v0.1.0-W (vc=10): U-4 + U-5 — channels via rustypipe + rip NewPipeExtractor

channel_info(url) UniFFI suspend fn. ChannelViewModel +
SubscriptionFeedViewModel both swap. NewPipeExtractor (Java) is OUT —
zero org.schabi.newpipe classes in the APK now.

Cleanup:
- NewPipeDownloader.kt deleted (was the OkHttp adapter)
- Thumbnails.kt deleted (rustypipe returns full URLs)
- NewPipe.init() dropped from StrawApp.onCreate
- libs.newpipe.extractor removed from build.gradle.kts
- STRAW_USER_AGENT + strawHttpClient() now live in net/Http.kt
- RydClient + SponsorBlockClient + PlayerScreen + PlaybackService all
  read from net/Http.kt instead of the extractor package

rustypipe API quirks beat:
- channel_videos(id) is the right method (channel() doesn't exist)
- ChannelInfo struct = basic metadata; Channel<T> wrapper carries
  name/avatar/banner + .content is the paginator of videos
- description is String (not Option), subscriber_count is Option<u64>

End state: strawApp Kotlin is ~UI + thin glue to strawcore. The Rust
core handles search / streamInfo / channel / channel_videos via UniFFI
suspend fns. Tokio + reqwest + rustls + rquickjs all packed in
libstrawcore.so (~6MB per ABI). APK 40MB total.

buildSrc/src/main/kotlin/ProjectConfig.kt

@@ -15,6 +15,6 @@ const val NEWPIPE_APPLICATION_ID_OLD = "org.schabi.newpipe"
 const val NEWPIPE_APPLICATION_ID_NEW = "net.newpipe.app"
 
 // Sulkta fork — Straw
-const val STRAW_VERSION_CODE = 9
+const val STRAW_VERSION_CODE = 10
-const val STRAW_VERSION_NAME = "0.1.0-V"
+const val STRAW_VERSION_NAME = "0.1.0-W"
 const val STRAW_APPLICATION_ID = "com.sulkta.straw"

