Skip to main content

​
Prerequisites

RequirementVersionNotes
Python≥ 3.10Required to run from source
FFmpegAny recentRequired for recording; auto-installed on Windows
Node.jsAny LTSRequired for Douyin and a small number of other platforms

​
Non-technical users (Windows)

If you don’t want to run from source, download the prebuilt executable from the Releases page. Extract the zip archive and run DouyinLiveRecorder.exe directly — no Python or FFmpeg setup needed.
Some antivirus software on Windows may flag the packaged .exe as suspicious. This is a false positive caused by the PyInstaller bundling method. You can safely dismiss the warning, or run from source instead if you prefer full transparency.

​
Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ihmily/DouyinLiveRecorder.git
cd DouyinLiveRecorder

​
Install Python

Download and install Python 3.10 or later from python.org. During installation, check Add Python to PATH.Verify the installation:
python --version

​
Set up a virtual environment and install dependencies

Using a virtual environment keeps project dependencies isolated from your system Python. 
# Install uv if you don't have it
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

# Create a virtual environment and install dependencies in one step
uv sync
uv automatically resolves the virtual environment and Python version. If you don’t have Python ≥ 3.10 installed, uv sync will download and use a compatible version automatically.
On Windows, you can also install uv with PowerShell: 
powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1 | iex"

​
Install FFmpeg

FFmpeg is bundled with the prebuilt .exe. When running from source, the tool automatically downloads and installs FFmpeg the first time it starts — no manual action required.If you prefer to install FFmpeg manually, download it from ffmpeg.org and add the bin/ folder to your PATH.

​
Install Node.js

Node.js is required for Douyin and a small number of other platforms that use JavaScript-based signing. Install any current LTS release from nodejs.org.
Download the LTS installer from nodejs.org and run it.

​
Verify the setup

Run the tool to confirm everything is working: 
uv run main.py
or 
python3 main.py
If FFmpeg is missing, the tool will attempt to install it automatically. If Python dependencies are missing, you’ll see an import error — re-run uv sync or pip3 install -r requirements.txt to resolve it.

​
Next steps

Quickstart

Add your first stream URL and start recording.

Configuration

Customize recording quality, format, proxy settings, and more.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us