Kodi addon for YouTube via rustypipe + SponsorBlock. Replaces the dead plugin.video.youtube on LibreELEC RPi TVs.
Find a file
Kayos 7645688533 v1.0.2 — fix SponsorBlock silent-break on pv.youtube delegation
SponsorBlockMonitor's "playing file changed mid-monitor" exit was too
aggressive on the delegation path. When torttube hands off to
plugin.video.youtube, Kodi cycles through three URLs (torttube plugin →
pv.youtube plugin → MPD on localhost:50152) before settling. If
initial_file captured an intermediate one, the next poll's current_file
tripped the exit and SponsorBlock silently stopped without skipping
anything.

Removed the check. The isPlaying() guard already covers the "player
stopped" exit; the rare "user started a different video while our
monitor is still alive" case isn't worth breaking the common path.
2026-05-23 15:49:07 -07:00
addon/plugin.video.torttube v1.0.2 — fix SponsorBlock silent-break on pv.youtube delegation 2026-05-23 15:49:07 -07:00
docs Declare plugin.video.youtube as a Kodi addon dep 2026-05-23 12:15:06 -07:00
scripts M6 DONE — torttube ships, Rick Astley plays fullscreen on the Livingroom Pi 2026-05-23 10:18:26 -07:00
sidecar v1.0.2 — fix SponsorBlock silent-break on pv.youtube delegation 2026-05-23 15:49:07 -07:00
.gitignore M0 scaffold — Python addon + Rust sidecar 2026-05-23 08:14:09 -07:00
LICENSE M0 scaffold — Python addon + Rust sidecar 2026-05-23 08:14:09 -07:00
MILESTONES.md M7 DONE via delegation — pv.youtube plays HD with audio 2026-05-23 11:58:12 -07:00
README.md Declare plugin.video.youtube as a Kodi addon dep 2026-05-23 12:15:06 -07:00

torttube

Kodi addon for YouTube via RustyPipe extraction + SponsorBlock segment skipping.

Replaces the dead plugin.video.youtube on LibreELEC RPi TVs after Google required account-linking for the upstream addon.

Architecture

Kodi (LibreELEC, RPi)
  └── plugin.video.torttube     [Python addon — UI, browse, SponsorBlock]
        ├── torttube-sidecar    [Rust binary — JSON-over-stdio]
        │     ├── rustypipe         [Native Rust Innertube for browse]
        │     ├── yt-dlp subprocess [Fallback resolve]
        │     └── sponsorblock      [REST client, SHA-256 prefix lookup]
        └── plugin.video.youtube    [DEPENDENCY — handles HD playback]
              └── inputstream.adaptive  [DASH demux + decode]

plugin.video.youtube is declared as a Kodi addon dependency in addon.xml. When a user installs torttube, Kodi auto-fetches pv.youtube from the official Kodi addon repository — user only manages torttube; the dep is transparent.

torttube does what it's faster at: rustypipe-backed search/channel/playlist browse, SponsorBlock auto-skip via a tight xbmc.Player() monitor loop, JSON-RPC remote-control for share-to-TV. Playback hands off to pv.youtube via plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=<id> — they've spent years getting the DASH-MPD + multi-client Innertube fallback right. Our SponsorBlock monitor runs in parallel because xbmc.Player() is a global accessor that works regardless of which addon initiated playback.

Kodi addons are Python — the engine layer (n-param sig decoding, Innertube, SponsorBlock hashing) lives in a Rust sidecar so we get a single maintained extraction surface and clean aarch64/armv7 cross-compiles.

Three-tier resolve because YouTube actively fights every extractor:

  1. rustypipe (Rust) — preferred. Fast, in-process, no Python dep on the RPi.
  2. yt-dlp subprocess — fallback when rustypipe sig-decoding falls behind YouTube's deobfuscator changes. yt-dlp updates weekly; we shell out, parse -j JSON.
  3. Rip-to-temp — last resort when stream URLs 403 mid-playback (poToken expiry, cookie session mismatch). yt-dlp downloads to /storage/.kodi/temp/torttube/<id>.<ext>, Kodi plays the local file. Temp dir has size cap + age cleanup.

Status

M0 scaffold. Nothing playable yet — see MILESTONES.md.

Upstream — we fight with the FOSS extractor ecosystem, not next to it

YouTube's anti-scraping changes hit every extractor: NewPipe, yt-dlp, Invidious, rustypipe. Every fix we make in our sidecar gets evaluated for "is this upstreamable?" — if yes, the fix lands at the upstream project, not just here.

Active lanes:

  • rustypipe (Rust, codeberg.org/ThetaDev/rustypipe) — maintenance has slowed. Open PR #77 "Some fixes" is unmerged as of 2026-05-23. We will either help land it (review + ping maintainer) or fork to Sulkta-Coop/rustypipe if upstream stays quiet. Forking is the worst case, not the first move.
  • NewPipeExtractor (Java, github.com/TeamNewPipe/NewPipeExtractor) — actively maintained, 177 open issues. We use it as the reference implementation for Innertube behaviour. PRs to NPE land in Rust here via rustypipe, and vice versa.
  • yt-dlp (Python, github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp) — the gold standard. We're more consumers than contributors here, but if our rip-to-temp tier surfaces a specific extractor bug we file it.

Issues we're watching:

  • NPE #1339 — n-parameter deobfuscation
  • NPE #1444 — distinguish unavailable vs unextractable
  • NPE #1360 — refactor link handlers (help wanted)
  • NPE #1357 — JDoc checks in PR pipeline (good first issue)
  • rustypipe PR #77 — open as of 2026-05-23, unmerged

Contribution log lives at docs/upstream.md — every PR we file lands there with its outcome.

License

GPL-3.0-or-later. Matches RustyPipe and NewPipeExtractor.