n= throttle param)
+#   - soft-fails sig_fn/nsig_fn extraction with a switchable error class
+#     so the player_from_clients chain falls through to iOS instead of
+#     killing the call
+#   - defaults to iOS-first client order
+#   - emits Level::WRN reporter event on partial extraction
+#
 # Force rustls + webpki-roots so we don't pull openssl-sys (cross-compiling
 # system OpenSSL to four Android ABIs is a tarpit; rustls is pure-Rust).
-rustypipe = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["rustls-tls-webpki-roots"] }
+#
+# When YT rotates back to a sig shape both upstream and our fork recognise,
+# we can flip back to crates.io. Until then, the fork is the only working dep.
+rustypipe = { git = "http://192.168.0.5:3001/Sulkta-Coop/rustypipe.git", tag = "v0.11.5-sulkta.2", default-features = false, features = ["rustls-tls-webpki-roots"] }
 # rquickjs-sys (transitive dep of rustypipe for YT signature decryption JS)
 # doesn't ship prebuilt Android bindings. Direct-depend with `bindgen` feature
 # so it generates them at build time. Crafting-table has libclang preinstalled.
diff --git a/strawApp/build.gradle.kts b/strawApp/build.gradle.kts
index 13ef39dde..d1c4b0dd2 100644
--- a/strawApp/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/strawApp/build.gradle.kts
@@ -110,4 +110,90 @@ dependencies {
     implementation("androidx.media3:media3-session:1.4.1")
     // Guava ListenableFuture support for awaiting MediaController connect.
     implementation("androidx.concurrent:concurrent-futures-ktx:1.2.0")
+
+    // strawcore — Rust YouTube extractor via UniFFI/JNA. Built by the
+    // cargoBuild + uniffiBindgen tasks below; phase U-2+ exposes search /
+    // streamInfo / channelInfo to replace NewPipeExtractor.
+    implementation("net.java.dev.jna:jna:5.14.0@aar")
 }
+
+// =============================================================================
+// Phase U-1 / Path-C-2 — Rust core build glue.
+//
+// Two tasks chain into the Android build:
+//   cargoBuild       — cross-compiles rust/strawcore for the four Android ABIs
+//                      via cargo-ndk and drops the .so files in strawApp/src/main/jniLibs/.
+//   uniffiBindgen    — generates the Kotlin bindings from the freshly-built lib
+//                      into strawApp/src/main/java/uniffi/strawcore/.
+//
+// Both depend on:
+//   - cargo + rustup with the four Android targets installed
+//   - cargo-ndk on PATH
+//   - ANDROID_NDK_HOME pointing at an NDK with the right toolchains
+// All of that lives in the crafting-table container.
+// =============================================================================
+
+val rustRoot = file("../rust").absolutePath
+val jniLibsDir = file("src/main/jniLibs").absolutePath
+val bindingsDir = file("src/main/java").absolutePath
+
+val cargoHome: String = System.getenv("CARGO_HOME") ?: "/caches/cargo"
+val cargoBin: String = "$cargoHome/bin/cargo"
+val ndkHome: String = System.getenv("ANDROID_NDK_HOME")
+    ?: System.getenv("ANDROID_NDK_ROOT")
+    ?: "/caches/android-sdk/ndk/27.2.12479018"
+
+val cargoBuild by tasks.registering(Exec::class) {
+    group = "rust"
+    description = "Cross-compile strawcore for all Android ABIs via cargo-ndk."
+    workingDir = file(rustRoot)
+    environment("ANDROID_NDK_HOME", ndkHome)
+    environment("PATH", "$cargoHome/bin:${System.getenv("PATH") ?: ""}")
+    commandLine = listOf(
+        cargoBin, "ndk",
+        "-t", "arm64-v8a",
+        "-t", "armeabi-v7a",
+        "-t", "x86",
+        "-t", "x86_64",
+        "-o", jniLibsDir,
+        "build", "--release", "-p", "strawcore",
+    )
+    standardOutput = System.out
+    errorOutput = System.err
+}
+
+val cargoBuildHost by tasks.registering(Exec::class) {
+    group = "rust"
+    description = "Build host-arch debug strawcore so bindgen can read its UniFFI metadata."
+    workingDir = file(rustRoot)
+    environment("PATH", "$cargoHome/bin:${System.getenv("PATH") ?: ""}")
+    commandLine = listOf(cargoBin, "build", "-p", "strawcore")
+    standardOutput = System.out
+    errorOutput = System.err
+}
+
+val uniffiBindgen by tasks.registering(Exec::class) {
+    group = "rust"
+    description = "Generate Kotlin bindings for strawcore via uniffi-bindgen."
+    dependsOn(cargoBuildHost)
+    workingDir = file(rustRoot)
+    environment("PATH", "$cargoHome/bin:${System.getenv("PATH") ?: ""}")
+    commandLine = listOf(
+        cargoBin, "run", "--quiet", "--bin", "uniffi-bindgen", "--",
+        "generate",
+        "--library", "target/debug/libstrawcore.so",
+        "--crate", "strawcore",
+        "--language", "kotlin",
+        "--no-format",
+        "--out-dir", bindingsDir,
+    )
+    standardOutput = System.out
+    errorOutput = System.err
+}
+
+// Make sure Android's JNI-libs merge picks up the freshly built .so files,
+// and Kotlin compilation can resolve the generated bindings.
+tasks.matching { it.name.startsWith("merge") && it.name.endsWith("JniLibFolders") }
+    .configureEach { dependsOn(cargoBuild) }
+tasks.matching { it.name.startsWith("compile") && it.name.endsWith("Kotlin") }
+    .configureEach { dependsOn(uniffiBindgen) }