✖️ X Downloader

Save video and images from any public X post. Paste a link, the preview loads on its own, download the original file.

🖥️ The app

⚡ Live

✨ What it does

🎬 Video, photos and GIFs	Posts with several images come back as a set you can page through
💎 Original quality	Highest bitrate MP4 that X stores, photos at full resolution
👁️ Instant preview	The card appears as soon as a link lands in the field, no button
🔒 Nothing kept	Bytes stream straight through, no queue, no cache, no history
📱 Desktop and mobile	One layout that adapts, tested at 390px and 1440px
🚫 No account	No login, no extension, no captcha

🧭 How it works

  browser  ──▶  Go server  ──▶  cdn.syndication.twimg.com   (tweet JSON)
                    │
                    └────────▶  video.twimg.com / pbs.twimg.com   (media bytes)

Extraction uses X's public syndication endpoint, the same one the embed widget calls, so no API key is involved. Media is streamed back through the server so the browser receives a real filename and never talks to X directly.

🚀 Run it

Backend

cd backend
go build -o xdl .
PORT=4445 XDL_DIST=../frontend/dist ./xdl

Frontend

cd frontend
npm install
npm run build      # production bundle into dist/
npm run dev        # or hot reload on :5173, proxying /api to the backend

Open http://localhost:4445.

⚙️ Settings

Variable	Default	Purpose
PORT	4444	Port the server listens on
XDL_DIST	./public	Folder holding the built frontend
XDL_PROXY	unset	Upstream HTTP proxy, for example a local VLESS exit

XDL_PROXY exists for the day X starts refusing the host's own address. Point it at an Xray inbound and every request leaves through that exit instead. /api/health reports proxied: true when it is active.

📡 API

Method	Route	Returns
GET	/api/health	Service state and whether a proxy is in use
GET	/api/extract?url=	Post metadata plus every downloadable item
GET	/api/download?url=&filename=	The media, streamed as an attachment

curl -s "http://localhost:4445/api/extract?url=https://x.com/user/status/123"

{
  "id": "440322224407314432",
  "author": "The Ellen Show",
  "handle": "TheEllenShow",
  "likes": 1868788,
  "media": [
    {
      "type": "photo",
      "url": "https://pbs.twimg.com/media/....jpg?name=orig",
      "width": 1920,
      "height": 1080,
      "ext": "jpg",
      "filename": "TheEllenShow_440322224407314432_1.jpg"
    }
  ]
}

/api/download only accepts twimg.com hosts. Anything else is refused with a 403 so the route cannot be turned into an open proxy.

🛠️ Built with

Layer	Choice	Why
🟦 Backend	Go	Single static binary, streams large files without buffering
⚛️ Frontend	React + TypeScript	Small surface, strict types across the API boundary
⚡ Bundler	Vite	Sub second builds, dev proxy straight to the Go server
🎨 Backdrop	Canvas 2D	Sprites baked once per depth tier, blitted per frame

_{MIT licensed}