unshackle
^{Movie, TV, and Music Archival Software}

What is unshackle?

unshackle is a fork of Devine, a powerful archival tool for downloading movies, TV shows, and music from streaming services. Built with a focus on modularity and extensibility, it provides a robust framework for content acquisition with support for DRM-protected content.

Key Features

• 🚀 Easy Installation - Simple UV installation
• 🎥 Multi-Media Support - Movies, TV episodes, and music
• 🛠️ Built-in Parsers - DASH/HLS and ISM manifest support
• 🔒 DRM Support - Widevine and PlayReady integration
• 💾 Flexible Storage - Local and remote key vaults
• 👥 Multi-Profile Auth - Support for cookies and credentials
• 🤖 Smart Naming - Automatic P2P-style filename structure
• ⚙️ Configurable - YAML-based configuration
• ❤️ Open Source - Fully open-source with community contributions welcome

Quick Start

Installation

This installs the latest version directly from the GitHub repository:

git clone https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle.git
cd unshackle
uv sync
uv run unshackle --help

Install unshackle as a global (per-user) tool

uv tool install git+https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle.git
# Then run:
uvx unshackle --help   # or just `unshackle` once PATH updated

Note

After installation, you may need to add the installation path to your PATH environment variable if prompted.

Recommended: Use uv run unshackle instead of direct command execution to ensure proper virtual environment activation.

Basic Usage

# Check available commands
uv run unshackle --help

# Configure your settings
uv run unshackle cfg --help

# Confirm setup and all dependencies exist
uv run automaterr env check

# Download content (requires configured services)
uv run unshackle dl SERVICE_NAME CONTENT_ID

Documentation

For comprehensive setup guides, configuration options, and advanced usage:

📖 Visit our WIKI

The WIKI contains detailed information on:

• Installation and dependencies
• Service configuration
• Authentication setup
• DRM configuration
• Advanced features and troubleshooting

Warning

Only create or use services for platforms you have the legal right to access.

For guidance on creating services, see our WIKI documentation.

License

This software is licensed under the GNU General Public License, Version 3.0.

⚖️ Legal Notice: Use unshackle responsibly and only with content you have the legal right to access and download.

Services

unshackle doesn't include any services by default. You must create your own services for the platforms you have legal access to.

Unlike similar project's such as youtube-dl, unshackle does not currently come with any Services. You must develop your own Services and only use unshackle with Services you have the legal right to do so.

Note

If you made a Service for unshackle that does not use widevine or any other DRM systems, feel free to make a Pull Request and make your service available to others. Any Service on youtube-dl (or yt-dlp) would be able to be added to the unshackle repository as they both use the Unlicense license therefore direct reading and porting of their code would be legal.

Service Tags

Service tags generally follow these rules:

• Tag can be between 2-4 characters long, consisting of just [A-Z0-9i]{2,4}.
  • Lower-case i is only used for select services. Specifically BBC iPlayer and iTunes.
• If the Service's commercial name has a + or Plus, the last character should be a P. E.g., ATVP for Apple TV+, DSCP for Discovery+, DSNP for Disney+, and PMTP for Paramount+.

These rules are not exhaustive and should only be used as a guide. You don't strictly have to follow these rules, but we recommend doing so for consistency.

Sharing Services

Sending and receiving zipped Service folders is quite cumbersome. Let's explore alternative routes to collaborating on Service Code.

Warning

Please be careful with who you trust and what you run. The users you collaborate with on Service code could update it with malicious code that you would run via unshackle on the next call.

Forking

If you are collaborating with a team on multiple services then forking the project is the best way to go.

1. Create a new Private GitHub Repository without README, .gitignore, or LICENSE files. Note: Do NOT use the GitHub Fork button, or you will not be able to make the repository private.
2. git clone <your repo url here> and then cd into it.
3. git remote add upstream https://github.com/unshackle-dl/unshackle
4. git remote set-url --push upstream DISABLE
5. git fetch upstream
6. git pull upstream master
7. (optionally) Hard reset to the latest stable version by tag. E.g., git reset --hard v1.0.0.

Now commit your Services or other changes to your forked repository.
Once committed all your other team members can easily pull changes as well as push new changes.

When a new update comes out you can easily rebase your fork to that commit to update.

1. git fetch upstream
2. git rebase upstream/master

However, please make sure you look at changes between each version before rebasing and resolve any breaking changes and deprecations when rebasing to a new version.

If you are new to git then take a look at GitHub Desktop.

Tip

A huge benefit with this method is that you can also sync dependencies by your own Services as well! Just use poetry to add or modify dependencies appropriately and commit the changed poetry.lock. However, if the core project also has dependency changes your poetry.lock changes will conflict and you will need to learn how to do conflict resolution/rebasing. It is worth it though!

Symlinking

This is a great option for those who wish to do something like the forking method, but may not care what changes happened or when and just want changes synced across a team.

This also opens up the ways you can host or collaborate on Service code. As long as you can receive a directory that updates with just the services within it, then you're good to go. Options could include an FTP server, Shared Google Drive, a non-fork repository with just services, and more.

