YouTube Channel Scraper

A browser-based YouTube channel discovery and scraping tool.

Part of ScrapeClaw — a suite of production-ready, agentic social media scrapers for Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and Facebook built with Python & Playwright, no API keys required.

---
name: youtube-scrapper
description: Discover and scrape YouTube channels from your browser.
emoji: 📺
version: 1.0.2
author: influenza
tags:
  - youtube
  - scraping
  - social-media
  - channel-discovery
  - influencer-discovery
metadata:
  clawdbot:
    requires:
      bins:
        - python3
        - chromium

    config:
      stateDirs:
        - data/output
        - data/queue
        - thumbnails
      outputFormats:
        - json
        - csv
---

Overview

This skill provides a two-phase YouTube scraping system:

1. Channel Discovery — Find YouTube channels via Google Search (browser-based, no API key required)
2. Browser Scraping — Scrape public channel data using Playwright with anti-detection (no login required)

Features

• 🔍 - Discover YouTube channels by location and category
• 🌐 - Full browser simulation for accurate scraping
• 🛡️ - Browser fingerprinting, human behavior simulation, and stealth scripts
• 📊 - Channel info, subscribers, views, videos, engagement data, and media
• 💾 - JSON export with downloaded thumbnails
• 🔄 - Resume interrupted scraping sessions
• ⚡ - Auto-skip unavailable channels and low-subscriber profiles
• 🌍 - Built-in residential proxy support with 4 providers
• 🗺️ - Regional configs for US, UK, Europe, India, Gulf, and East Asia

Usage

Agent Tool Interface

For OpenClaw agent integration, the skill provides JSON output:

# Discover YouTube channels (returns JSON queue)
python scripts/youtube_channel_discovery.py --categories tech --locations India

# Scrape from a queue file
python scripts/youtube_channel_scraper.py --queue data/queue/your_queue_file.json

# Full orchestration — discover + scrape in one go
python scripts/youtube_orchestrator.py --config resources/scraper_config_ind.json

Output Data

Channel Data Structure

{
  "channel_name": "Marques Brownlee",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
  "subscribers": 19200000,
  "total_views": 4500000000,
  "video_count": 1800,
  "description": "MKBHD: Quality Tech Videos...",
  "joined_date": "Mar 21, 2008",
  "country": "United States",
  "profile_pic_url": "https://...",
  "profile_pic_local": "thumbnails/mkbhd/profile_abc123.jpg",
  "banner_url": "https://...",
  "banner_local": "thumbnails/mkbhd/banner_def456.jpg",
  "influencer_tier": "mega",
  "category": "tech",
  "scrape_location": "New York",
  "scraped_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00",
  "recent_videos": [
    {
      "title": "Galaxy S26 Ultra Review",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...",
      "views": 5200000,
      "published": "2 days ago",
      "duration": "14:32",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://...",
      "thumbnail_local": "thumbnails/mkbhd/video_0_ghi789.jpg"
    }
  ]
}

Queue File Structure

{
  "location": "India",
  "category": "tech",
  "total": 20,
  "channels": ["@channel1", "@channel2", "..."],
  "completed": ["@channel1"],
  "failed": {"@channel3": "not_found"},
  "current_index": 2,
  "created_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00",
  "source": "google_search"
}

Influencer Tiers

File Outputs

• Queue files:

  data/queue/{region}/{location}_{category}_{timestamp}.json

• Scraped data:

  data/output_{region}/{channel_name}.json

• Thumbnails:

  thumbnails_{region}/{channel}/profile_*.jpg

  ,

  thumbnails_{region}/{channel}/video_*.jpg

• Progress:

  data/progress/discovery_progress_{region}.json

Configuration

Regional config files live in

resources/

resources/scraper_config_us.json
resources/scraper_config_uk.json
resources/scraper_config_eur.json
resources/scraper_config_ind.json
resources/scraper_config_gulf.json
resources/scraper_config_east.json

Example config (

resources/scraper_config_ind.json

{
  "proxy": {
    "enabled": false,
    "provider": "brightdata",
    "country": "",
    "sticky": true,
    "sticky_ttl_minutes": 10
  },
  "categories": [
    "gaming", "tech", "beauty", "fashion", "fitness",
    "food", "travel", "music", "education", "comedy",
    "lifestyle", "cooking", "diy", "art", "finance",
    "health", "entertainment"
  ],
  "locations": [
    "India", "Mumbai", "Delhi", "Bangalore", "Hyderabad",
    "Chennai", "Kolkata", "Pune", "Ahmedabad", "Jaipur"
  ],
  "max_videos_to_scrape": 6,
  "headless": false,
  "results_per_search": 20,
  "search_delay": [3, 7],
  "scrape_delay": [2, 5],
  "rate_limit_wait": 60,
  "max_retries": 3
}

Filters Applied

The scraper automatically filters out:

• ❌ Unavailable or terminated channels
• ❌ Channels with < 500 subscribers (configurable)
• ❌ Non-existent channel URLs
• ❌ Already scraped entries (deduplication)
• ❌ Rate-limited requests (auto-retry with backoff)

