r4

Command-line interface for Radio4000

• browse, create, update, and download radio channels and tracks.

npm i -g r4
r4 help

Here's a quick overview:

r4 channel list --limit 10
r4 channel list --sort created --limit 5           # Newest channels
r4 channel view ko002
r4 track list --channel ko002
r4 track list --channel ko002 --tag jazz,ambient
r4 download ko002                                     # downloads to ./ko002/
r4 download ko002 --base-url https://cdn.example.com  # absolute URLs in download.json
r4 download ko002 --backup-file                       # only write download.json, no download
r4 search "ambient"
r4 auth login
r4 channel create radio123 --name "Radio 123"
r4 track create --channel radio123 --title "Song" --url "https://youtube.com/..."
r4 track update <id> --title "Updated song"

# Pipe and compose
r4 track list --channel ko002 --limit 10 | jq '.[] | .title'

# Or export to sqlite
r4 schema | sqlite3 my.db
r4 track list --channel ko002 --format sql | sqlite3 my.db

Most commands support a --format flag to print human-readable text, json or SQL.

For the r4 download command to work, make sure yt-dlp is installed.

After downloading, a download.json is written alongside the tracks — a self-contained ChannelBackup ({ version, created_at, channel, tracks[] }) where each track's url points to its local file at tracks/<filename>.<ext>. Tracks that failed to download keep their original remote URL. Use --base-url to produce absolute URLs (e.g. when serving the folder over HTTP). Use --no-metadata to skip writing download.json.

YouTube Premium (256kbps)

By default YouTube serves ~128kbps audio. With a Premium account, some videos also have 256kbps AAC. To get it, pass your browser's cookies and install the bgutil PO token plugin for yt-dlp. Without the plugin, downloads fall back to ~128kbps with a warning.

r4 download ko002 --cookies-from-browser chrome            # new tracks in 256kbps where available
r4 download ko002 --cookies-from-browser chrome --upgrade  # also replace existing ~128kbps tracks

--upgrade reads bitrates with ffprobe (part of ffmpeg) and only replaces a file once the better version has downloaded, so if a video is gone or has nothing better, your file stays. Tracks with no better version are noted in upgrades.jsonl and skipped for 6 months; --recheck tries them anyway. Add --dry-run to see how many it would try.

Development

git clone git@github.com:radio4000/cli.git
cd r4
bun install
bun link # optional for easy local dev
bun run check # format and lint
bun run test