aniworld-cli

Stream anime from aniworld.to in your terminal, with the look and feel of ani-cli.

Demo (click to expand)

Features

• fzf menus like ani-cli: type to filter, arrows to move, Enter to pick. fzf ships with the iterfzf dependency, there is nothing extra to install.
• Series, season (including movies), episode, then a language menu when an episode offers more than one (German dub, German subtitles, English subtitles). Your language choice carries over to the next episodes.
• After playback: next, replay, previous, select, quit, just like ani-cli.
• Resume: picking a series again offers to continue with the episode after the one you watched last, into the next season when one ends.
• Watchlist (-w): jump back into a series you watched without searching.
• Binge mode (--auto): plays the next episode automatically until the season ends.
• Hoster fallback: tries VOE, then Vidmoly. Every stream is checked before mpv starts, so a hoster that hands out dead (403) segments is skipped instead of stalling the player.
• mpv only: streaming, no downloads. mpv shows Series – S01E03 as the title.
• Update hint: once a day it checks GitHub for a newer release and prints the upgrade command (pipx or pip). Offline or rate-limited, it stays quiet.

Install

Quick install

Linux (installs mpv with your package manager, asks for sudo):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dxmoc/aniworld-cli/main/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell, no Python needed, mpv is included):

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dxmoc/aniworld-cli/main/install.ps1 | iex

Run the same command again to update. The Linux script supports apt, dnf, pacman and zypper and installs into ~/.local/share/aniworld-cli. The Windows script unpacks aniworld-cli-windows.zip from the latest release (aniworld-cli with Python and mpv) to %LOCALAPPDATA%\aniworld-cli and adds it to your PATH. Windows may warn about an unknown publisher because the exe is not signed.

To uninstall, delete ~/.local/share/aniworld-cli and ~/.local/bin/aniworld-cli on Linux, or %LOCALAPPDATA%\aniworld-cli and its PATH entry on Windows.

Manual install

You need Python 3.9+ and mpv on your PATH.

1. aniworld-cli

With pipx (recommended, keeps it in its own environment):

pipx install git+https://github.com/dxmoc/aniworld-cli

With pip (or install a wheel from the releases page):

pip install git+https://github.com/dxmoc/aniworld-cli

With Nix (flakes enabled; mpv and fzf come along):

nix run github:dxmoc/aniworld-cli

To update later, install again over the old version (pipx upgrade does not re-fetch installs from git; aniworld-cli is not on PyPI):

pipx install --force git+https://github.com/dxmoc/aniworld-cli

2. mpv

System	Command
Arch / Manjaro	sudo pacman -S mpv
Debian / Ubuntu / WSL	sudo apt install mpv
Fedora	sudo dnf install mpv
Windows (Scoop)	scoop bucket add extras then scoop install mpv
Windows (winget)	winget install --id shinchiro.mpv

After installing on Windows, open a new terminal so the updated PATH applies. The winget package does not add mpv to PATH by itself: add its folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\MPV Player) or pass --player "C:\Program Files\MPV Player\mpv.exe". Check with mpv --version.

Tested in CI on Linux (Python 3.9 to 3.14) and Windows (3.9 and 3.14, mpv from Scoop). macOS should work but is untested. In WSL, mpv needs a GUI backend (WSLg on Windows 11) to open a window.

Usage

aniworld-cli                       # asks for a search term
aniworld-cli "frieren"             # search, then pick series, season, episode
aniworld-cli -w                    # pick from series you watched before
aniworld-cli "frieren" --auto      # binge the season
aniworld-cli "frieren" --lang eng-sub
aniworld-cli "frieren" --no-menu --episode 1-3   # straight to S01E03
aniworld-cli -w --no-menu          # continue the most recent series

Keys in the menus

Key	Action
typing	filter the list (fuzzy, like fzf)
Up / Down, Ctrl-K / Ctrl-J	move (wraps around)
Enter	pick
Esc, Ctrl-C	abort (in the menu after playback: quit)

Menus with a single entry, such as a series with one season, are skipped.

Options

Option	Meaning
query	search term (asked for if missing)
-w, --watchlist	pick from series you watched before instead of searching
--episode S-E	pick season and episode directly, e.g. 1-3 (0-1 = first movie)
--no-menu	no interactive menus, use arguments and defaults only
--auto	play the next episode automatically until the season ends
--lang LIST	language priority, e.g. ger-dub,ger-sub,eng-sub
--hoster LIST	hoster priority, comma-separated, e.g. Vidmoly,VOE
--player PATH	path to mpv (default: the bundled mpv on Windows, otherwise from PATH)
--debug	print the stream URL and headers instead of starting mpv; shows full tracebacks
--version	print the version

Language tokens: ger-dub (German dub), ger-sub (German subtitles), eng-sub (English subtitles). Default order: ger-dub,ger-sub,eng-sub.

Environment variables

Variable	Effect
ANIWORLD_LANG	language priority, like --lang
ANIWORLD_HOSTER	hoster priority, like --hoster
ANIWORLD_STATE_DIR	where resume and watchlist data is stored
ANIWORLD_BASE_URL	override the site URL
ANIWORLD_UA	custom User-Agent

Resume and watchlist data lives in state.json under %APPDATA%\aniworld-cli on Windows and ~/.config/aniworld-cli (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME) elsewhere.

Troubleshooting

Message or symptom	Fix
mpv not found!	Install mpv (see above) or pass --player <path>.
fzf not found!	Only happens when installed from source without the bundled fzf. Install fzf or use the release wheel.
No hoster returned a playable stream!	The hosters are down for this episode. Try again later or pick another language with --lang.
Cloudflare message	The site is blocking automated access. An external FlareSolverr service can help (not included).
Garbled characters on Windows	UTF-8 is forced automatically; on old consoles chcp 65001 helps.
No mpv window in WSL	WSL needs a GUI backend (WSLg on Windows 11). --debug still resolves the URL.

Hoster status

aniworld.to changes hosters and their embed pages regularly. Last checked 2026-10-21:

Hoster	Status
VOE	working
Vidmoly	working
Doodstream	removed, embed is behind a Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA
Filemoon	removed, needs a headless browser
Vidoza, SpeedFiles, Streamtape	removed, no longer offered by the site

VOE and Vidmoly covered every episode in a live survey, so the removed hosters cost no real coverage. A new hoster is one module in aniworld_cli/extractors/, see the extractor contract in that package's __init__.py.

Development

git clone https://github.com/dxmoc/aniworld-cli.git
cd aniworld-cli
python -m venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate   # Windows: .\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -e . pytest
python -m pytest -q

The tests run offline against saved pages in tests/fixtures/. For a live check without starting mpv: aniworld-cli "naruto" --no-menu --episode 1-1 --debug should print a master.m3u8 URL.

Code path: search.py -> series.py / episode.py -> resolve.py -> extractors/<hoster>.py -> player.py. Menus live in cli.py, all on-screen text in i18n.py.

Credits and license

aniworld-cli is a derivative work of ani-cli by pystardust and contributors (GPL-3.0). Changes from the original: rewritten in Python, ported to aniworld.to, season/episode/language menus, resume and watchlist, binge mode, liveness-checked hoster fallback.

Licensed under the GNU GPL v3.0 or later, see LICENSE. Copyright © 2026 dxmoc.

This is a client-side access tool and hosts no content. You are responsible for using it lawfully.