Offcourse – Download Online Courses for Offline Access

Built for Real Use

Not a proof of concept. A tool we actually use every day.

Offcourse handles the messy reality of online courses: different video hosts, authentication walls, locked content, flaky APIs. It just works.

Browser-Based Auth

Log in once through a real browser. Sessions are cached for future syncs.

Structure Preserved

Maintains module/lesson hierarchy. Navigate your course just like online.

Video Downloads

Supports HLS streams, Vimeo, Loom, and native MP4/WebM files.

Markdown Content

Lesson text converted to clean Markdown. Read anywhere, even offline.

Resumable Syncs

Already downloaded content is skipped. Sync incrementally as courses update.

Auto-Detection

Just paste a URL. Platform is detected automatically. Simple as that.

Platform Support

Each platform has its quirks. We've figured them out so you don't have to.

Browser-based login means no API keys to manage. Just sign in like normal, and Offcourse remembers your session for future syncs.

S

Skool

✓ Supported

Community-based learning platform with courses and classroom content.

skool.com/community/classroom

HL

HighLevel

✓ Supported

Marketing platform with membership portals. Firebase auth, HLS native videos.

member.domain.com/courses/...

LS

LearningSuite

✓ Supported

German LMS with sequential unlocking. Bunny CDN videos, PDF attachments.

*.learningsuite.io/student/...

Videos That Actually Download

Course creators use every video host imaginable. We handle them all.

From enterprise HLS streams to Loom screen recordings – Offcourse extracts the actual video files in the best available quality.

HLS Streams

via ffmpeg

Vimeo

embedded players

Loom

screen recordings

MP4/WebM

direct downloads

CDN Support: Bunny CDN · Cloudflare Stream · Vimeo CDN

Designed for Simplicity

Copy a course URL. Run one command. Done.

No YAML configs, no Docker containers, no environment variables. If you can use a terminal, you can use Offcourse.

1 Sync a Course

# Auto-detect platform and download everything
offcourse sync <url>

# Skip videos (text only)
offcourse sync <url> --skip-videos

# Preview without downloading
offcourse sync <url> --dry-run

# Limit to first 5 lessons (testing)
offcourse sync <url> --limit 5

2 Unlock Locked Content

Some platforms lock lessons sequentially. The complete command marks lessons as done to unlock more content:

# Iterates until all content is unlocked
offcourse complete <url>

# Show browser window
offcourse complete <url> --visible

3 Configuration

# Set output directory
offcourse config set outputDir ~/Courses

# Set video quality (1080p, 720p, 480p)
offcourse config set videoQuality 720p

# Set download concurrency
offcourse config set concurrency 3

Files You Can Actually Use

No proprietary formats. No special apps needed.

Open videos in VLC, read text in any Markdown editor, print PDFs. Your course, your files, your choice of tools.

~/Downloads/offcourse/
└── course-name/
    ├── 01-module-name/
    │   ├── 01-lesson-name/
    │   │   ├── content.md
    │   │   ├── video.mp4
    │   │   └── attachment.pdf
    │   └── 02-another-lesson/
    │       └── ...
    └── 02-next-module/
        └── ...

Installation

Get started in seconds

            Install globally
          
            $ npm install -g offcourse

or run directly

            Without installing
          
            $ npx offcourse sync <url>

Requirements

✓

Node.js 22+

Required

✓

ffmpeg

For HLS video downloads

Install ffmpeg: brew install ffmpeg (macOS) · apt install ffmpeg (Linux)

Under the Hood

Scraping modern learning platforms isn't trivial. Here's how Offcourse solves real-world challenges.

Each platform has its own authentication, content locking, and video delivery quirks. We handle them all so you don't have to.

Encrypted HLS Streams

Some platforms serve encrypted HLS playlists that are decrypted client-side. Standard downloaders fail because the playlist data is gibberish.

Our approach:

We intercept the actual .ts video segments as the browser plays them, capture their individual auth tokens, download each segment, then concatenate them with ffmpeg.

Persisted GraphQL Queries

Modern SPAs often use GraphQL with "persisted queries"—the server only accepts pre-registered query hashes, rejecting arbitrary queries.

Our approach:

Instead of reverse-engineering GraphQL, we drive a real browser and extract data from the rendered DOM. This approach is more robust and survives API changes.

Sequential Content Locking

Some courses lock lessons until previous ones are "completed". You might own the course but can't access lesson 10 until you've watched lessons 1-9.

Our approach:

The complete command iteratively marks lessons as done, triggering the platform to unlock subsequent content. It loops until no new content appears.

Persistent Session Management

Re-authenticating for every sync is tedious. Sessions need to persist, but also detect when they've expired.

Our approach:

We cache browser state (cookies, localStorage) per-platform. On each run, we validate the session and only prompt for login when truly needed. Interactive logins happen in a visible browser window you control.

CDN Token Authentication

Video CDNs like Bunny require signed URLs with short-lived tokens, API keys, and specific headers. Simple wget/curl doesn't work.

Our approach:

We extract all auth artifacts (cookies, tokens, API keys) from the browser session and pass them to ffmpeg and our download handlers via headers.

Built With

TypeScript Playwright Commander.js Zod ffmpeg hls-parser

Your Courses, Your Rules

Stop depending on someone else's servers.

Platforms shut down. Subscriptions expire. Internet goes out. Downloaded courses don't have these problems.

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