alt-ani-cli-win

Python CLI for watching and downloading anime from shinden.pl, optimised for Windows (PowerShell / Windows Terminal).

Requirements

• Python 3.14+ managed by uv
• mpv or mpv.net for playback

  winget install mpv.net   # or: scoop install mpv

• ffmpeg (optional) — enables HLS merging during downloads

  winget install ffmpeg    # or: scoop install ffmpeg

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Cybernetic-Ransomware/alt-ani-cli-win-shinden
cd alt-ani-cli-win
uv sync --no-group dev

Usage

alt-ani-cli [OPTIONS] [QUERY...]

Run without arguments for an interactive wizard (search → select series → pick episodes → choose player → quality → action).

Flags

Flag	Description
QUERY	Title to search on shinden.pl
--url URL	Skip search — use a direct series URL
-c, --continue	Resume from watch history
-d, --download	Download instead of playing
-D, --delete-history	Clear watch history and exit
-e RANGE	Episode number or range: 5, 1-5, -1 (last), 1 5 7
-q QUALITY	Quality: best, worst, 1080p, 720p … (default: interactive menu)
-S N	Auto-select N-th search result (1-based, skips menus)
-v, --vlc	Use VLC instead of mpv
--no-detach	Run player in foreground (blocks terminal)
--debug	Print stream URLs, do not launch player
--player-name NAME	Filter by player name (CDA, Mp4upload, …)
--lang {pl,jp,en}	Filter by audio language
--subs {pl,en,none}	Filter by subtitle language
--cookies-file PATH	Netscape cookies file (for age-gated content)
--cookies-browser NAME	Extract cookies from browser (chrome, firefox, …)

Examples

# Interactive wizard
alt-ani-cli

# Search and pick interactively
alt-ani-cli fate strange fake

# Auto-select first result, watch episode 1
alt-ani-cli -S 1 -e 1 soul eater

# Watch a specific series by URL
alt-ani-cli --url https://shinden.pl/series/65137-fate-strange-fake

# Download episodes 1–3 in 720p
alt-ani-cli -d -e 1-3 -q 720p --url https://shinden.pl/series/65137-fate-strange-fake

# Resume from history
alt-ani-cli -c

# Polish dub only
alt-ani-cli --lang pl vinland saga

# Japanese audio + Polish subtitles
alt-ani-cli --lang jp --subs pl berserk

# CDA with age-gate — use browser cookies
alt-ani-cli --cookies-browser chrome --url https://shinden.pl/series/...

Player selection

Players are sorted automatically:

• Watch mode: PL audio → JP → EN; highest resolution first
• Download mode: JP audio → EN → PL; highest resolution first

Failed players are marked with ✗ and can be retried interactively.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
ANI_CLI_PLAYER	Full path to mpv/mpvnet executable
ALT_ANI_CLI_ANTIBOT_DELAY	Seconds to wait between API calls (default: 5.0)

Downloads

Files are saved to %USERPROFILE%\Videos\alt-ani-cli\ by default.

Development

One-time setup:

uv sync                       # install all dependencies
uv run pre-commit install     # install git hooks

Day-to-day with just:

just test      # run tests
just lint      # ruff check, ty, codespell, bandit
just format    # ruff format --check (report only)

Supported video hosts

Native extractors: mp4upload, streamtape, dood, streamwish/filemoon family (JWPlayer), CDA, sibnet, VK.

All other hosts fall back to yt-dlp (1500+ supported sites).

Security notes

GUEST_AUTH token — the value hardcoded in config.py is a public guest token issued by shinden.pl for unauthenticated API access.

It encodes the literal string _guest_:0,5,21000000,255,4174293644 in Base64. Any visitor to shinden.pl receives the same token, so it is safe to commit and share openly.

Developer tools

Scripts in tools/ are used during development to inspect the shinden.pl API. They are not required for normal use.

Script	Purpose
tools/debug_embed.py <url>	Scans a player JS bundle for CDN domains and HLS/token patterns — used to reverse-engineer new embed hosts
tools/dump_search_html.py [query]	Dumps parsed search result rows from shinden.pl — used to debug the search HTML parser

uv run python tools/dump_search_html.py "soul eater"
uv run python tools/debug_embed.py https://example-embed-host.com/e/abc123