rust/strawcore/src/channel.rs

@@ -0,0 +1,113 @@
+// Phase U-4 — `channel_info(channel_url)` via rustypipe.
+//
+// Returns channel metadata + the channel's latest videos (the "Videos" tab).
+// Used by ChannelScreen (single-channel view) AND
+// SubscriptionFeedViewModel (which fans out across all subscriptions).
+
+use crate::error::StrawcoreError;
+use crate::search::SearchItem;
+use rustypipe::client::RustyPipe;
+
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, uniffi::Record)]
+pub struct ChannelInfo {
+    pub id: String,
+    pub name: String,
+    pub avatar: Option<String>,
+    pub banner: Option<String>,
+    /// -1 = unknown / hidden by the channel.
+    pub subscriber_count: i64,
+    pub description: String,
+    /// Latest videos from the channel (Videos tab, newest first).
+    pub videos: Vec<SearchItem>,
+}
+
+fn yt_video_url(id: &str) -> String {
+    format!("https://www.youtube.com/watch?v={}", id)
+}
+
+fn yt_channel_url(id: &str) -> String {
+    format!("https://www.youtube.com/channel/{}", id)
+}
+
+/// Channel-id extraction. Accepts:
+///   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC...
+///   https://www.youtube.com/@handle
+///   https://www.youtube.com/c/handle
+///   https://www.youtube.com/user/handle
+///   bare channel id (UC..., 24 chars)
+fn extract_channel_input(input: &str) -> Result<String, StrawcoreError> {
+    let trimmed = input.trim();
+    // Bare channel ID — usually 24 chars starting with UC.
+    if trimmed.starts_with("UC") && trimmed.len() == 24 {
+        return Ok(trimmed.to_string());
+    }
+    let url = url::Url::parse(trimmed).map_err(|e| StrawcoreError::Unsupported {
+        detail: format!("bad URL: {}", e),
+    })?;
+    let path = url.path().trim_start_matches('/').trim_end_matches('/');
+    // /channel/UCxxx — canonical
+    if let Some(rest) = path.strip_prefix("channel/") {
+        let id = rest.split('/').next().unwrap_or("");
+        if !id.is_empty() {
+            return Ok(id.to_string());
+        }
+    }
+    // /@handle  — rustypipe takes the handle (with @)
+    if path.starts_with('@') {
+        return Ok(path.split('/').next().unwrap_or(path).to_string());
+    }
+    // /c/name or /user/name
+    for prefix in ["c/", "user/"] {
+        if let Some(rest) = path.strip_prefix(prefix) {
+            let name = rest.split('/').next().unwrap_or("");
+            if !name.is_empty() {
+                // Rustypipe channel() takes the channel id or @handle. For
+                // legacy /c/ and /user/ URLs we prepend @ as a best-effort.
+                return Ok(format!("@{}", name));
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    Err(StrawcoreError::Unsupported {
+        detail: format!("unsupported channel URL: {}", input),
+    })
+}
+
+#[uniffi::export(async_runtime = "tokio")]
+pub async fn channel_info(channel_url: String) -> Result<ChannelInfo, StrawcoreError> {
+    let key = extract_channel_input(&channel_url)?;
+    log::info!("strawcore::channel_info key={}", key);
+    let rp = RustyPipe::new();
+
+    // channel_videos(id) returns Channel<Paginator<VideoItem>> — the
+    // Channel<T> wrapper carries name/avatar/banner/etc and `.content`
+    // is the paginator of videos. One round-trip gets us everything.
+    let channel = rp.query().channel_videos(&key).await?;
+
+    let videos: Vec<SearchItem> = channel
+        .content
+        .items
+        .into_iter()
+        .map(|v| SearchItem {
+            url: yt_video_url(&v.id),
+            title: v.name.clone(),
+            uploader: channel.name.clone(),
+            uploader_url: Some(yt_channel_url(&channel.id)),
+            thumbnail: v.thumbnail.last().map(|t| t.url.clone()),
+            duration_seconds: v.duration.unwrap_or(0) as i64,
+            view_count: v.view_count.unwrap_or(0) as i64,
+        })
+        .collect();
+
+    let avatar = channel.avatar.last().map(|t| t.url.clone());
+    let banner = channel.banner.last().map(|t| t.url.clone());
+
+    Ok(ChannelInfo {
+        id: channel.id,
+        name: channel.name,
+        avatar,
+        banner,
+        subscriber_count: channel.subscriber_count.map(|n| n as i64).unwrap_or(-1),
+        description: channel.description,
+        videos,
+    })
+}

rust/strawcore/src/lib.rs

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 use std::sync::Once;
 
+mod channel;
 mod error;
 mod runtime;
 mod search;
@@ -17,6 +18,7 @@ mod stream;
 use runtime::block_on;
 
 // Re-exports so UniFFI sees the types at the crate root for macro discovery.
+pub use channel::ChannelInfo;
 pub use error::StrawcoreError;
 pub use search::SearchItem;
 pub use stream::{AudioStreamItem, StreamInfo, VideoStreamItem};

strawApp/build.gradle.kts

@@ -94,8 +94,8 @@ dependencies {
     implementation(libs.coil.compose)
     implementation(libs.coil.network.okhttp)
 
-    // NewPipeExtractor (JVM/Android-only) + its OkHttp dep
+    // Phase U-5: NewPipeExtractor (Java) torn out — strawcore handles
-    implementation(libs.newpipe.extractor)
+    // all YT extraction. OkHttp stays for RYD + SponsorBlock JSON clients.
     implementation(libs.squareup.okhttp)
 
