oytc

name	oytc
description	Query public YouTube data and an authorized channel's read-only analytics via the oytc CLI. Use for video/channel stats, searches, uploads, comments, live chat, watch time, traffic sources, and demographics.

oytc — read-only YouTube data and analytics CLI

oytc reads public YouTube Data API v3 resources with an API key and the authorized channel's YouTube Analytics with read-only OAuth. It never writes. Revenue/content-owner reports, private playlist/subscription access, moderation, uploads, and mutations remain unsupported.

This skill assumes oytc is installed. Public commands need oytc login (or OYTC_API_KEY); analytics ... needs oytc login --oauth. Verify both with oytc status --check. Exit code 3 means the indicated credential must be configured or reauthorized.

Core usage pattern

Always request machine-readable output: --format json (stable envelope with items, nextPageToken, requests) or --format jsonl (one resource per line). Piped output defaults to JSON already, but be explicit.

oytc search "topic" --type video --limit 10 --format json
oytc channel get @handle --format json                 # accepts UC… IDs, @handles, URLs
oytc channel uploads @handle --all --limit 200 --format jsonl
oytc video get VIDEO_ID --format json
oytc video stats VIDEO_ID_1 VIDEO_ID_2 --format json   # counters are JSON strings
oytc playlist items PLAYLIST_ID --all --format jsonl
oytc comment threads --video VIDEO_ID --order relevance --format jsonl
oytc live-chat stream --video LIVE_VIDEO_ID --limit 100   # JSONL; REST polling fallback

# OAuth-only owner analytics
oytc analytics overview --by day --format json
oytc analytics video VIDEO_ID --start 2026-01-01 --end 2026-01-31 --format json
oytc analytics traffic-sources --format jsonl
oytc analytics demographics --format json

Pagination: --all follows pages, --limit N caps output, --page-token resumes. Trim payloads with --parts and --fields when you only need specific properties.

Quota and safety

• search costs 1 call from a small daily bucket (default 100/day) — batch reasoning before searching, prefer channel uploads / playlist items for enumeration.
• Other list reads cost ~1 unit of a 10,000/day quota; exit code 5 = quota exhausted.
• Exit codes: 0 ok, 2 usage, 3 credentials, 4 not found/forbidden, 5 quota, 6 transient.
• Never print, log, or echo API keys, OAuth tokens, or the client secret. oytc status intentionally shows only a key fingerprint plus OAuth client ID/scopes/expiry. Do not read the auth.json credential file.
• View/subscriber counters arrive as strings; keep them as strings to avoid precision loss.

References

• references/commands.md — condensed command/flag matrix
• references/recipes.md — common data-collection recipes
• Full project docs: https://github.com/davis7dotsh/open-yt-cli/blob/main/docs/commands.md