PodcastSync

Turn YouTube channels into your own personal podcast.

PodcastSync watches YouTube channels you choose, saves the audio of new videos as they come out, and turns them into a podcast you can listen to in any podcast app — just like a normal podcast subscription, except you pick the content.

You run it once on a server (a small rented computer in the cloud), and after that it works on its own. It is private: only you can reach it.

Don’t want to do it yourself? Give this to your AI assistant

If you use an AI assistant that can run commands for you (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Kilo, and the like), copy the one line below, paste it into a chat with it, and it will set the whole thing up for you, checking with you whenever it needs a decision.

Set up PodcastSync on my server: download the repo from https://github.com/shay2000/PodcastSync-VPS, read SETUP.md in it, and follow it exactly.

That’s all you need to give it — the repo’s SETUP.md contains the full step-by-step instructions for the agent, including the safety rules.

What it does

You add YouTube channels you like (for example, a cooking channel or a news channel).
PodcastSync quietly checks those channels for new videos.
When it finds one, it saves just the audio.
Your podcast app downloads new episodes automatically, like any podcast.

That’s it. Subscribe once in your podcast app and new videos show up as episodes by themselves.

What you need before starting

A server — a small cloud computer running Linux (any cheap one works). If you already have one set up with Tailscale (a tool that lets your devices talk to each other privately over the internet), you are ready.
Docker installed on that server — Docker is a tool that runs apps in tidy, self-contained packages. Your server provider or a tech-savvy friend can set this up in a few minutes.
10 minutes.

No programming knowledge is needed beyond copying and pasting two commands.

Setting it up

Step 1 — Install PodcastSync on your server

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shay2000/PodcastSync-VPS/main/deploy/linux/install.sh | bash

This downloads PodcastSync and starts it. When it finishes, you will see a message saying it is running and healthy.

Using Tailscale? Run the version below instead, replacing 100.x.y.z with your server’s Tailscale address (run tailscale ip -4 on the server to see it). Then you can open PodcastSync from any of your devices on your Tailnet.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shay2000/PodcastSync-VPS/main/deploy/linux/install.sh | bash -s -- --bind-ip 100.x.y.z

Step 2 — Open the dashboard

Go to this address in your web browser:

http://127.0.0.1:8642

(or http://100.x.y.z:8642 if you used the Tailscale version)

This is your PodcastSync dashboard — a simple web page where you manage everything.

Step 3 — Add a YouTube channel

On the dashboard, find the Add Source box.
Paste in the web address of a YouTube channel, for example https://www.youtube.com/@cookingchannel.
Give it a name (anything you like).
Click Add, then click Sync Now.

PodcastSync starts saving audio from that channel. The first sync can take a little while if the channel has many videos.

On the dashboard, click Copy Feed URL next to your channel.
In your podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Downcast, and most others work):
- Apple Podcasts: File → Subscribe to Show by URL, then paste.
- Other apps: look for “Add by URL” or “Subscribe by URL”, then paste.

Done! New videos from that channel now appear in your podcast app automatically, as audio-only episodes.

Everyday use

Listen: in your podcast app, like any other podcast.
Add more channels: dashboard → Add Source.
Pause a channel: open the channel on the dashboard and toggle it off.
Update PodcastSync: log in to the server and re-run the same install command from Step 1. Your channels and saved episodes are kept.

Optional extras

Better video history (recommended). Without extra setup, PodcastSync can only see about the 15 most recent videos on a channel. A free YouTube API key removes that limit and shows the full history. Get one at the Google Cloud Console (create a project → enable “YouTube Data API v3” → create an API key), then paste it into the dashboard under Settings.

Locked or members-only videos. Very occasionally a video requires being signed in to YouTube. For those, you can provide a “cookies file” — see HANDOFF.md for the details.

Listening from podcast apps that live in the cloud (like Overcast). Those apps fetch feeds from the internet, so a private server isn’t enough for them — you need a public web address for just the feed part. Don’t worry: you don’t need to buy a domain name. A free address from DuckDNS works (create a name like my-podcasts.duckdns.org, point it at your server, and follow the short steps in HANDOFF.md — the app handles the secure certificate by itself). Only the podcast feed and audio become public; your dashboard stays private. Apps like Apple Podcasts and Downcast work without any of this.

Good to know

It’s private. Only you can reach your PodcastSync and your saved audio. Do not share the dashboard address publicly.
Your podcasts depend on the server. If the server is off, podcast apps can’t fetch new episodes (already-downloaded episodes keep working).
Be patient with podcast apps. They sometimes take up to an hour to notice new episodes.
Personal use only. Please respect the rights of the people whose videos you save — keep it to yourself.

For developers and tinkerers

Everything technical — the API, running it locally, the Docker image, deployment runbooks — lives in HANDOFF.md and AGENTS.md. The short version:

git clone https://github.com/shay2000/PodcastSync-VPS.git
cd PodcastSync-VPS
python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install -e ".[dev]"
python -m pytest tests/ -q      # offline test suite
./scripts/dev.sh               # dev server at http://127.0.0.1:8642

Releases are Docker images on GHCR (ghcr.io/shay2000/podcastsync), built for amd64 and arm64 by CI on every v* tag.

Support PodcastSync

If this project is useful to you, you can support its maintenance with a coffee:

README