Download videos from dailywire.com using yt-dlp versions which don't support dailywire

dailywire-dl.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

usage() {
  cat <<'EOF'
Usage: dailywire-dl [options] <url>

Download a Daily Wire episode by fetching signed playback data from the
middleware API, then downloading the Mux stream with yt-dlp.

Options:
  -c, --cookies <file>        Cookies file (JSON or Netscape cookies.txt)
  -a, --access-token <token>  Daily Wire accessToken (JWT)
  -r, --resolution <pixels>   Pass -S "res:<pixels>" to yt-dlp (e.g. 720, 1080)

One of --cookies or --access-token is required.

Requires: curl, jq, yt-dlp

Examples:
  ./dailywire-dl -c cookies.txt https://www.dailywire.com/episode/foo

  ./dailywire-dl --cookies cookies.json \
    "https://www.dailywire.com/episode/foo?elementPosition=0"

  ./dailywire-dl -a "$ACCESS_TOKEN" -r 720 \
    https://www.dailywire.com/episode/foo
EOF
}

extract_slug() {
  local input_url="$1"
  printf '%s' "$input_url" | sed -E 's/\?.*//; s#.*/episode/##; s#/.*##'
}

is_json_cookies_file() {
  local file="$1"
  jq -e 'type == "array"' "$file" >/dev/null 2>&1
}

extract_access_token_from_cookies_file() {
  local file="$1"

  if is_json_cookies_file "$file"; then
    jq -r '.[] | select(.name == "accessToken") | .value' "$file"
  else
    awk -F'\t' '$6 == "accessToken" { print $7; exit }' "$file"
  fi
}

middleware_origin="https://middleware-prod.dailywire.com"

fetch_episode_from_middleware() {
  local slug="$1"
  local access_token="$2"

  curl -sS \
    "${middleware_origin}/middleware/v4/getEpisodeWeb?slug=${slug}" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer ${access_token}" \
    -H "Accept: application/json" \
    -H "Origin: https://www.dailywire.com" \
    -H "Referer: https://www.dailywire.com/episode/${slug}"
}

resolution=""
cookies_file=""
access_token=""

while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
  case "$1" in
    -h|--help)
      usage
      exit 0
      ;;
    -c|--cookies)
      if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
        echo "error: $1 requires a value" >&2
        exit 1
      fi
      cookies_file="$2"
      shift 2
      ;;
    -a|--access-token)
      if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
        echo "error: $1 requires a value" >&2
        exit 1
      fi
      access_token="$2"
      shift 2
      ;;
    -r|--resolution)
      if [[ $# -lt 2 ]]; then
        echo "error: $1 requires a value" >&2
        exit 1
      fi
      resolution="$2"
      shift 2
      ;;
    --)
      shift
      break
      ;;
    -*)
      echo "error: unknown option: $1" >&2
      usage >&2
      exit 1
      ;;
    *)
      break
      ;;
  esac
done

if [[ $# -ne 1 ]]; then
  usage >&2
  exit 1
fi

if [[ -n "$cookies_file" && -n "$access_token" ]]; then
  echo "error: use either --cookies or --access-token, not both" >&2
  exit 1
fi

if [[ -z "$cookies_file" && -z "$access_token" ]]; then
  echo "error: either --cookies or --access-token is required" >&2
  usage >&2
  exit 1
fi

if [[ -n "$resolution" && ! "$resolution" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]]; then
  echo "error: resolution must be a positive integer (e.g. 720 or 1080)" >&2
  exit 1
fi

require_cmd() {
  if ! command -v "$1" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    echo "error: $1 is required" >&2
    exit 1
  fi
}

require_cmd curl
require_cmd jq
require_cmd yt-dlp

url="$1"
slug="$(extract_slug "$url")"

if [[ -z "$slug" ]]; then
  echo "error: could not extract episode slug from URL" >&2
  exit 1
fi

if [[ -n "$cookies_file" ]]; then
  if [[ ! -f "$cookies_file" ]]; then
    echo "error: cookies file not found: $cookies_file" >&2
    exit 1
  fi

  access_token="$(extract_access_token_from_cookies_file "$cookies_file")"
  if [[ -z "$access_token" || "$access_token" == "null" ]]; then
    echo "error: accessToken not found in $cookies_file" >&2
    exit 1
  fi
fi

echo "Fetching episode metadata for ${slug}..." >&2
episode_json="$(fetch_episode_from_middleware "$slug" "$access_token")"

if ! jq -e . >/dev/null 2>&1 <<<"$episode_json"; then
  echo "error: middleware API returned invalid JSON" >&2
  printf '%s\n' "$episode_json" >&2
  exit 1
fi

if jq -e '.error | type == "string" and length > 0' >/dev/null 2>&1 <<<"$episode_json"; then
  echo "error: middleware API request failed" >&2
  jq . >&2 <<<"$episode_json"
  exit 1
fi

title="$(jq -r '.title // empty' <<<"$episode_json")"
playback_id="$(jq -r '.muxPlaybackId // empty' <<<"$episode_json")"
playback_token="$(jq -r '.muxPlaybackToken // empty' <<<"$episode_json")"

if [[ -z "$title" || -z "$playback_id" || -z "$playback_token" ]]; then
  echo "error: could not find episode title or signed Mux stream URL" >&2
  echo "note: ensure the access token is current" >&2
  exit 1
fi

content_url="https://stream.mux.com/${playback_id}.m3u8?token=${playback_token}"

# Keep the page title; only strip chars illegal on Linux/macOS (/ and control chars).
cleaned_title="$(printf '%s' "$title" | tr -d '\0/' | sed $'s/[\001-\037\177]//g')"

if [[ -z "$cleaned_title" ]]; then
  cleaned_title="dailywire-episode"
fi

output_title="$cleaned_title"
if [[ -n "$resolution" ]]; then
  output_title="${cleaned_title} ${resolution}p"
fi

echo "Title: $title" >&2
if [[ -n "$resolution" ]]; then
  echo "Resolution: ${resolution}p" >&2
fi
echo "Downloading..." >&2

ytdlp_args=(
  --ignore-config
  --no-warnings
  --merge-output-format mp4
  --no-mtime
)

if [[ -n "$resolution" ]]; then
  ytdlp_args+=(-S "res:${resolution}")
fi

yt-dlp \
  "${ytdlp_args[@]}" \
  "$content_url" \
  -o "${output_title}.%(ext)s"