Invidiojs

A basic re-implementation of the Invidious API in node.js

Invidious (website, github) is an alternative front-end to YouTube written in Crystal that exposes an API usable by other applications to easily obtain data from YouTube without using the official YouTube APIs.

Why did I create Invidiojs?

Because I was frustrated at the slow speed, pointless bandwidth consumption and high memory usage of Invidious.

Why choose Invidiojs?

• Data returned much faster compared to Invidious
• Easier to run, since Crystal can be a pain to use
• No pointless bandwidth consumption
• Lower memory usage

Why choose Invidious?

• Many more endpoints
• More data returned from each endpoint

Using the API

What endpoints are available?

• In api/video.js:

/api/v1/videos/{id}

• In api/channel.js:

/api/v1/channels/{id}
/api/v1/channels/{id}/videos

What endpoints are planned?

/api/v1/search
/api/v1/playlists/{id}

Using the code

Running your own instance

• Clone the repo
• npm install
• Create db/main.db according to the schema in db/main-schema.sql.
• If you want to use HTTPS, first obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate, then change hostnames in index.js. If you don't want to use HTTPS or just want to run the site behind a LAN, you don't have to change the hostname.
• Set the ports to use at the top of index.js.

File organisation

Directory	Purpose
api	API modules
db	Database files
util	Server utilities needed in more than one file

Editing the code

I use Visual Studio Code to create this, but of course you may use whatever text editor you like.

Be sure to follow these guidelines for writing and formatting your code:

• End lines with semicolons, (optional for multi-line strings and lines that are entirely closing brackets)
• Indent either with 4 spaces, or a tab character
• Indent where it makes sense
• Curly braces go on the same line as the if or function
• Strings are delimited with double quotes or backticks, not single quotes
• Use let or const instead of var where possible
• If logging strings, use cf.log rather than console.log

Please try to keep the number of node modules to a minimum. Only install another module if you really need to.

Contributing back

Fork the repo, edit the code, open a pull request.

Consider opening an issue first to see whether what you want to change is actually something that I want to merge in.