youtube-research

--- name: youtube-research description: Pulls structured YouTube data — video and channel details, transcripts/captions, comments, playlists, and search — via the Crawlora API as clean JSON, with no yt-dlp or HTML scraping. Use when the user provides a YouTube URL or asks for a transcript, comments, channel/video metadata, or video search results. --- # YouTube research Resolve YouTube videos and channels, and pull transcripts, comments, playlists, and search results as normalized JSON from the Crawlora API — no `yt-dlp`, no browser, no scraping. ## When to use this skill - The user pastes a YouTube URL and wants its transcript, summary, or stats. - "Get the comments on this video" / "what are people saying?" - "List this channel's recent videos / shorts / playlists." - "Search YouTube for …" or "what videos exist about …". - Building a transcript-based summary, sentiment, or research pipeline. - Comparing a bounded set of videos with timestamped transcript evidence. ## Setup (one-time) - Get a free Crawlora API key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at [https://crawlora.net](https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills). - Set `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` in the environment before running the helper. - The helper reads `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` from the environment and sends requests to `https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1`. Missing/invalid key → `401`. ## How it works 1. **Resolve the id.** A YouTube watch URL `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<ID>` (or `https://youtu.be/<ID>`) gives the **video id**; channel URLs give a **channel id**. Extract the id before calling. 2. **Transcript:** `/youtube/transcript/{id}` (use `/youtube/transcript/{id}/languages` first if you need a specific language). 3. **Metadata / comments:** `/youtube/video/{id}`, `/youtube/comments/{id}`. 4. **Channel:** `/youtube/channel/{id}/videos`, `/channel/{id}/shorts`, `/channel/{id}/playlists`, `/youtube/profile/{id}`. 5. **Discovery:** `/youtube/search?q=...` to find videos by keyword. Full endpoint list, methods, and params: [`reference/endpoints.md`](reference/endpoints.md). ## Transcript-backed topic research For a topic brief, search first, deduplicate by video ID, and choose a bounded sample that reflects the requested date, language, and video types. Discover available transcript languages before fetching captions. Request JSON with timestamps for evidence extraction; tie each theme or claim to the actual caption segment and video URL. A caption or translation may mishear speech and does not independently verify factual claims. Report unavailable transcripts and keep search rank, view counts, and comment samples separate from demand. For a wider map of topic and format coverage across videos or channels, use youtube-content-gap-analysis when installed. ~~~sh scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/search q="home energy storage" type=video sort_by=relevance scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ/languages scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ format=json timestamps=true ~~~ ## Calling the API ```sh # Transcript for a video id (GET): scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.' # Video metadata + comments: scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.data' scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/comments/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.data' # Search: scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/search q="web scraping tutorial" | jq '.' ``` Use `scripts/crawlora.sh` for all requests; it keeps the API key out of command-line arguments. ## Endpoint reference See [`reference/endpoints.md`](reference/endpoints.md) for every YouTube endpoint this skill uses (method, path, params, description). ## Examples - **Summarize a video:** extract the id from the URL → `/youtube/transcript/{id}` → concatenate transcript segments → summarize. - **Comment sentiment:** `/youtube/comments/{id}` → bucket comments by sentiment and surface common themes. - **Channel digest:** `/youtube/channel/{id}/videos` → list recent uploads with view counts and publish dates. ## Notes & limits - **Credits / pay-on-success:** billed only on `2xx`; free tier 2,000 credits/mo. Key at [https://crawlora.net](https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills). - **Public data only** — public YouTube pages; respect YouTube's terms. - **Security:** key lives in `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` only — never hardcode, query-param, or commit it. - Not every video has captions; check `/youtube/transcript/{id}/languages` when a transcript request returns empty.

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