     // JSON for SponsorBlock + Return YouTube Dislike clients

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/StrawApp.kt

@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 /*
  * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Sulkta
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+ *
+ * Phase U-5: NewPipeExtractor (Java) torn out. All YT extraction goes
+ * through strawcore (Rust + rustypipe + UniFFI) now.
  */
 
 package com.sulkta.straw
@@ -9,25 +12,16 @@ import android.app.Application
 import com.sulkta.straw.data.History
 import com.sulkta.straw.data.Settings
 import com.sulkta.straw.data.Subscriptions
-import com.sulkta.straw.extractor.NewPipeDownloader
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.NewPipe
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.localization.ContentCountry
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.localization.Localization
 
 class StrawApp : Application() {
     override fun onCreate() {
         super.onCreate()
-        NewPipe.init(
-            NewPipeDownloader.init(),
-            Localization("en", "US"),
-            ContentCountry("US"),
-        )
         History.init(this)
         Settings.init(this)
         Subscriptions.init(this)
 
-        // Phase U-1: load the strawcore native library and route its logs
+        // Load strawcore native + route its logs into android logcat under
-        // into android logcat under the "strawcore" tag.
+        // the "strawcore" tag.
         runCatching {
             System.loadLibrary("strawcore")
             uniffi.strawcore.initLogging()

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/extractor/NewPipeDownloader.kt

@@ -1,96 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Sulkta
- * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
- *
- * Minimal OkHttp-backed implementation of NewPipeExtractor's Downloader.
- * No cookies, no recaptcha handling — anonymous browsing only. Modeled after
- * NewPipe's DownloaderImpl but trimmed down for fork scope.
- */
-
-package com.sulkta.straw.extractor
-
-import com.sulkta.straw.net.NEWPIPE_MAX_BYTES
-import com.sulkta.straw.net.cappedString
-import okhttp3.OkHttpClient
-import okhttp3.RequestBody.Companion.toRequestBody
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.downloader.Downloader
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.downloader.Request
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.downloader.Response
-import java.io.IOException
-import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit
-
-class NewPipeDownloader private constructor(
-    private val client: OkHttpClient,
-) : Downloader() {
-
-    override fun execute(request: Request): Response {
-        val httpMethod = request.httpMethod()
-        val url = request.url()
-        val headers = request.headers()
-        val data: ByteArray? = request.dataToSend()
-
-        val requestBody = data?.toRequestBody(null)
-
-        val okBuilder = okhttp3.Request.Builder()
-            .method(httpMethod, requestBody)
-            .url(url)
-
-        // AUD-HIGH: copy NPE headers BEFORE adding our explicit UA so the
-        // explicit UA wins; guard against header values containing \r/\n
-        // which OkHttp's addHeader rejects via IAE (turning a poisoned
-        // response into an app crash).
-        headers.forEach { (name, values) ->
-            if (name.equals("User-Agent", ignoreCase = true)) return@forEach
-            okBuilder.removeHeader(name)
-            values.forEach { value ->
-                runCatching { okBuilder.addHeader(name, value) }
-            }
-        }
-        okBuilder.removeHeader("User-Agent")
-        okBuilder.addHeader("User-Agent", USER_AGENT)
-
-        val okResponse = client.newCall(okBuilder.build()).execute()
-        val body = okResponse.body
-        // AUD-HIGH: bounded read to defend against OOM via gigabyte response.
-        val bodyString = body?.cappedString(NEWPIPE_MAX_BYTES) ?: ""
-        val responseHeaders = okResponse.headers.toMultimap()
-        val latestUrl = okResponse.request.url.toString()
-        if (okResponse.code == 429) {
-            okResponse.close()
-            throw IOException("HTTP 429 — rate limited")
-        }
-        okResponse.close()
-
-        return Response(
-            okResponse.code,
-            okResponse.message,
-            responseHeaders,
-            bodyString,
-            latestUrl,
-        )
-    }
-
-    companion object {
-        const val USER_AGENT =
-            "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 14) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) " +
-                "Chrome/120.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36"
-
-        @Volatile private var instance: NewPipeDownloader? = null
-
-        fun init(builder: OkHttpClient.Builder? = null): NewPipeDownloader {
-            val client = (builder ?: OkHttpClient.Builder())
-                .connectTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
-                .readTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
-                .writeTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
-                .build()
-            val d = NewPipeDownloader(client)
-            instance = d
-            return d
-        }
-
-        fun get(): NewPipeDownloader = instance
-            ?: error("NewPipeDownloader not initialized — call init() first")
-
-        fun client(): OkHttpClient = get().client
-    }
-}

