# ytLlive — Task List > Task queue and authoritative research. Memory-map conventions: [`schema.md`](schema.md); > architecture/decisions: [`ai.md`](ai.md). Update statuses here whenever a task moves. ## YouTube Live API — research facts (authoritative, v3 build) Lifecycle: `created → ready → [testing] → live → complete` (transitional `liveStarting` / `testStarting`). - **liveBroadcasts.insert** requires: `snippet.title`, `snippet.scheduledStartTime`, `status.privacyStatus`, `status.selfDeclaredMadeForKids` (COPPA). - **liveStreams.insert** requires: `snippet.title`, `cdn.frameRate`, `cdn.ingestionType`, `cdn.resolution`. **None of the four (except title) can ever change after creation** — changing them means delete + recreate the stream. This is the hard constraint behind the quality grey-out. - **Title / description / privacy**: editable at any time, including while live (`liveBroadcasts.update`, part=`snippet,status`). - **contentDetails** (DVR, recordFromStart, monitorStream, embed, latency): editable only in `created` / `ready`. - **Transition to live** only allowed when the bound stream's `status.streamStatus == active`. ### Two features that reshape the design 1. **enableAutoStart / enableAutoStop** — instant one-click go-live, no transition call. With `enableAutoStart=true` we never call `transition(live)`: the broadcast auto-goes-live the moment the encoder starts. Combined with `enableMonitorStream=false` (our preview pane replaces YouTube's monitor stream — the thing that forces a testing stage), the flow is **create → bind → Start Stream → encoder starts → YouTube brings it live**. No testing, no transition polling, no liveStarting stuck-state handling. 2. **`cdn.resolution=variable` / `cdn.frameRate=variable`** — free auto step-down. YouTube auto-detects what we send; since we ARE the encoder we can drop bitrate/resolution on the fly with zero API calls. Declaring an explicit resolution instead (e.g. 1080p) requires a new stream, which can't happen mid-broadcast. Variable is the enabler for the whole auto step-down feature. ### Compliance gotchas (maps perfectly to report-by-exception) - `liveStreams.status.healthStatus`: `good | ok | bad | noData` plus `configurationIssues[]` with `type` + `severity` (`info|warning|error`). Literally built for report-by-exception — poll it, render nothing on good/ok, surface a banner only on warning/error. No need to invent our own health logic. - Encoder must comply or YouTube flags it: keyframes ≤ 4s (`gopSizeLong`), closed GOP, H.264, audio AAC/MP3 @ 44.1/48kHz, mono/stereo only. - Error codes to handle: `errorStreamInactive`, `invalidTransition`, `redundantTransition`, `liveStreamDeletionNotAllowed`, `liveStreamModificationNotAllowed`, `liveBroadcastBindingNotAllowed`. ### Tips we should take advantage of - **Reusable streams** (`isReusable=true`): one stream per channel, cache its ingestion URL + stream name, reuse for every broadcast. No rebinding dance each go-live. This is exactly the manual-stream-key baseline. - **Backup ingestion address**: YouTube provides a simultaneous-push backup — future hardening, not v1. - **`recordFromStart` + `enableDvr` default true** → every live is auto-recorded and immediately replayable. Free VOD archive, matches the v0.2 recording goal. - **`latencyPreference`: `normal | low | ultraLow`** — for homelab streamers talking to chat, `low` (or `ultraLow`, capped at 1080p) is a real feature. - **Broadcast ID == Video ID** — one ID to track everything. --- ## TASK 1 — Initial Scaffold **Goal:** Working C# / WPF project with MVVM architecture, dark-theme main window, and YouTube service stubs. ### Status: ✅ Done - Models: Scene, Source, StreamConfig, StreamHealth, YouTubeChannel, ChatMessage - Services: YouTubeAuthService (OAuth2), YouTubeStreamService (broadcast/health), YouTubeChatService (chat polling) - MainViewModel: scene management, stream controls, chat - MainWindow: scene/source panel, preview area, chat panel, status bar - Clean build, 0 warnings (WSL + Windows) --- ## TASK 2 — YouTube OAuth2 Authentication **Goal:** Fully working Google OAuth2 