youtube-data

scrapingzeropointrepo

Use when structured YouTube data is needed: pasted video/channel/playlist links, transcripts for analysis, video metadata, channel upload history, search results, or playlist contents — without Google API quotas or OAuth. Triggers on YouTube URLs, creator names, topic research, or any request needing YouTube content, even if not mentioned explicitly. Not for uploads, account management, or written-source-only research.

Install

npx skills add https://github.com/zeropointrepo/youtube-skills --skill youtube-data

SKILL.md

---name: youtube-datadescription: Use when structured YouTube data is needed: pasted video/channel/playlist links, transcripts for analysis, video metadata, channel upload history, search results, or playlist contents — without Google API quotas or OAuth. Triggers on YouTube URLs, creator names, topic research, or any request needing YouTube content, even if not mentioned explicitly. Not for uploads, account management, or written-source-only research.version: 1.6.2user-invocable: truecompatibility: Requires internet access to reach transcriptapi.com. No additional runtimes or dependencies needed.required_environment_variables: - name: TRANSCRIPT_API_KEYprompt: Your TranscriptAPI key (starts with sk_)help: Free account at https://transcriptapi.com — 100 credits, no card required. Or let the agent create one for you.required_for: all API requestsmetadata: {"openclaw":{"emoji":"📊","requires":{"env":["TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"]},"primaryEnv":"TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY","homepage":"https://transcriptapi.com"},"hermes":{"tags":["youtube","transcripts","video","search","channels","playlists","data","metadata"],"category":"media"}}---

YouTube Data

YouTube data access via TranscriptAPI.com — lightweight alternative to Google's YouTube Data API.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.

Video Data (transcript + metadata) — 1 credit

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=json&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Response:

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [
    { "text": "We're no strangers to love", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
    "author_name": "Rick Astley",
    "author_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/maxresdefault.jpg"
  }
}

Video Info & Rich Metadata

Check languages before spending a transcript credit (free), or pull view/like counts, publish date, description, duration, and tags (1 credit):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/info?video_url=VIDEO_URL" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/video/metadata\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&include=details,related" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

video/metadata returns title, viewCountText, likeCountText, publishDate, description, descriptionLinks, channel, thumbnails, plus details (duration, category, tags, caption tracks) and related videos when requested via include.

Naming: /video/metadata was previously /video/info. The old path still works but is deprecated.

Search Data — 1 credit/page

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

type also accepts playlist and movie. First page only, you can add sort (relevance/views), upload_date (hour/today/week/month/year), duration (short/medium/long), and features (e.g. hd,subtitles,cc).

Video result fields: videoId, title, channelId, channelTitle, channelHandle, channelVerified, lengthText, viewCountText, publishedTimeText, hasCaptions, thumbnails

Channel result fields (type=channel): channelId, title, handle, url, description, subscriberCount, verified, rssUrl, thumbnails

Channel Data

Channel endpoints accept channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID. No need to resolve first.

Resolve handle to ID (free):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns: {"channel_id": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q", "resolved_from": "@TED"}

Latest 15 videos with exact stats (free):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns: channel info, results array with videoId, title, published (ISO), viewCount (exact number), description, thumbnail

All channel videos (paginated, 1 credit/page):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA&tab=videos" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Most-viewed first (channel Videos tab, ~30 per page)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA&sort=popular" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns ~100 videos per page + continuation_token for pagination. tab also accepts shorts or streams, and you repeat the same tab when paginating.

Sorting. Add sort=latest, popular, or oldest to channel/videos to get a channel's videos in the order you want, for example its most-popular uploads first. A sorted page returns about 30 videos (an unsorted page returns about 100), and every page costs the same 1 credit.

When paging, send the same sort on each request.

Item fields. Every item carries members_only, true only when YouTube badges it "Members only", and those items have no viewCountText. tab=streams items carry lengthText and publishedTimeText (for example Streamed 2 years ago); tab=shorts returns null for both, because YouTube's Shorts grid publishes neither. On the channel-tab feeds (tab=videos with sort, tab=shorts, tab=streams) channelId, channelTitle, channelHandle and index are null.

Search within channel (1 credit):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Channel profile (1 credit):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/info?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns: title, handle, verified, subscriberCountText, videoCountText, description, tags, thumbnails, banners, availableTabs

Channel playlists (1 credit/page):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/playlists?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns: results (playlistId, title, url, videoCountText, thumbnails), continuation_token, has_more

Channel community posts (1 credit/page):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/posts?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns: results (postId, authorName, text, publishedTimeText, voteCountText, attachment), continuation_token, has_more

Channel curated sections (1 credit):

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/sections?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns shelves of videos/playlists/shorts/featured channels, in the channel's own order. tab also accepts podcasts or releases.

Playlist Data — 1 credit/page

Accepts playlist — a YouTube playlist URL or playlist ID.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns: results (videos), playlist_info (title, numVideos, ownerName, viewCount), continuation_token, has_more

Credit Costs

Endpoint	Cost	Data returned
transcript	1	Full transcript + metadata
info	free	Basic metadata + languages
video/metadata	1	Rich metadata (+ details/related)
search	1/page	Video/channel/playlist/movie details
channel/resolve	free	Channel ID mapping
channel/info	1	Channel profile
channel/latest	free	15 videos + exact stats
channel/videos	1/page	~100/page unsorted, ~30/page sorted
channel/search	1	Videos matching query
channel/playlists	1/page	Channel's playlists
channel/posts	1/page	Community tab content
channel/sections	1	Curated home-page shelves
playlist/videos	1/page	100 videos per page

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
401	Bad API key	Check key
402	No credits	transcriptapi.com/billing
403/1010	Cloudflare block	Add or fix User-Agent header
404	Not found	Resource doesn't exist
408	Timeout	Retry once
422	Validation error	Check param format

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.