TubeShelf

TubeShelf: your YouTube subscriptions as a plain, chronological feed

TubeShelf is a self-hosted web app for watching the YouTube channels you already subscribe to. It collects their new uploads and shows them in the order they were published — nothing else. There is no recommendation engine, no home-page algorithm, no advertising and no tracking. You see the channels you chose, and only those.

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What TubeShelf does

Chronological feed

Every new video from the channels you follow, newest first. No recommendations, no autoplay rabbit hole, no algorithm deciding what you see.

Lists and tags

Group channels into your own lists — music, news, long-form — and switch between them instead of scrolling one endless feed.

Built-in player

Watch without leaving the app. It remembers where you stopped, marks videos watched once you finish them, and can skip sponsor segments.

Import and export

Bring your subscriptions in from OPML and take them out again whenever you want. Your list is never locked in.

Self-hosted

It runs on your own server. Your subscriptions and viewing history stay in a database you control, not on someone else's analytics platform.

Optional YouTube likes

Link a Google account and you can like a video from the player, so the creators you watch here still get the signal. Entirely optional.

Why TubeShelf asks to access your YouTube account

TubeShelf works fully without a Google account, and most of the app never touches one. Connecting your Google account unlocks exactly one feature: liking a video on YouTube from inside the TubeShelf player, so the creators you watch here still receive that signal on YouTube. Nothing else in the app changes.

What TubeShelf asks for

A single scope, https://www.googleapis.com/auth/youtube.force-ssl. It is the narrowest scope Google offers that allows setting a rating on a video.

What it is used for

  • Reading whether you have already liked the video currently open in the player, so the button shows the right state.
  • Setting or removing your like when you press the button — or automatically, if you turned on auto-like and watched past the threshold you chose.

What it is never used for

  • No advertising, profiling, or resale of your data.
  • No training of machine-learning models.
  • No posting comments, no editing playlists, no changing your YouTube subscriptions, no reading your private videos.

Access tokens are stored encrypted on the server running this instance and are used only for the two calls above. You can unlink the account at any time in TubeShelf's settings, or revoke access from your Google account permissions page. TubeShelf's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. The full details are in the privacy policy.

Who runs this instance

TubeShelf is open-source software licensed under AGPL-3.0 that anyone can install on their own server. This particular instance is run independently by its own operator, who controls the server and the data it holds; it is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by YouTube or Google. The privacy policy sets out what is stored and how to get in touch.