Skills youtube-tracker

Track YouTube channels for new uploads. Supports both RSS mode (no API key needed, unlimited quota) and API mode. Use when: add/remove/list tracked YouTube channels, check for new videos, or run scheduled YouTube channel monitoring.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/wlzh/skills

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/wlzh/skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/youtube-tracker" ~/.claude/skills/wlzh-skills-youtube-tracker && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: youtube-tracker/SKILL.md

source content

youtube-tracker

A script-backed Skill to maintain a list of tracked YouTube channels and periodically check for new uploads.

v2.0.1 - Bugfix (2026-03-17)

Fix: Increased seen video ID limit from 500 to 2000 to prevent duplicate notifications.

With 54+ channels, 500 IDs was too small (videos got pushed out and re-detected)
Now keeps up to 2000 video IDs in
```
state/seen.json
```

v2.0.0 - RSS Mode (2026-03-17)

Breaking change: Now uses YouTube RSS feeds by default - no API key needed, no quota limits!

Why RSS?

YouTube API free quota: 10,000 units/day
API mode with 56 channels × 100 units/check = 5,600 units
That means only 1-2 checks per day before quota exhausted
RSS feeds are official, free, unlimited, and only 5-30 min delayed

Changes

New script:
```
youtube-tracker-rss.js
```
(RSS mode, no API key required)
Legacy script:
```
youtube-tracker.js
```
(API mode, requires key)
```
check
```
command now defaults to RSS mode
Removed API key requirement for basic operations

What it does

Add / remove / list tracked channels (input can be URL / @handle / channelId)
On
```
add
```
, it will baseline (mark the channel's current latest videos as seen)
On
```
check
```
, prints only new videos since last run with:
- channel name
- title
- video URL

Data files

All state is stored inside this Skill folder:

```
state/config.json
```
(tracked channels, no API key needed for RSS mode)
```
state/seen.json
```
(dedupe: already announced video ids)

Commands

Run from this skill directory:

# RSS mode (recommended, no API key needed)
node scripts/youtube-tracker-rss.js add "https://www.youtube.com/@veritasium"
node scripts/youtube-tracker-rss.js add "@veritasium"
node scripts/youtube-tracker-rss.js add "UCddiUEpeqJcYeBxX1IVBKvQ"
node scripts/youtube-tracker-rss.js list
node scripts/youtube-tracker-rss.js remove "UCddiUEpeqJcYeBxX1IVBKvQ"
node scripts/youtube-tracker-rss.js check

# API mode (legacy, requires API key)
node scripts/youtube-tracker.js set-key "YOUR_YT_API_KEY"
node scripts/youtube-tracker.js validate-key
node scripts/youtube-tracker.js add "@veritasium"
node scripts/youtube-tracker.js check

Cron usage notes

Use
```
youtube-tracker-rss.js check
```
for scheduled monitoring
If
```
check
```
outputs nothing, treat it as no updates
If it outputs lines, send them to the target chat/topic
No API quota concerns with RSS mode - check as often as needed

Migration from v1.x

If upgrading from v1.x (API mode):

Your existing
```
state/config.json
```
and
```
state/seen.json
```
are compatible
Simply switch to
```
youtube-tracker-rss.js
```
commands
No need to re-add channels