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/feature/channel/ChannelViewModel.kt

@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 /*
  * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Sulkta
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
+ *
+ * Phase U-4: ChannelInfo + Videos tab moved to strawcore (rustypipe).
+ * The two separate ChannelInfo.getInfo + ChannelTabInfo.getInfo calls
+ * collapse into one Rust round-trip.
  */
 
 package com.sulkta.straw.feature.channel
@@ -8,19 +12,10 @@ package com.sulkta.straw.feature.channel
 import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
 import androidx.lifecycle.viewModelScope
 import com.sulkta.straw.feature.search.StreamItem
-import com.sulkta.straw.util.bestThumbnail
-import kotlinx.coroutines.Dispatchers
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.NewPipe
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.ServiceList
 import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.MutableStateFlow
 import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.StateFlow
 import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.asStateFlow
 import kotlinx.coroutines.launch
-import kotlinx.coroutines.withContext
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.channel.ChannelInfo
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.channel.tabs.ChannelTabInfo
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.channel.tabs.ChannelTabs
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.stream.StreamInfoItem
 
 data class ChannelUiState(
     val loading: Boolean = true,
@@ -40,43 +35,24 @@ class ChannelViewModel : ViewModel() {
         _ui.value = ChannelUiState(loading = true)
         viewModelScope.launch {
             try {
-                val service = NewPipe.getService(ServiceList.YouTube.serviceId)
+                val ch = uniffi.strawcore.channelInfo(channelUrl)
-                val info = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
+                val videos = ch.videos.map { v ->
-                    ChannelInfo.getInfo(service, channelUrl)
-                }
-                // AUD-HIGH: pick the Videos tab specifically rather than
-                // info.tabs.firstOrNull() which is YouTube's "Home" (a
-                // curated mix that mostly drops via filterIsInstance).
-                val videosTab = info.tabs.firstOrNull {
-                    it.contentFilters.contains(ChannelTabs.VIDEOS)
-                } ?: info.tabs.firstOrNull()
-                val videos: List<StreamItem> = if (videosTab != null) {
-                    withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
-                        runCatching {
-                            ChannelTabInfo.getInfo(service, videosTab)
-                                .relatedItems
-                                .filterIsInstance<StreamInfoItem>()
-                                .map {
                     StreamItem(
-                                        url = it.url,
+                        url = v.url,
-                                        title = it.name ?: "(no title)",
+                        title = v.title.ifBlank { "(no title)" },
-                                        uploader = it.uploaderName ?: info.name ?: "",
+                        uploader = v.uploader,
-                                        uploaderUrl = it.uploaderUrl ?: channelUrl,
+                        uploaderUrl = v.uploaderUrl,
-                                        thumbnail = bestThumbnail(it.thumbnails),
+                        thumbnail = v.thumbnail,
-                                        durationSeconds = it.duration,
+                        durationSeconds = v.durationSeconds,
-                                        viewCount = it.viewCount,
+                        viewCount = v.viewCount,
                     )
                 }
-                        }.getOrDefault(emptyList())
-                    }
-                } else emptyList()
-
                 _ui.value = ChannelUiState(
                     loading = false,
-                    name = info.name ?: "",
+                    name = ch.name,
-                    subscriberCount = info.subscriberCount,
+                    subscriberCount = ch.subscriberCount,
-                    banner = bestThumbnail(info.banners),
+                    banner = ch.banner,
-                    avatar = bestThumbnail(info.avatars),
+                    avatar = ch.avatar,
                     videos = videos,
                 )
             } catch (t: Throwable) {

