PULSE

A sleek media downloader for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X and 1000+ platforms, with real-time SSE progress and a modern UI.

Features

• Multi-Platform Support — Download from YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X and 1000+ sites via yt-dlp
• Real-Time Progress — SSE-powered live progress bar, no polling
• Format Options — Video, Audio, Thumbnail, Subtitles with quality selectors
• Clipboard Detection — Auto-detects media URLs from your clipboard
• QuickTime Compatible — H.264 encoded videos that play natively on macOS

Tech Stack

• Frontend — React 19 + Vite, Framer Motion, Lucide Icons
• Backend — Express.js, SSE for real-time updates
• Media Processing — yt-dlp with FFmpeg

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18+
• yt-dlp installed (brew install yt-dlp)
• FFmpeg installed (brew install ffmpeg)

Installation

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/Jai0401/pulse.git
cd pulse

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start frontend (terminal 1)
npm run dev

# Start backend (terminal 2)
node server/index.cjs

Environment Configuration

Create a local .env file (copy from .env.example) and set your API base URL:

# Frontend (Vite)
VITE_API_URL=http://localhost:3001

# Backend (Express)
PORT=3001
FRONTEND_URL=http://localhost:5173
CORS_ORIGIN=http://localhost:5173

Usage

1. Paste any media URL into the input
2. Select format (Video/Audio/Thumbnail/Subtitles)
3. Choose quality and output format
4. Click "Download Now"

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + Enter	Analyze URL
Esc	Clear input

Deployment (Frontend on Vercel, Backend on Render)

Vercel (Frontend)

Set the environment variable in Vercel:

VITE_API_URL=https://your-render-service.onrender.com

Render (Backend)

Create a new Web Service pointing to this repo. Use:

• Build Command: npm install
• Start Command: node server/index.cjs

Set environment variables:

PORT=3001
FRONTEND_URL=https://your-vercel-app.vercel.app
CORS_ORIGIN=https://your-vercel-app.vercel.app