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-12 wins.
1. Streamlink --twitch-disable-ads is now a setting (default on, since
most users hit this — Twitch mid-roll ads otherwise get embedded
into the VOD output as black-screen audio gaps). Off only when the
user explicitly opts out via the new checkbox in Download Settings.
Applied in downloadVODPart args; clip downloads are unaffected
(Twitch clips do not carry mid-roll ads).
2. Right-click context menu on queue items. Items vary by status:
pending/paused -> Move to top, Move to bottom; failed -> Retry;
completed -> Open file (when 1 output) / Show in folder; always
-> Copy URL, Open on Twitch, Remove from queue. Move-to-top/
bottom calls existing reorderQueue IPC. Menu auto-dismisses on
outside-click / Escape / scroll, repositions to stay inside the
viewport.
3. Removed the global currentDownloadCancelled flag. It was a
leftover from before per-item tracking — every site that set it
(pause-download / cancel-download / remove-from-queue) already
added every active item to cancelledItemIds via the activeDownloads
loop. The four read sites (downloadVODPart close handler,
processOneQueueItem retry-loop guard, processDownloadMergeGroup
phase 1 and phase 3 guards, splitMergedFile loop) now check
cancelledItemIds.has(itemId) directly. splitMergedFile reads
from its itemId parameter (added in cycle 1) so the per-item
intent threads through correctly. Net: -8 lines, one less
global flag to reason about, no behaviour change for the
intended cases (per-item cancel via remove + bulk cancel via
pause/cancel both still work because they each populate the
per-item set).
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>
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>
Renderer-side polish bundle.
- updateQueueItemProgress now looks up items by [data-id] selector instead
of array index. Resilient against queue/DOM divergence between renders.
Determinate vs indeterminate progress logic tightened.
- Active tab persisted to localStorage on every showTab; restored on init
via loadPersistedActiveTab (whitelisted to known tab IDs so a future
rename cannot strand the user on a missing tab). Page title now only
shows the streamer name on the VODs tab — it no longer leaks into
Settings / Cutter / Merge.
- Escape closes the topmost open modal regardless of focus (clip dialog,
template guide, update modal — in that priority order).
- Ctrl+1..5 (Cmd+1..5 on macOS) jumps directly to a tab. The existing Del
(delete selected) and S (start/pause) shortcuts still work and remain
blocked while typing in inputs.
Adds docs/IMPROVEMENT_LOG.md (new, single dated section for this cycle).
Build: tsc clean. Full smoke suite green (failures: [], runtimeIssues: []).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Use dataTransfer.effectAllowed='none' instead of preventDefault() for dragstart
(preventDefault does not cancel dragstart events per HTML spec)
- Clear claimedFilenames Set in processOneQueueItem finally block to prevent
stale claims from blocking re-downloads of same VODs
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Queue selector uses min-width instead of fixed width for double-digit numbers
- Drag-start handler validates item is still pending before allowing drag
- ensureUniqueFilename uses in-memory claim set to prevent TOCTOU race
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replace checkboxes with numbered selectors (1, 2, 3...) that show the
merge order. Click order determines VOD sequence in the merged result.
Chronological auto-sort removed — user controls the order.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