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/feature/feed/SubscriptionFeedViewModel.kt

@@ -2,16 +2,14 @@
  * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Sulkta
  * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
  *
- * Phase Q: aggregate latest videos across all subscribed channels into a
+ * Phase Q + U-4: aggregate latest videos across all subscribed channels.
- * single feed. Fans out per-channel ChannelInfo + ChannelTabs.VIDEOS
+ * Per-channel fetches now go through strawcore (rustypipe + UniFFI). The
- * fetches in parallel, merges by view count desc, caps at 200 items.
+ * Kotlin side still owns the structured concurrency:
- *
+ *   - cancels prior in-flight refresh
- * Audit fixes (2026-05-24 pass #2):
+ *   - Semaphore caps parallel fetches (rustypipe internally has its own
- *   HIGH-6: cancel any prior in-flight refresh when a new one starts, cap
+ *     HTTP pool but we still want to avoid N=100 concurrent extractor
- *     concurrency with a Semaphore, time-bound each per-channel fetch so
+ *     contexts when N=100 channels)
- *     one hung channel can't stall the whole feed.
+ *   - per-channel 15s timeout
- *   MED-7: use `update { }` for atomic UI-state writes (matches the
- *     convention applied to the data stores in audit pass #1).
  */
 
 package com.sulkta.straw.feature.feed
@@ -20,9 +18,7 @@ import androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel
 import androidx.lifecycle.viewModelScope
 import com.sulkta.straw.data.Subscriptions
 import com.sulkta.straw.feature.search.StreamItem
-import com.sulkta.straw.util.bestThumbnail
 import com.sulkta.straw.util.strawLogW
-import kotlinx.coroutines.Dispatchers
 import kotlinx.coroutines.Job
 import kotlinx.coroutines.async
 import kotlinx.coroutines.awaitAll
@@ -34,14 +30,7 @@ import kotlinx.coroutines.flow.update
 import kotlinx.coroutines.launch
 import kotlinx.coroutines.sync.Semaphore
 import kotlinx.coroutines.sync.withPermit
-import kotlinx.coroutines.withContext
 import kotlinx.coroutines.withTimeoutOrNull
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.NewPipe
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.ServiceList
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.channel.ChannelInfo
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.channel.tabs.ChannelTabInfo
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.channel.tabs.ChannelTabs
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.stream.StreamInfoItem
 
 data class SubscriptionFeedUiState(
     val loading: Boolean = false,
@@ -54,16 +43,11 @@ class SubscriptionFeedViewModel : ViewModel() {
     private val _ui = MutableStateFlow(SubscriptionFeedUiState())
     val ui: StateFlow<SubscriptionFeedUiState> = _ui.asStateFlow()
 
-    /** Cache feed for 10 min to avoid hammering YT on tab re-entry. */
     private val cacheTtlMs = 10L * 60 * 1000
-
-    /** Per-channel fetch timeout — slowest channel can't stall the whole batch. */
     private val perChannelTimeoutMs = 15_000L
-
-    /** Cap parallel network fetches even with 100+ subs. */
     private val parallelism = 8
+    private val perChannelMax = 5
 
-    /** Live refresh job, so spam-tapping Refresh doesn't fan out racing fetches. */
     private var inFlight: Job? = null
 