1. Use any Cloud Source that gives you a pseudo-directory to access the Service files like a normal drive. E.g., rclone, Google Drive Desktop (aka File Stream), Air Drive, CloudPool, etc.
2. Create a services directory somewhere in it and have all your services within it.
3. Symlink the services directory to the /unshackle folder. You should end up with /unshackle/services folder containing services, not /unshackle/services/services.

You have to make sure the original folder keeps receiving and downloading/streaming those changes. You must also make sure that the version of unshackle you have locally is supported by the Service code.

Note

If you're using a cloud source that downloads the file once it gets opened, you don't have to worry as those will automatically download. Python importing the files triggers the download to begin. However, it may cause a delay on startup.

Cookies & Credentials

unshackle can authenticate with Services using Cookies and/or Credentials. Credentials are stored in the config, and Cookies are stored in the data directory which can be found by running unshackle env info.

To add a Credential to a Service, take a look at the Credentials Config for information on setting up one or more credentials per-service. You can add one or more Credential per-service and use -p/--profile to choose which Credential to use.

To add a Cookie to a Service, use a Cookie file extension to make a cookies.txt file and move it into the Cookies directory. You must rename the cookies.txt file to that of the Service tag (case-sensitive), e.g., NF.txt. You can also place it in a Service Cookie folder, e.g., /Cookies/NF/default.txt or /Cookies/NF/.txt.

You can add multiple Cookies to the /Cookies/NF/ folder with their own unique name and then use -p/--profile to choose which one to use. E.g., /Cookies/NF/sam.txt and then use it with --profile sam. If you make a Service Cookie folder without a .txt or default.txt, but with another file, then no Cookies will be loaded unless you use -p/--profile like shown. This allows you to opt in to authentication at whim.

• If your Service does not require Authentication, then do not define any Credential or Cookie for that Service.
• You can use both Cookies and Credentials at the same time, so long as your Service takes and uses both.
• If you are using profiles, then make sure you use the same name on the Credential name and Cookie file name when using -p/--profile. [!WARNING] Profile names are case-sensitive and unique per-service. They have no arbitrary character or length limit, but for convenience sake we don't recommend using any special characters as your terminal may get confused.

Cookie file format and Extensions

Cookies must be in the standard Netscape cookies file format.
Recommended Cookie exporter extensions:

• Firefox: "Export Cookies" by Rotem Dan
• Chromium: "Open Cookies.txt" by Ninh Pham

Any other extension that exports to the standard Netscape format should theoretically work.

Widevine Provisions

A Widevine Provision is needed for acquiring licenses containing decryption keys for DRM-protected content. They are not needed if you will be using unshackle on DRM-free services. Please do not ask for any widevine Device Files, Keys, or Provisions as they cannot be provided.

unshackle only supports .WVD files (widevine Device Files). However, if you have the Provision RSA Private Key and Device Client Identification Blob as blob files (e.g., device_private_key and device_client_id_blob), then you can convert them to a .WVD file by running pywidevine create-device --help.

Once you have .WVD files, place them in the WVDs directory which can be found by calling uv run unshackle env info. You can then set in your config which WVD (by filename only) to use by default with uv run unshackle cfg cdm.default wvd_name. From here you can then set which WVD to use for each specific service. It's best to use the lowest security-level provision where possible.

An alternative would be using a pywidevine Serve-compliant CDM API. Of course, you would need to know someone who is serving one, and they would need to give you access. Take a look at the remote_cdm config option for setup information. For further information on it see the pywidevine repository.

PlayReady Device (PRD) Provisions

Similarly, a PlayReady Device file (.PRD) is needed for acquiring licenses and decryption keys for PlayReady DRM-protected content. PRD files are not required for DRM-free services. unshackle only supports .PRD files (PlayReady Device Files).

To create or manage PRD files, use the built-in CLI commands:

• uv run unshackle prd new — Create a new PRD file from device keys and certificates
• uv run unshackle prd reprovision — Reprovision an existing PRD file with new keys
• uv run unshackle prd test — Test a PRD file against the Microsoft PlayReady demo server

Once you have .PRD files, place them in the PRDs/ directory (see uv run unshackle env info for the path). You can set the default PRD file in your config with uv run unshackle cfg cdm.default prd_name. Service-specific PRD files can also be set in the config, just like Widevine. For best compatibility, use the lowest security-level PRD file available.

Do not ask for PRD device files, keys, or provisions as they cannot be provided. Only use PRD files for services you have the legal right to access.

End User License Agreement

unshackle and it's community pages should be treated with the same kindness as other projects. Please refrain from spam or asking for questions that infringe upon a Service's End User License Agreement.

1. Do not use unshackle for any purposes of which you do not have the rights to do so.
2. Do not share or request infringing content; this includes widevine Provision Keys, Content Encryption Keys, or Service API Calls or Code.
3. The Core codebase is meant to stay Free and Open-Source while the Service code should be kept private.
4. Do not sell any part of this project, neither alone nor as part of a bundle. If you paid for this software or received it as part of a bundle following payment, you should demand your money back immediately.
5. Be kind to one another and do not single anyone out.

Licensing

This software is licensed under the terms of GNU General Public License, Version 3.0.
You can find a copy of the license in the LICENSE file in the root folder.

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