VODs disappear from Twitch after 7-60 days depending on the channel
partnership tier. Anyone serious about archiving needs to capture
streams while they are still live, not after. The downloader is now
a recorder too.
End-user surface:
- Each streamer in the sidebar has a small red "REC" pill next to
the remove-x. Click it -> server checks Helix (or public GQL when
no client_id is configured) for live status. If the channel is
online a new queue item is added with isLive: true, status:
pending; the existing queue scheduler picks it up. Toast feedback
for offline / already-recording / generic-failure cases.
- Live items render with a pulsing red REC badge in the queue title
row and skip the bulk-select checkbox + the merge-group selector
(they don't make sense for an open-ended capture).
- Output goes to {download_path}/{streamer}/live/
{streamer}_LIVE_{YYYY-MM-DD}_{HH-mm-ss}.mp4 — timestamped so back-
to-back recordings of the same channel never collide.
- Streamlink runs without --hls-start-offset / --hls-duration so it
records until the stream actually ends or the user hits cancel /
remove. The existing per-item filename claim, integrity check on
close, and downloaded_vod_ids tracking apply unchanged (live
recordings are not added to downloaded_vod_ids since they have
no Twitch VOD ID).
Server plumbing:
- New getLiveStreamInfo(login) helper. Helix /streams when an app
token is available (better metadata: title + game), public GQL
fallback otherwise so users in public-mode still get live status.
- New IPC start-live-recording(streamerName) does the live check,
refuses with ALREADY_RECORDING if a live item for the same
channel is already pending or downloading.
- downloadVOD branches into a small downloadLiveStream helper when
item.isLive — computes the timestamped filename, ensures the
per-streamer/live folder exists, hands off to downloadVODPart
with null start/end times.
- sanitizeQueueItem preserves the isLive flag across queue file
reload so a recording in progress survives an app restart in
state (though streamlink itself dies on app exit and the user
has to re-trigger).
DE + EN locale strings for every toast + tooltip + the queue badge.
CSS animation for the pulsing badge so it visually distinguishes
live recordings from regular VOD downloads at a glance.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three Phase-11 wins.
1. Streamlink stream quality is now configurable. config.streamlink_quality
defaults to "best" (preserves prior behaviour) but can be set to source,
1080p60, 720p60, 720p, 480p, or audio_only via a new dropdown in
Settings -> Download. The chosen quality is passed as STREAMS to
streamlink with ",best" appended as a fallback so an old VOD lacking
the chosen rendition still completes. Used by both the queue
downloadVODPart and the standalone download-clip IPC. The whitelist is
enforced via normalizeStreamlinkQuality so an arbitrary string in the
config file falls back to "best".
2. Per-item completion notifications. Default off because long queues
would spam the OS notifications panel. When enabled (Settings ->
Queue zwischen App-Starts checkbox area), every successful download
pops a "{title}" notification whose click brings the window forward
AND opens shell.showItemInFolder on the produced file (or the
download folder if the file is gone). The end-of-queue summary
notification still fires regardless.
3. Download-path writability check on selectFolder. The renderer now
asks the new check-folder-writable IPC after the user picks a
folder; if isDownloadPathWritable returns false, a warning toast
surfaces immediately instead of the next download failing with a
cryptic "datei zu klein" / "ENOENT" error. Save proceeds anyway —
the user might be picking a USB-stick path that is offline at the
moment.
Plus DE + EN locale strings for every label/option/hint, all wired
through applyLanguageToStaticUI for live language switch.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Four wins from a deep-audit pass.
1. Windows taskbar progress bar. While downloads run, mainWindow.
setProgressBar(0..1) shows aggregate progress on the taskbar icon
(visible while minimised). New activeDownloadProgress map tracks
per-item fractions because main's downloadQueue.progress field
is not updated mid-download (only renderer streams progress).
Cleared via clearDownloadProgress in processOneQueueItem.finally
so the bar resets when the queue idles.
2. VOD card data-* refactor. The previous inline-onclick template
strings did escapedTitle = title.replace(/'/, "\\'").replace(/"/,
""") and then interpolated that into onclick="addToQueue('...')".
Edge cases (titles with backslash, ', etc.) could break the
JS parser. All identity now lives on data-vod-id / -url / -title /
-date / -streamer / -duration on .vod-card. A delegated click
listener on #vodGrid reads the dataset at click time and
dispatches to openClipDialog / addToQueue / openExternal. Plus:
clicking the thumbnail / title / meta now opens the VOD on Twitch
in the OS default browser.
3. Right-click context menu on VOD cards. Items: "Open on Twitch",
"Copy VOD URL" (uses navigator.clipboard, toast confirmation),
"Trim VOD", "+ Queue", and toggle "Mark as downloaded" /
"Unmark downloaded". The mark toggle hits a new
ipcMain.handle("mark-vod-downloaded", id, mark) so a user can
add or remove entries in config.downloaded_vod_ids manually
without re-downloading. Menu auto-closes on outside-click /
Escape / scroll. Repositioned to stay inside the viewport.