     fun refreshIfStale() {
@@ -82,34 +66,22 @@ class SubscriptionFeedViewModel : ViewModel() {
         _ui.update { it.copy(loading = true, error = null) }
         inFlight = viewModelScope.launch {
             try {
-                val items = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) {
-                    val service = NewPipe.getService(ServiceList.YouTube.serviceId)
-                    val perChannelMax = 5
                 val gate = Semaphore(parallelism)
-                    coroutineScope {
+                val items = coroutineScope {
                     val deferreds = channels.map { ch ->
                         async {
                             gate.withPermit {
                                 withTimeoutOrNull(perChannelTimeoutMs) {
                                     runCatching {
-                                            val info = ChannelInfo.getInfo(service, ch.url)
+                                        uniffi.strawcore.channelInfo(ch.url).videos.take(perChannelMax).map { v ->
-                                            val tab = info.tabs.firstOrNull {
-                                                it.contentFilters.contains(ChannelTabs.VIDEOS)
-                                            } ?: info.tabs.firstOrNull()
-                                                ?: return@runCatching emptyList<StreamItem>()
-                                            ChannelTabInfo.getInfo(service, tab)
-                                                .relatedItems
-                                                .filterIsInstance<StreamInfoItem>()
-                                                .take(perChannelMax)
-                                                .map { si ->
                                             StreamItem(
-                                                        url = si.url,
+                                                url = v.url,
-                                                        title = si.name ?: "(no title)",
+                                                title = v.title.ifBlank { "(no title)" },
-                                                        uploader = si.uploaderName ?: ch.name,
+                                                uploader = v.uploader.ifBlank { ch.name },
-                                                        uploaderUrl = si.uploaderUrl ?: ch.url,
+                                                uploaderUrl = v.uploaderUrl ?: ch.url,
-                                                        thumbnail = bestThumbnail(si.thumbnails),
+                                                thumbnail = v.thumbnail,
-                                                        durationSeconds = si.duration,
+                                                durationSeconds = v.durationSeconds,
-                                                        viewCount = si.viewCount,
+                                                viewCount = v.viewCount,
                                             )
                                         }
                                     }.onFailure {
@@ -125,12 +97,9 @@ class SubscriptionFeedViewModel : ViewModel() {
                     deferreds.awaitAll()
                 }
                     .flatten()
-                        // No reliable upload-timestamp from extractor's StreamInfoItem
-                        // in all cases — sort by view count desc as a soft proxy for
-                        // recency-popularity within the recent window.
                     .sortedByDescending { it.viewCount }
                     .take(200)
-                }
+
                 _ui.update {
                     SubscriptionFeedUiState(
                         loading = false,

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/feature/player/PlaybackService.kt

@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.DefaultMediaSourceFactory
 import androidx.media3.session.MediaSession
 import androidx.media3.session.MediaSessionService
 import com.sulkta.straw.StrawActivity
-import com.sulkta.straw.extractor.NewPipeDownloader
+import com.sulkta.straw.net.STRAW_USER_AGENT
 
 @UnstableApi
 class PlaybackService : MediaSessionService() {
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ class PlaybackService : MediaSessionService() {
         ensureChannel()
 
         val httpFactory = DefaultHttpDataSource.Factory()
-            .setUserAgent(NewPipeDownloader.USER_AGENT)
+            .setUserAgent(STRAW_USER_AGENT)
             .setAllowCrossProtocolRedirects(true)
         val mediaSourceFactory = DefaultMediaSourceFactory(this)
             .setDataSourceFactory(httpFactory)

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/feature/player/PlayerScreen.kt

@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ import androidx.media3.exoplayer.hls.HlsMediaSource
 import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.MergingMediaSource
 import androidx.media3.exoplayer.source.ProgressiveMediaSource
 import androidx.media3.ui.PlayerView
-import com.sulkta.straw.extractor.NewPipeDownloader
+import com.sulkta.straw.net.STRAW_USER_AGENT
 import com.sulkta.straw.net.SbSegment
 import com.sulkta.straw.util.strawLogI
 import kotlinx.coroutines.delay
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ fun PlayerScreen(
     LaunchedEffect(resolved) {
         val r = resolved ?: return@LaunchedEffect
         val dataSourceFactory = DefaultHttpDataSource.Factory()
-            .setUserAgent(NewPipeDownloader.USER_AGENT)
+            .setUserAgent(STRAW_USER_AGENT)
             .setAllowCrossProtocolRedirects(true)
 
