| name | youtube-api |
| description | Access YouTube Data API for search, channel insights, and video stats; use yt-dlp for approved downloads. |
YouTube API Skill
Use this skill for YouTube discovery, analytics lookups, or media retrieval.
Prerequisites
- API key stored at
~/.config/youtube/api_key or exported as YOUTUBE_API_KEY
- optional tools:
Setup
mkdir -p ~/.config/youtube
printf '%s\n' 'YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY' > ~/.config/youtube/api_key
chmod 600 ~/.config/youtube/api_key
Helper
YT_KEY="${YOUTUBE_API_KEY:-$(cat ~/.config/youtube/api_key)}"
BASE="https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3"
Search Videos
curl -s "$BASE/search?part=snippet&type=video&maxResults=10&q=autonomous+agents&key=$YT_KEY" | jq
Channel Info
curl -s "$BASE/channels?part=snippet,statistics&id=<CHANNEL_ID>&key=$YT_KEY" | jq
Video Stats
curl -s "$BASE/videos?part=snippet,statistics,contentDetails&id=<VIDEO_ID>&key=$YT_KEY" | jq
Download With yt-dlp
Use downloads only when policy and rights allow.
yt-dlp --skip-download --print "%(_type)s | %(id)s | %(title)s" "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<VIDEO_ID>"
Operational Rules
- respect quotas and back off on
429 or 5xx
- cache IDs and metadata when iterating on analysis
- never hard-code API keys into scripts or commits
