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SendToKodi documentation

SendToKodi is a Kodi add-on that plays video and audio from YouTube, Twitch, Vimeo, SoundCloud, Dailymotion and 1000+ other websites on your Kodi media center. You send a link from your browser, your Android phone or your iPhone, and Kodi plays it on the big screen. Under the hood, yt-dlp resolves the website into a playable stream.

This site has the details: how to install and configure the add-on, how to send links from every device, how to call it from playlists, other add-ons or any JSON-RPC client, and how it works inside. For the quick overview, see the README on GitHub.

Users

Installation Requirements, the SendToKodi repository for automatic updates, manual installation, first start, updating, uninstalling
Usage Sending links from the browser extension, from Android (Kore), from iPhone and Mac (Shortcut), playlists, the queue, choosing a stream, subtitles, downloads
Settings Every setting explained: General, JavaScript runtime, yt-dlp, Adaptive
Troubleshooting What to do when a video doesn't play, where the log is, YouTube and bot checks, cookies, ARMv7 devices
FAQ Short answers to the most common questions

Integration

API & integration The plugin:// URL, JSON-RPC requests, yt-dlp options per request, the queue, M3U playlists and STRM files, calling SendToKodi from another add-on, Home Assistant and scripts

Background

How it works Architecture, the resolve-and-play flow, managed yt-dlp and Deno runtimes, the DASH manifest builder, stream selection, files on disk
Development Local setup, unit tests and coverage, project structure, running the add-on from a checkout, releases, writing documentation

The companion apps

The add-on does the work inside Kodi. To send links to it you use one of these:

  • Browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, Edge and other Chromium browsers: chrome.sendtokodi, with its own documentation.
  • Kore, the official Kodi remote for Android, through the Android share menu.
  • Apple Shortcut for iPhone, iPad and Mac, through the iOS share sheet.
  • Anything that speaks JSON-RPC: scripts, Home Assistant, playlists in Kodi itself.

All of them are described in Usage.