         val source = when {

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/net/Http.kt

@@ -13,9 +13,33 @@
 
 package com.sulkta.straw.net
 
+import okhttp3.OkHttpClient
 import okhttp3.ResponseBody
 import okio.Buffer
 import java.io.IOException
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit
+
+/**
+ * Phase U-5: USER_AGENT + shared OkHttpClient that previously lived on
+ * NewPipeDownloader. After ripping NewPipeExtractor, the RYD + SponsorBlock
+ * + ExoPlayer HTTP factories still need both. One shared client is fine.
+ */
+const val STRAW_USER_AGENT: String =
+    "Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 14) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36 Straw/1.0"
+
+@Volatile
+private var sharedClient: OkHttpClient? = null
+
+fun strawHttpClient(): OkHttpClient =
+    sharedClient ?: synchronized(STRAW_USER_AGENT) {
+        sharedClient ?: OkHttpClient.Builder()
+            .connectTimeout(15, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
+            .readTimeout(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS)
+            .followRedirects(true)
+            .followSslRedirects(true)
+            .build()
+            .also { sharedClient = it }
+    }
 
 fun ResponseBody.cappedString(maxBytes: Long): String {
     val cl = contentLength()

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/net/RydClient.kt

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 
 package com.sulkta.straw.net
 
-import com.sulkta.straw.extractor.NewPipeDownloader
 import com.sulkta.straw.util.strawLogD
 import com.sulkta.straw.util.strawLogW
 import kotlinx.serialization.Serializable
@@ -34,11 +33,11 @@ object RydClient {
         strawLogD(TAG) { "fetch start: $videoId → $url" }
         val req = Request.Builder()
             .url(url)
-            .header("User-Agent", NewPipeDownloader.USER_AGENT)
+            .header("User-Agent", STRAW_USER_AGENT)
             .header("Accept", "application/json")
             .build()
         return runCatching {
-            NewPipeDownloader.client().newCall(req).execute().use { r ->
+            strawHttpClient().newCall(req).execute().use { r ->
                 val code = r.code
                 // AUD-HIGH: bounded body read to defend against OOM.
                 val bodyStr = r.body?.cappedString(RYD_MAX_BYTES) ?: ""

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/net/SponsorBlockClient.kt

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 
 package com.sulkta.straw.net
 
-import com.sulkta.straw.extractor.NewPipeDownloader
 import com.sulkta.straw.util.strawLogD
 import com.sulkta.straw.util.strawLogW
 import kotlinx.serialization.Serializable
@@ -47,11 +46,11 @@ object SponsorBlockClient {
         strawLogD(TAG) { "fetch: videoId=$videoId prefix=$prefix url=$urlStr" }
         val req = Request.Builder()
             .url(urlStr)
-            .header("User-Agent", NewPipeDownloader.USER_AGENT)
+            .header("User-Agent", STRAW_USER_AGENT)
             .header("Accept", "application/json")
             .build()
         return runCatching {
-            NewPipeDownloader.client().newCall(req).execute().use { r ->
+            strawHttpClient().newCall(req).execute().use { r ->
                 val code = r.code
                 // AUD-HIGH: bounded body read.
                 val bodyStr = r.body?.cappedString(SB_MAX_BYTES) ?: ""

strawApp/src/main/kotlin/com/sulkta/straw/util/Thumbnails.kt

@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Sulkta
- * SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-3.0-or-later
- *
- * NewPipeExtractor returns thumbnails as a List<Image> with width/height
- * fields. Calling .firstOrNull() picks the smallest (the list is sorted
- * ascending) — which gave us pixelated thumbnails. This helper picks the
- * largest by pixel area instead.
- */
-
-package com.sulkta.straw.util
-
-import org.schabi.newpipe.extractor.Image
-
-fun bestThumbnail(images: List<Image>?): String? {
-    if (images.isNullOrEmpty()) return null
-    return images
-        .maxByOrNull {
-            val w = it.width.takeIf { v -> v > 0 } ?: 0
-            val h = it.height.takeIf { v -> v > 0 } ?: 0
-            w.toLong() * h.toLong()
-        }
-        ?.url
-}