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youtube-channels

youtube-channels

github.com/zeropointrepoProductivity1.1k755 installsUpdated 5w ago
Repository

About youtube-channels

youtube-channels is a skill for retrieving and monitoring YouTube channel data through TranscriptAPI.com. It supports channel feeds, profiles, playlists, community posts, and curated sections, with pagination for several feeds.

Key features

  1. 01Resolve handles, URLs, and channel IDs
  2. 02Retrieve latest videos and channel profiles
  3. 03Browse uploads, Shorts, and live streams
  4. 04Search videos within a channel
  5. 05List playlists, posts, and channel sections

Use cases

  1. 01Monitor a channel’s latest uploads
  2. 02Find a channel video by topic
  3. 03Review channel playlists and community posts

Install

Copy the command and run it in a terminal.

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

After installing, type/youtube-channelsin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.

Bundled filesreferences/auth-setup.mdreferences/curl-examples.md

Details

From the project README

YouTube Channels

YouTube channel tools via TranscriptAPI.com.

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.

All channel endpoints accept flexible input — @handle, channel URL, or UC... channel ID. No need to resolve first.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE

Convert @handle, URL, or UC... ID to canonical channel ID.

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
inputyes1-200 chars — @handle, URL, or UC... ID

Response:

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

If input is already UC[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{22}, returns immediately.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/latest — FREE

Latest 15 videos via RSS with exact stats.

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
channelyes@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID

Response:

{
  "channel": {
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "title": "TED",
    "author": "TED",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "published": "2006-04-17T00:00:00Z"
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
      "title": "Latest Video Title",
      "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
      "author": "TED",
      "published": "2026-01-30T16:00:00Z",
      "updated": "2026-01-31T02:00:00Z",
      "link": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123xyz00",
      "description": "Full video description...",
      "thumbnail": { "url": "https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/.../hqdefault.jpg" },
      "viewCount": "2287630",
      "starRating": {
        "average": "4.92",
        "count": "15000",
        "min": "1",
        "max": "5"
      }
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 15
}

Great for monitoring channels — free and gives exact view counts + ISO timestamps.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/videos — 1 credit/page

Paginated list of a channel's feed (~100 per page). Use tab to pick uploads (default), Shorts, or live streams, and the optional sort to order the Videos tab by latest, popular, or oldest.

# First page
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA&tab=videos
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

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

# Next pages (repeat the same tab AND sort)
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?continuation=TOKEN&sort=popular
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
channelconditional@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
tabnovideos (default), shorts, or streams
sortnolatest, popular, or oldest (omit for the uploads feed)
continuationconditionalnon-empty (next pages)

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation, not both. When paginating, pass the same tab and sort on every page.

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.

Per-item fields by feed:

Fielduploads (no sort)tab=videos + sorttab=streamstab=shorts
lengthTextpopulatedpopulatedpopulated (LIVE while live)null
publishedTimeTextpopulatedpopulatedpopulated (Streamed 2 years ago)null
viewCountTextpopulatedpopulatedpopulated (null while live)populated
channelId / channelTitle / channelHandle / indexpopulatednullnullnull
members_onlyalways falsetrue on membership videostrue on membership streamsalways false

members_only is true only when YouTube badges the item "Members only". Such items carry no viewCountText, because YouTube does not publish view counts for membership content.

Response:

{
  "results": [{
    "videoId": "abc123xyz00",
    "title": "Video Title",
    "channelId": "UCsT0YIqwnpJCM-mx7-gSA4Q",
    "channelTitle": "TED",
    "channelHandle": "@TED",
    "lengthText": "15:22",
    "viewCountText": "3.2M views",
    "publishedTimeText": "2 years ago",
    "thumbnails": [...],
    "index": "0",
    "members_only": false
  }],
  "playlist_info": {"title": "Uploads from TED", "numVideos": "5000", "ownerName": "TED"},
  "continuation_token": "4qmFsgKlARIYVVV1...",
  "has_more": true
}

Keep calling with continuation until has_more: false.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit

Search within a specific channel.

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
channelyes@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
qyes1-200 chars
limitno1-50 (default 30)

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/info — 1 credit

A channel's profile: title, handle, verified flag, subscriber/video counts, description, tags, thumbnails, banners, and the tabs it exposes.

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/info?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
channelyes@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID

Response:

{
  "channelId": "UCAuUUnT6oDeKwE6v1NGQxug",
  "title": "TED",
  "handle": "@TED",
  "verified": true,
  "subscriberCountText": "23.8M subscribers",
  "videoCountText": "4,300 videos",
  "description": "The TED Talks channel features ...",
  "tags": ["TED", "TED Talks"],
  "thumbnails": [...],
  "banners": [...],
  "availableTabs": ["videos", "shorts", "playlists", "community"]
}

Counts are display strings and null when YouTube hides them — never 0. Check availableTabs before calling channel/sections or channel/videos with a tab.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/playlists — 1 credit/page

List the playlists shown on a channel — useful for finding a playlist ID to feed into playlist/videos.

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/playlists?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
channelconditional@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
continuationconditionalnon-empty (next pages)

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation, not both. Returns results (playlistId, title, url, videoCountText, thumbnails), continuation_token, has_more.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/posts — 1 credit/page

List a channel's community (Posts tab) content — text, publish time, like counts, and any attachment (image, video, playlist, or poll).

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/posts?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredValidation
channelconditional@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
continuationconditionalnon-empty (next pages)

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation, not both. Channels with no community tab return an empty results list (not an error).

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/sections — 1 credit

The curated shelves on a channel's Home page (or its podcasts/releases pages) — each shelf holds videos, playlists, shorts, or featured channels, in the channel's own order. Not paginated.

GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/sections?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0
ParamRequiredDefaultValidation
channelyes—@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
tabnofeaturedfeatured (Home), podcasts, releases

podcasts and releases only exist on channels that have them (empty results otherwise — check availableTabs from channel/info first).

Typical workflow

# 1. Check latest uploads (free — pass @handle directly)
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

# 2. Get transcript of recent video
GET https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true
Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0

Errors

CodeMeaningAction
400Invalid param combinationBoth or neither channel/continuation
402No creditstranscriptapi.com/billing
403/1010Cloudflare blockAdd or fix User-Agent header
404Channel not foundCheck handle or URL
408TimeoutRetry once
422Invalid channel identifierCheck param format

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Free endpoints (resolve, latest) require auth but don't consume credits.

Copy-paste examples

Every request in this file as a ready-to-run one-liner: references/curl-examples.md

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