flow — user clicks "YouTube", browser opens, authorization callback lands, channel info is stored. **Design constraint:** Sign-in must NEVER block core exploration. Users can build scenes, add sources, and audition the software without authenticating. But **going live requires authentication** — the "Start Stream" dialog is where the account sign-in lives, alongside all stream metadata. **Two-state flow:** There is no separate "Connect" button. The top bar shows a single button — **Start Stream** when idle, **End Stream** when live. Clicking Start Stream opens one dialog that supplies everything: account (previously-saved account shown as default, with a Change Account action) + title/description/visibility. **Live indicators (unmissable):** Top bar + window title bar flip red, a pulsing **● LIVE** badge with elapsed timer appears in the top bar, the preview area gets a red glow, and the taskbar icon shows a red overlay dot. Window title bar shows the stream title once validated. ### Requirements: 1. **Google Cloud OAuth credentials** — client ID + secret, **baked into `Helpers/OAuthCredentials.cs`** (desktop "Desktop app" OAuth client; loopback callback — no console redirect URI registration needed; creators never configure) 2. **Local HTTP listener** — `HttpListener` on `http://localhost:PORT/oauth2/callback` to catch the redirect 3. **Browser launch** — open the authorization URL in the default browser 4. **Token persistence** — store access/refresh tokens securely (Windows DPAPI), reload on startup 5. **UI state** — account shown in the Start Stream dialog; "Change Account" action triggers re-auth 6. **Go Live gated on auth** — Start Stream dialog requires sign-in to enable the Start button; scene building works without it ### Tests: - Mock token exchange response, verify channel info parsed - Verify token refresh triggers when near expiry - Verify credential load/save roundtrip ### Status: 🔶 UI flow done — auth wiring pending - ✅ Two-state Start/End Stream button, go-live dialog (account + title/description/visibility), red top bar, pulsing LIVE badge + elapsed timer, preview glow, taskbar red dot - ✅ Real OAuth2 wiring — baked-in Google credentials (desktop client; loopback callback) + `YouTubeAuthService` complete: browser launch, `HttpListener` callback, token exchange, refresh, channel fetch - ⬜ Token persistence via Windows DPAPI, reload on startup - ⬜ Account sign-in/change surfaced in the GoLive dialog (GoLiveViewModel still simulates it) --- ## TASK 3 — Capture Pipeline (Scenes/Sources) **Goal:** Real video preview in the center panel — the minimal source set below, composited per scene. ### The Minimal Source Set (design decision — do not expand casually) ytLlive is YouTube-only and 90% of users are casual. OBS's long source list is off-putting; we ship the hot few and nothing esoteric. If a user needs more, they've graduated to OBS. 1. **Webcam** — the face cam. Non-negotiable. 2. **Screen** — the main event (game, slides, browser). One source; a picker chooses a monitor *or* a window. (Window capture is absorbed here — no separate source type.) 3. **Background** — a full-canvas backdrop image. Fills the whole scene automatically, zero fiddling. Kept separate from Image on purpose: same pixels, but this one needs no positioning. 4. **Image** — a floating graphic/logo overlay (watermark, badge, corner branding). Free-positioned. 5. **Text** — live text ("Starting soon", "Back in 5", handle, callout). Casual streamers live on this. 6. **Chat box** — YouTube live chat rendered *on* the stream so viewers read along in-video. YT-native. 7. **Alerts** — Super Chat / membership / subscribe pop-ins. The dopamine source. **The one big lift** (Super Chat event streaming + on-stream rendering/animation); build after the six. **Also the one paid feature** — see Monetization in `ai.md`. Deliberately NOT supported: game capture, browser source, media playlist, VLC, color-key voodoo, MIDI. ### Source memory model (design decision) - A scene has resources. Resources can be shared across scenes. - A resource exists exactly once in memory, no matter how many scenes use it (a logo in five scenes = one loaded bitmap). - Every resource carries a **catalog of scenes**: one usage entry per scene it appears in, each entry dictating that scene's use — placement (X/Y/Width/Height), opacity, z-order, enabled, scale mode, crop. - Usages are named `{resourceName}.