Use proxies for all core Worker YouTube extraction

[devhims]

Problem / Motivation

Direct YouTube requests can delay transcript retrieval before the Worker reaches a working proxy. In the reported session, the direct attempt consumed eight seconds before proxy extraction succeeded. This follow-up to merged PR #99 removes that initial attempt.

What changed

Every core Worker extraction attempt now uses the configured proxy pool. Eligible failures retain up to four proxy attempts, rotating across configured gateways before repeating. Missing proxy configuration fails before any YouTube request instead of silently using direct access.

The direct timeout setting is removed. Existing proxy and total timeouts remain unchanged. PR #100's timeout changes are excluded. Frames, storyboards and caching are unchanged.

flowchart LR
    B[Before: Worker] --> D[Direct attempt, removed]
    D --> P[Proxy pool, retained]
    A[After: Worker] --> P
    P --> Y[YouTube]
    style D fill:#fee2e2,color:#7f1d1d,stroke:#b91c1c
    style P fill:#dbeafe,color:#1e3a8a,stroke:#1d4ed8

Loading

Core extraction now starts with the existing proxy pool.

Tests

Platform build, generated types and documentation checks passed. All 817 platform unit tests passed, with 11 existing skips. Coverage includes proxy routing, retries, missing configuration and cancellation.

The temporary deployed Worker passed all 17 extraction cases and both certificate checks. Ordinary transcripts took 2.0–3.0 seconds; French translation took 8.1 seconds across three proxy attempts. The temporary Worker was deleted. See reference/engineering/WORKER_EXTRACTION_RESULTS.md.

Deployment

Merge and deploy normally. Existing production proxy secrets are reused; no new toggle is required. Monitor uncached latency and success rate; proxies can still be slow.

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated
video2ctx-web	Ready	Preview	Sep 27, 2026 8:51am UTC