4. userIdLoginCache now bounded (insertion-order eviction at 4096).
Was Map<string, string> with no cap; setUserIdLogin helper
centralises insertion + eviction. Long-running sessions with
thousands of unique streamer lookups no longer accumulate the
reverse-lookup table forever.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three companion features around the 4.5.22 already-downloaded badge.
1. "Hide downloaded" toggle in the VOD filter row. Persisted to
localStorage so power users who keep it on across sessions don't
re-flip it on every launch. Filter applies before the title-search
filter so the match counter stays consistent.
2. "Reset downloaded list" button in a new Backup & Maintenance
settings card. Confirm-dialog before clearing, IPC returns the
removed count for a "cleared N entries" toast. Renderer refreshes
its config copy + re-renders the VOD grid so badges disappear
immediately. No files are touched.
3. Config export / import via dialog.show*Dialog. Export strips
client_secret (should never travel as plain text via cloud sync),
tags the file with __exportVersion + __exportedAt. Import runs
the JSON through normalizeConfigTemplates so out-of-range fields
fall back to defaults; if the imported file lacks client_secret,
the existing value is preserved. After import the renderer reloads
config + relocalizes if language changed + re-renders streamers /
settings form / VOD grid.
DE + EN locale strings for every label, button, toast, and confirm
dialog. New backupCardTitle / backupCardIntro section header in
Settings.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three Phase-6 wins.
1. Cutter & Merge tab labels were the same i18n gap as the trim-VOD
dialog before 4.5.20: Dauer / Aufloesung / FPS / Auswahl / Start: /
Ende: / Schneiden / Zusammenfuegen were hardcoded German in
index.html. Each got an id + setText wiring + DE/EN locale strings
(cutter.infoDuration / .infoResolution / .infoFps / .infoSelection
/ .startLabel / .endLabel; cutter.cut + merge.merge already existed
for dynamic state, now also used as initial text on btnCut /
btnMerge).
2. Per-item retry button on failed queue entries. The existing
"retry failed" queue-action retried ALL failed items at once;
when only one specific item should be retried (e.g. transient
network blip on one URL), the user had to remove every other
failed item first. New ipcMain.handle("retry-queue-item", id)
resets that single item to status: pending and triggers
processQueue if idle. A small ↻ icon now sits next to the
remove (x) button on items in the error state.
3. Status bar queue summary. The footer previously showed only the
connection status + version. With longer queues the user had to
scroll the queue panel to see how many downloads were active
versus pending. New span between the status indicator and the
version reads "{downloading} dl, {pending} queued" (locale-aware,
hidden when queue is empty). Updated on onQueueUpdated and
onDownloadProgress so it stays live.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Three small UX wins.
1. Trim-VOD dialog: every inner label was hardcoded German in
index.html (Start:, Ende:, Startzeit (HH:MM:SS):, Dauer:, Start
Part-Nummer..., Leer lassen = Teil 1, Dateinamen-Format:, Zur
Queue hinzufuegen). EN-mode users had a German dialog. Each
element now has an id + setText wiring + DE/EN locale strings.
2. Settings -> Twitch API card now opens with a help line + link
to dev.twitch.tv/console/apps. Uses window.api.openExternal so
the link opens in the user's default browser instead of the
Electron renderer (which has nodeIntegration off / no native
navigation). Fixes the "no idea how to set this up" first-run
friction.
3. Settings -> Live Debug Log gets an "Open log file" button next
to Refresh. Uses a new ipcMain handle (open-debug-log-file ->
shell.showItemInFolder on DEBUG_LOG_FILE) so users no longer
have to navigate manually to ProgramData. As a small defensive
bundle:
- get-debug-log: lines parameter capped at [1, 5000] so a
misbehaving renderer (or future feature) cannot ask main to
slice millions of lines.
- export-runtime-metrics: now uses writeFileAtomicSync (the
fsync+rename helper from cycle 1) instead of plain
writeFileSync so a power loss mid-export cannot leave a
half-written metrics file at the user-chosen path.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
After a download completes there was no way to jump to the result
without manually navigating the download folder.
Server-side:
- DownloadResult and QueueItem gain optional outputFiles: string[]
(single entry for VOD/clip, multi for parts/merge-group splits).
Threaded through every downloadVOD / processDownloadMergeGroup
branch into processOneQueueItem which attaches it to the queue
item on success. Persisted via sanitizeQueueItem so the actions
survive a queue file reload.
- New IPC handlers open-file (shell.openPath) and show-in-folder
(shell.showItemInFolder), both with existence + type checks.
- The "downloads finished" Notification gets a click handler that
brings the window to the foreground and opens the download folder.
Renderer-side:
- Expanded queue-item details now render an action row when
status === completed and outputFiles is non-empty.
- "Open file" only shown when there is exactly one file (so multi-
part downloads do not surprise the user by opening just part 1).
"Show in folder" always shown.
- DE / EN locale strings + a graceful toast if the file was moved
or deleted between completion and click.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