{sceneName}` — whatever the user named the resource, dot, the scene name: `logo.starting`, `logo.live`, `myPic.brb`. Not a hardcoded "logo". - A webcam in two scenes = one capture session, two catalog entries. - Refcount by catalog size: the last usage removed → the resource is disposed and evicted. - The resource (not a per-scene node) owns everything `IDisposable`. ### Scene transitions (design decision) Scene switching while live must never stutter. Supported types, most → least economical: 1. **Cut** — instant switch. The default. Zero cost. 2. **Fade** — short crossfade (~300ms). 3. **Move** — a simple, economical move transition, done to perfection and memory-efficient. The smart streamer's bread and butter. 4. **Custom (media) transitions** — require media elements (video/stinger playback during the transition). Heavier, but creators pay for these, so we support them. Their media follows the same resource memory model: loaded once, catalogued by scene. Preview shows the transition too (WYSIWYG). No wipes/slides/LUTs beyond the four above. ### Requirements: 1. **Screen** — Windows.Graphics.Capture (WinRT), enumerate displays/windows, picker 2. **Webcam** — MediaCapture (WinRT) with device enumeration 3. **Background / Image / Text** — static sources positioned/scaled/opacity 4. **Chat box** — rendered from the live chat poll (right panel is the same feed, raw) 5. **Scene compositing** — per-scene source layering (z-order = sources list order, top-to-bottom back-to-front), preview rendered via D3DImage or MediaElement 6. **Branding flash** — the topmost full-frame "made with ytLlive!" layer at ~25% opacity, ~1s on / 300s off (see Monetization in `ai.md`), gated on `BrandFlashEnabled` + live/recording. Lives in the preview compositor now (`BrandFlashLayer` in `MainWindow.xaml` CanvasGrid, driven by `BrandFlashActive`/`BrandFlashTimer` in `MainViewModel`); the encoder output renders the same layer, and v0.2 local recordings carry it too 7. **Drag/drop placement & reorder** — intuitive, visual (per design principle): - **Preview:** click-drag a source in the center panel to reposition it; resize via handles - **Scenes list:** drag rows to reorder scenes - **Sources list:** drag rows to reorder sources (this *is* the z-order) — implemented ### Status: 🔶 In progress — scenes/sources UI built (add/reorder/rename, image + background overlays with move/resize/opacity/reuse); real capture/encoding pending --- ## TASK 4 — RTMP Ingest to YouTube **Goal:** Push encoded video to YouTube's RTMP ingest. ### Requirements: 1. **Encoding** — H.264 (hardware via NVENC/AMD, fallback x264) + AAC audio; **must comply**: keyframes ≤ 4s (gopSizeLong), closed GOP, AAC/MP3 @ 44.1/48kHz, mono/stereo only 2. **RTMP push** — FFmpeg subprocess or native RTMP library, to the cached reusable stream's ingestion URL 3. **Quality ladder** — the offered tiers, with **1080p60 @ 8 Mbps as the standard/default**: - Phone 480p @ 2.5 Mbps - 720p60 @ 6 Mbps - 1080p30 @ 8 Mbps - **1080p60 @ 8 Mbps** (default — mainstream ceiling, GPU hardware-encoded so the gaming machine never notices; upload headroom stays comfortable) - 1440p/4K = the paid unlock tiers (monetization), not the standard offering Ladder is sculpted by a **cached probe** (IP-only TCP vs public ingest host; no auth required). Quality is greyed out while live because the declared resolution can't change mid-stream — but with `variable`, we can **auto step-down** bitrate/resolution on the fly with zero API calls (no stream recreation); 60fps presumes a hardware encoder — no hardware encoder → auto fallback to 720p60/1080p30 4. **Stream key management** — reuse the cached reusable stream (one per channel) instead of creating a new one per go-live; prefill default YouTube ingest URL `rtmp://a.rtmp.youtube.com/live2` 