RuForge

A lightweight, local-first media collector. Streamlined yt-dlp downloading and fine-tuned offline playback with SponsorBlock, chapters, and custom subtitles.

YouTube Downloader

yt-dlp Engine

SponsorBlock API

Tauri v2 Shell

Rust Core

React 19 Core

FFmpeg Processing

Zustand State Store

What you actually get

Everything streaming won’t give you.
Your files, offline, no strings attached.

Downloader

Paste a link and walk away.
Playlists, formats, stall watchdog, all of it.

Queue lives in a corner drawer with thumbnails that crossfade as jobs move. If something hangs too long, RuForge kills it and tells you why. Playlists land in their own numbered folder. Flip audio-only and the size preview is actually audio size, not a full video file playing dress-up.

yt-dlp stays current; Windows installer is signed
Tells you when the file is already in your library
Pause, resume, reorder, or replace a job in place

RuForge downloader with floating queue drawer

Audio-only

Audio that isn’t a video in disguise.
Player stays alive when there’s no picture.

Turn on audio-only and you get a real m4a, not a giant video stream squeezed into an audio file. Playback shows a full LED equalizer on the cover instead of a dead black box. Side waveforms move with the music while it plays.

m4a extraction, not a full video re-encoded as audio
90-bar LED visualizer wired to Web Audio
Library cards keep cover art on hover

RuForge audio-only player with LED equalizer hero

Chapters

Scrub by chapter, not by guesswork.
Hover a segment and see the frame.

Chapters from the yt-dlp sidecar become their own scrub pills. Hover one and you get a preview pulled from the sprite sheet ffmpeg built when you downloaded. Jump with prev/next, or Shift+arrow if you are in a hurry.

Sprite sheets on download (off in Settings if you want)
Long chapter titles scroll instead of clipping
Chapter data lives in the sidecar, no extra API calls

RuForge player chapter scrubber with hover preview

SponsorBlock

Sponsor chunks skip on files you already own.
Not just in a browser tab.

First play pulls segments and saves a sidecar next to the video. Intros, self-promo, music tangents, the usual categories. It learns what you skip versus what you sit through.

Scrub bar colors match each segment type
On by default; tune categories in Settings
Works offline after the first fetch

RuForge player with SponsorBlock scrub overlay

People who use it

honestly i just wanted one app for grabbing videos and watching later without a browser tab graveyardruforge does that

sponsorblock jumped a segment while i was making dinner and i did not expect to care but i did

library stays on disk. no account no sync drama that was kinda the whole point

queued like six baking videos at once and the little card just sat there judging me. worth it

chapters on the scrub bar look stupidly fancy for something i built in my room but ok

replaced a file in library without redownloading the whole channelfelt like cheating

settings sponsorblock tree is nested chaos but at least its all in one place

watched the same pasta tutorial four times. nobody on the internet knows. perfect

auto preview sprites for downloads are nice when im picking what to delete later

if this ever asks me to make an account im uninstalling (joking. mostly.)

honestly i just wanted one app for grabbing videos and watching later without a browser tab graveyardruforge does that

sponsorblock jumped a segment while i was making dinner and i did not expect to care but i did

library stays on disk. no account no sync drama that was kinda the whole point

queued like six baking videos at once and the little card just sat there judging me. worth it

chapters on the scrub bar look stupidly fancy for something i built in my room but ok

replaced a file in library without redownloading the whole channelfelt like cheating

settings sponsorblock tree is nested chaos but at least its all in one place

watched the same pasta tutorial four times. nobody on the internet knows. perfect

auto preview sprites for downloads are nice when im picking what to delete later

if this ever asks me to make an account im uninstalling (joking. mostly.)

angel put it on my laptop to 'test' and i still have it. the cooking playlist situation is out of control

we are not calling it neotube anymore. ruforge stuck.

i still roast him in the group chat. also told my sister to download it so

explorer tab is mostly for cookies when youtube gets annoying. not trying to replace chrome

caught an ad skip i didnt even click and did a little chef kiss. dramatic but true

volume mixer finally says ruforge instead of whatever webview2 is. tiny win huge

told him the hero progress bar was giving math test anxiety and he removed the big percent. king behavior

led visualizer on audio only tracks is so extra i cant disable it

pop out to mini while folding laundryyes i am that person

still weird seeing our names on a real website testimonials section but here we are

angel put it on my laptop to 'test' and i still have it. the cooking playlist situation is out of control

we are not calling it neotube anymore. ruforge stuck.

i still roast him in the group chat. also told my sister to download it so

explorer tab is mostly for cookies when youtube gets annoying. not trying to replace chrome

caught an ad skip i didnt even click and did a little chef kiss. dramatic but true

volume mixer finally says ruforge instead of whatever webview2 is. tiny win huge

told him the hero progress bar was giving math test anxiety and he removed the big percent. king behavior

led visualizer on audio only tracks is so extra i cant disable it

pop out to mini while folding laundryyes i am that person

still weird seeing our names on a real website testimonials section but here we are

mini player sits in the corner during homework and i keep forgetting its a whole separate window lol

the floating download list is actually nice?? it doesnt eat the whole screen

when yt-dlp changes something i patch rebuild move onnot glamorous but it keeps working

audio only downloads are smaller now thank god my drive was crying

download stalled once and the watchdog actually yelled at me (toast). fair

mini player tiny mode is cursed i love it. title marquee at 70px height is insane

duplicate library rows after muxed downloads were driving me nutsdedupe pass fixed my sanity

he sent a screenshot of ruforge at 2am with caption "fixed" and i pretended to be asleep

updater whats new modal finally scrolls on my laptop screen. small text big win

pinterest pics incoming for these cards. until then initials are doing heavy lifting

mini player sits in the corner during homework and i keep forgetting its a whole separate window lol

the floating download list is actually nice?? it doesnt eat the whole screen

when yt-dlp changes something i patch rebuild move onnot glamorous but it keeps working

audio only downloads are smaller now thank god my drive was crying

download stalled once and the watchdog actually yelled at me (toast). fair

mini player tiny mode is cursed i love it. title marquee at 70px height is insane

duplicate library rows after muxed downloads were driving me nutsdedupe pass fixed my sanity

he sent a screenshot of ruforge at 2am with caption "fixed" and i pretended to be asleep

updater whats new modal finally scrolls on my laptop screen. small text big win

pinterest pics incoming for these cards. until then initials are doing heavy lifting

Always-on media freedom

Designed for speed.
Engineered for local privacy.

RuForge compiles direct Rust bindings with Tauri to deliver near-zero overhead. Your downloads run concurrently, SponsorBlock filters on the fly, and your library indexing is entirely local. No trackers, no accounts, no subscriptions.

RuForge

Paste a link and walk away. Playlists, formats, stall watchdog, all of it.

Audio that isn’t a video in disguise. Player stays alive when there’s no picture.

Scrub by chapter, not by guesswork. Hover a segment and see the frame.

Sponsor chunks skip on files you already own. Not just in a browser tab.

Designed for speed.Engineered for local privacy.

Paste a link and walk away.
Playlists, formats, stall watchdog, all of it.

Audio that isn’t a video in disguise.
Player stays alive when there’s no picture.

Scrub by chapter, not by guesswork.
Hover a segment and see the frame.

Sponsor chunks skip on files you already own.
Not just in a browser tab.

Designed for speed.
Engineered for local privacy.