youtube

Use this skill when you need to:

• Search videos by keywords or filters
• Get video details (title, description, statistics, duration)
• Get channel info (subscriber count, video count, description)
• List playlist items (videos in a playlist)
• Fetch comments on videos
• Get trending videos by region

---

1. Create Google Cloud Project

1. Go to [Google Cloud Console](https://console.cloud.google.com/)
2. Create a new project or select existing one
3. Go to "APIs & Services" > "Library"
4. Search for "YouTube Data API v3" and enable it

2. Get API Key

1. Go to "APIs & Services" > "Credentials"
2. Click "Create Credentials" > "API Key"
3. Copy the API key

```bash

export YOUTUBE_API_KEY="AIzaSy..."

```

3. (Optional) Restrict API Key

For production use, restrict the key:

• Application restrictions: HTTP referrers, IP addresses
• API restrictions: YouTube Data API v3 only

---

> Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...'. Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

> ```bash

> bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" | jq .'

> ```

Base URL: https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3

---

1. Search Videos

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=kubernetes+tutorial&type=video&maxResults=5&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title, channel: .snippet.channelTitle}'

```

---

2. Search with Filters

Search for videos uploaded this year, ordered by view count:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=react+hooks&type=video&order=viewCount&publishedAfter=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title}'

```

---

3. Get Video Details

Replace with an actual video ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics,contentDetails&id=&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {title: .snippet.title, views: .statistics.viewCount, likes: .statistics.likeCount, duration: .contentDetails.duration}'

```

---

4. Get Multiple Videos

Replace , , with actual video IDs:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics&id=,,&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, views: .statistics.viewCount}'

```

---

5. Get Trending Videos

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics&chart=mostPopular®ionCode=US&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {title: .snippet.title, channel: .snippet.channelTitle, views: .statistics.viewCount}'

```

---

6. Get Channel by ID

Replace with an actual channel ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&id=&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {title: .snippet.title, subscribers: .statistics.subscriberCount, videos: .statistics.videoCount}'

```

---

7. Get Channel by Handle

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&forHandle=@GoogleDevelopers&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, subscribers: .statistics.subscriberCount}'

```

---

8. Get Channel by Username

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&forUsername=GoogleDevelopers&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, description: .snippet.description}'

```

---

9. List Playlist Items

Replace with an actual playlist ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlistItems?part=snippet&playlistId=&maxResults=20&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {position: .snippet.position, title: .snippet.title, videoId: .snippet.resourceId.videoId}'

```

---

10. Get Channel Uploads Playlist

First get the channel's uploads playlist ID, then list videos. Replace with an actual channel ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=contentDetails&id=&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq -r '.items[0].contentDetails.relatedPlaylists.uploads'

```

---

11. Get Video Comments

Replace with an actual video ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet&videoId=&maxResults=20&order=relevance&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {author: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.authorDisplayName, text: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.textDisplay, likes: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.likeCount}'

```

---

12. Search Comments

Replace with an actual video ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet&videoId=&searchTerms=great+video&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {author: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.authorDisplayName, text: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.textDisplay}'

```

---

13. Get Video Categories

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videoCategories?part=snippet®ionCode=US&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title}'

```

---

14. Search Videos by Category

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&type=video&videoCategoryId=28&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title}'

```

Note: Category 28 = Science & Technology

---

15. Get Playlists from Channel

Replace with an actual channel ID:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlists?part=snippet&channelId=&maxResults=20&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, description: .snippet.description}'

```

---

| ID | Category |

|----|----------|

| 1 | Film & Animation |

| 10 | Music |

| 17 | Sports |

| 20 | Gaming |

| 22 | People & Blogs |

| 24 | Entertainment |

| 25 | News & Politics |

| 26 | Howto & Style |

| 27 | Education |

| 28 | Science & Technology |

---

Videos

• snippet - Title, description, thumbnails, channel
• statistics - Views, likes, comments count
• contentDetails - Duration, definition, caption
• status - Upload status, privacy, license
• player - Embeddable player

Channels

• snippet - Title, description, thumbnails
• statistics - Subscribers, videos, views
• contentDetails - Related playlists (uploads, likes)
• brandingSettings - Channel customization

---

Use nextPageToken from response to get more results. Replace with the actual token from the previous response:

```bash

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=python&type=video&maxResults=50&pageToken=&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {title: .snippet.title}'

```

---

1. Quota limits: API has 10,000 units/day quota. Search costs 100 units, most others cost 1 unit
2. Rate limits: Implement exponential backoff on 403/429 errors
3. API key security: Never expose API keys in client-side code
4. Caching: Cache responses to reduce quota usage
5. Video IDs: Extract from URLs like youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID or youtu.be/VIDEO_ID