YouTube channels and playlists

Channels and playlists from YTAPI: profiles, uploads and playlist contents.

Setup

If YTAPI_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow it: the user either pastes a key or you create a free account with their email (200 credits, no card). Send the key as Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY and never print it.

Channels (1 credit each)

CHANNEL is an @handle or a UC... ID.

# Profile: title, handle, description, subscriber and video counts
curl -s "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/channels/CHANNEL" -H "Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY"

# Latest uploads
curl -s "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/channels/CHANNEL/latest" -H "Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY"

# All uploads, paged; sort_by: newest (default), popular, oldest
curl -s "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/channels/CHANNEL/videos?sort_by=popular" -H "Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY"

# The channel's playlists
curl -s "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/channels/CHANNEL/playlists" -H "Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY"

Playlists (1 credit per page)

curl -s "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/playlists/PLAYLIST_ID" -H "Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY"

Paging

Paged responses carry has_more and next_cursor. Pass cursor=NEXT_CURSOR to get the next page. Stop when you have enough: every page costs a credit.

Transcripts of the videos (1 credit each)

curl -s "https://api.ytapi.dev/v1/transcripts?video_id=VIDEO_ID&format=text" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $YTAPI_API_KEY"

For more than a handful of videos, use one batch (up to 100 tasks, 1 credit per successful task): POST /v1/batch, then poll GET /v1/batch/{id}. See https://docs.ytapi.dev/batch/run.

Credits and errors

Only successful responses use credits; errors are free. New accounts get 200 free credits. Until a credit pack is bought, a key can make 1 request per second and 100 per day (UTC); 429 daily_limit_exceeded means that day's limit is used up (it resets at 00:00 UTC; any pack removes it). 402 insufficient_credits means the balance is empty: packs from $9 at https://ytapi.dev/?utm_source=skill#pricing. 401 means the key is missing or wrong.

For video details, search, channels, playlists and batches in one skill, install ytapi. Full reference: https://docs.ytapi.dev