5. **Health stats** — bitrate, FPS, dropped frames reported live in the bottom bar (encoder-side) 6. **One-click go live** — defaults that work out of the box ### Status: Not started --- ## TASK 5 — YouTube Live Stream Management **Goal:** Create/bind broadcasts, monitor YouTube-side stream health — the v3 way. ### Design decisions (v3) 1. **One-click go-live** — `liveBroadcasts.insert` with `enableAutoStart=true`, `enableAutoStop=true`, `enableMonitorStream=false`, `selfDeclaredMadeForKids=false`, `latencyPreference=low`. No `transition(live)` call, no testing stage, no liveStarting polling. Encoder starts → YouTube brings it live by itself. 2. **Variable reusable stream** — `cdn.resolution=variable`, `cdn.frameRate=variable`, `isReusable=true`. Create once per channel, cache ingestion URL + stream name, reuse for every broadcast. Any quality tier works without recreation; auto step-down needs no API calls. 3. **Report-by-exception** — poll `liveStreams.list`; banner only on `healthStatus` warning/error issues (`configurationIssues[]`). Bottom strip = YouTube logo + green/red connection dot (clickable → opens the dialog). 4. **One dialog, three states** — `not connected` (sign-in) / `connected-offline` (all editable) / `live` (title + description + visibility editable; quality + account greyed out). Both entry points (Start Stream button + bottom strip) open it; prefilled from saved session profile. 5. **Live edits** — `liveBroadcasts.update` with part=`snippet,status` for title/description/privacy. 6. **End stream** — stop encoder → `transition(complete)`, with `enableAutoStop` as the safety net. 7. **Broadcast ID == Video ID** — one ID to track status, health, and the auto-created VOD (`recordFromStart` + `enableDvr`). ### Requirements: 1. **Broadcast creation** — title/description/privacy/scheduledStartTime via API, with the v3 flags above 2. **Reusable stream** — create once, cache + reuse; bind to broadcast 3. **Health monitoring** — poll `liveStreams.list` `healthStatus` + `configurationIssues[]`, surface banner only on warning/error 4. **Live chat** — poll `liveChat/messages`, render in right panel, support Super Chat + membership badges 5. **Error handling** — the YouTube error codes: `errorStreamInactive`, `invalidTransition`, `redundantTransition`, `liveStreamDeletionNotAllowed`, `liveStreamModificationNotAllowed`, `liveBroadcastBindingNotAllowed` ### Status: Not started --- ## TASK 6 — Layout Persistence (SQLite) **Goal:** Scenes, sources, and asset bytes survive restarts; assets are always available. ### Design decisions 1. **SQLite database** (`Microsoft.Data.Sqlite`) at `%APPDATA%\ytLlive\ytLlive.db`; schema versioned via `PRAGMA user_version`. 2. **Assets live in the DB, not on disk** — `Asset` table stores image bytes (BLOB) keyed by a SHA-256 content hash (unique). Identical image content collapses to one row regardless of file name — the 1:M resource memory model, enforced by the database. No file paths; deleting the original file never breaks a scene. 3. **File-model save/open** — the active layout file is tracked (default is the AppData DB). **Save Layout As… / Open Layout…** switch the active file; auto-save writes to whatever is active. 4. **Auto-save (invisible)** — ~1.5s debounce on scene add/remove/reorder/rename/hide, source add/remove/reorder, and any source transform change; flush on window close. 5. **Schema** — `Scene` (Id, Name, IsHidden, IsChatScene, SortOrder), `Asset` (Id, Hash, Data, PixelWidth, PixelHeight), `Source` (Id, SceneId FK cascade, AssetId FK, Type, Name, IsEnabled, X/Y/Width/Height/Opacity, MonitorIndex, DeviceId, SortOrder). `WindowHandle` stays in-memory (per-session). Save = transactional rewrite; orphaned assets pruned. 6. **Startup** — load the active file; seed the default five scenes (Starting/Live/BRB/Chat/Ending) only when the DB is empty. ### Status: ✅ Implemented --- ## Backlog (future versions) - v0.2 — Recording to local file (recordings carry the branding flash — see TASK 3 / `ai.md` Monetization) - v0.3 — Stream scheduling - v0.4 — Multi-destination restreaming