bili.el

Repository: emacs-apps/bili.el.

A read-only Bilibili client for Emacs, built on Appkit and video.el: browse videos and live rooms, search, read details and comments, and play directly in an Emacs Canvas.

Setup

Requires Emacs 32.0 or newer, appkit.el, browser-session, and video.el with its native GStreamer module. Install these packages and bili.el with your package manager. From the bili.el directory in this monorepo, build the module:

make -C ../video.el module

Run M-x bili to open the comprehensive popular-video catalog (/x/web-interface/popular), not an account-personalized home feed. For the logged-in account’s separate personalized feed, use M-x bili-recommended.

Other entry points are bili-search, bili-live, and bili-open (a BV id, video URL, live-room id, or live-room URL). Catalogs load more pages near the visible window edge. For Evil bindings, see bili-evil.el.

Authentication and transport

M-x bili-login imports only SESSDATA and bili_jct through browser-session; the credential file is written atomically with mode 0600. M-x bili-logout deletes the imported credentials.

Account cookies are sent only by bili-api.el to these exact HTTPS origins:

• https://api.bilibili.com
• https://api.live.bilibili.com

Cover and avatar downloads accept only HTTPS on port 443 from hdslb.com, biliimg.com, or their real subdomains. Public image requests never receive account cookies.

CDN requests receive only the public bili.el user agent and a Referer: https://www.bilibili.com/ for video, or https://live.bilibili.com/<canonical-room-id> for live streams. They do not receive account cookies.

Signed CDN URLs are transient transport data, not canonical Appkit resource identities. Live streams use no disk cache.

Playback limits

• Video playback supports one safe progressive MP4 segment. Each part of a multi-part video has a stable BVID/CID cache identity.
• Live playback supports HTTPS HTTP-FLV with AVC; streams are explicitly non-seekable and shown as live by video.el.
• DASH audio/video merging, HLS, replay/round playback, danmaku, and all write operations are outside the current read-only scope.

bili.el does not invoke yt-dlp, mpv, ffmpeg, or a local HTTP proxy at runtime.

Runtime ownership

The canonical App owns immutable video, live-room, and comment entities and keyed metadata Effects. Generated Surfaces own catalog membership, pagination, selection, presentation phases, stale-request fencing, and playback-resolution Effects. Projections render entities by stable key; cover and avatar acquisition is declarative Resource demand.

Comments use a Generated Surface and appkit-discussion with stable root/reply identities and parent/depth metadata. Main-comment pagination follows Bilibili’s opaque cursor on scroll; nested replies appear as previews. Press t on one loaded comment or reply to translate only that body below its original. Configure appkit-translate-target-language and appkit-translate-backend-function; the default Respond backend needs separate authentication. This never loads additional replies.

M-x bili-core-stop stops the canonical App, generated surfaces, and owned effects.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.