Anti-Detection

The scraper uses multiple anti-detection techniques:

• Browser fingerprinting — Rotating fingerprint profiles (viewport, user agent, timezone, WebGL, etc.)
• Stealth JavaScript — Hides

  navigator.webdriver

  , spoofs plugins/languages/hardware, canvas noise, fake

  chrome

  object
• Human behavior simulation — Random delays, mouse movements, scrolling patterns
• Network randomization — Variable timing between requests
• Request interception — Blocks known fingerprinting and tracking scripts

Troubleshooting

No Channels Discovered

• Try different location/category combinations
• Check if Google Search is returning CAPTCHA pages
• Run with

  --headless false

  to debug visually

Rate Limiting

• Reduce scraping speed (increase delays in config)
• Run during off-peak hours
• Use a residential proxy (see below)

Browser Crashes

• The orchestrator auto-restarts the browser every 50 channels
• Interrupted scrapes can be resumed — queue files track progress automatically

🌐 Residential Proxy Support

Why Use a Residential Proxy?

Running a scraper at scale without a residential proxy will get your IP blocked fast. Here's why proxies are essential for long-running scrapes:

Recommended Proxy Providers

We have affiliate partnerships with top residential proxy providers. Using these links supports continued development of this skill:

Setup Steps

1. Get Your Proxy Credentials

Sign up with any provider above, then grab:

• Username (from your provider dashboard)
• Password (from your provider dashboard)
• Host and Port are pre-configured per provider (or use custom)

2. Configure via Environment Variables

export PROXY_ENABLED=true
export PROXY_PROVIDER=brightdata    # brightdata | iproyal | stormproxies | netnut | custom
export PROXY_USERNAME=your_user
export PROXY_PASSWORD=your_pass
export PROXY_COUNTRY=us             # optional: two-letter country code
export PROXY_STICKY=true            # optional: keep same IP per session

3. Provider-Specific Host/Port Defaults

These are auto-configured when you set the

provider

brd.superproxy.io

22225

proxy.iproyal.com

12321

rotating.stormproxies.com

9999

gw-resi.netnut.io

5959

Override with

PROXY_HOST

PROXY_PORT

4. Custom Proxy Provider

For any other proxy service, set provider to

custom

{
  "proxy": {
    "enabled": true,
    "provider": "custom",
    "host": "your.proxy.host",
    "port": 8080,
    "username": "user",
    "password": "pass"
  }
}

Running the Scraper with Proxy

Once configured, the scraper picks up the proxy automatically — no extra flags needed:

# Discover and scrape as usual — proxy is applied automatically
python scripts/youtube_orchestrator.py --config resources/scraper_config_ind.json

# The log will confirm proxy is active:
# INFO - Proxy enabled: <ProxyManager provider=brightdata enabled host=brd.superproxy.io:22225>
# INFO - Browser using proxy: brightdata → brd.superproxy.io:22225

Using the Proxy Manager Programmatically

from proxy_manager import ProxyManager

# From config (auto-reads config from resources/)
pm = ProxyManager.from_config()

# From environment variables
pm = ProxyManager.from_env()

# Manual construction
pm = ProxyManager(
    provider="brightdata",
    username="your_user",
    password="your_pass",
    country="us",
    sticky=True
)

# For Playwright browser context
proxy = pm.get_playwright_proxy()
# → {"server": "http://brd.superproxy.io:22225", "username": "user-country-us-session-abc123", "password": "pass"}

# For requests / aiohttp
proxies = pm.get_requests_proxy()
# → {"http": "http://user:pass@host:port", "https": "http://user:pass@host:port"}

# Force new IP (rotates session ID)
pm.rotate_session()

# Debug info
print(pm.info())

Best Practices for Long-Running Scrapes

1. Use sticky sessions — YouTube requires consistent IPs during a browsing session. Set

   "sticky": true

   .
2. Target the right country — Set

   "country": "us"

   (or your target region) so YouTube serves content in the expected locale.
3. Combine with existing anti-detection — This scraper already has fingerprinting, stealth scripts, and human behavior simulation. The proxy is the final layer.
4. Rotate sessions between batches — Call

   pm.rotate_session()

   between large batches of channels to get a fresh IP.
5. Use delays — Even with proxies, respect

   scrape_delay

   in config (default 2-5s) to avoid aggressive patterns.
6. Monitor your proxy dashboard — All providers have dashboards showing bandwidth usage and success rates.

Notes

• No login required — Only scrapes publicly visible content
• Checkpoint/resume — Queue files track progress; interrupted scrapes can be resumed automatically
• Rate limiting — Waits 60s on rate limit, exponential backoff on consecutive failures
• Resilient orchestration — Auto-restarts browser, retries failed channels, graceful shutdown on SIGINT/SIGTERM
• Regional configs — Pre-built configs for 6 regions covering 200+ cities worldwide