Youtube-skills youtube-search

Search YouTube for videos and channels, search within specific channels, then fetch transcripts. Use when the user asks to "find videos about X", "search YouTube for", "look up a channel", "who makes videos about", "find on youtube", or wants to discover YouTube content on a topic.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills

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

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/ZeroPointRepo/youtube-skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/youtube-search" ~/.claude/skills/zeropointrepo-youtube-skills-youtube-search-6abe51 && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/youtube-search/SKILL.md

source content

YouTube Search

Search YouTube and fetch transcripts via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

$TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY

is not set, help the user create an account (100 free credits, no card):

Step 1 — Register: Ask user for their email.

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js register --email USER_EMAIL

→ OTP sent to email. Ask user: "Check your email for a 6-digit verification code."

Step 2 — Verify: Once user provides the OTP:

node ./scripts/tapi-auth.js verify --token TOKEN_FROM_STEP_1 --otp CODE

API key saved to your shell profile and agent config. Ready to use.

Manual option: transcriptapi.com/signup → Dashboard → API Keys.

API Reference

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

GET /api/v2/youtube/search — 1 credit

Search YouTube globally for videos or channels.

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

Param Required Default Validation

yes

—

1-200 chars (trimmed)

type

video

video

channel

limit

1-50

Video search response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
      "channelHandle": "@RickAstley",
      "channelVerified": true,
      "lengthText": "3:33",
      "viewCountText": "1.5B views",
      "publishedTimeText": "14 years ago",
      "hasCaptions": true,
      "thumbnails": [{ "url": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }]
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 20
}

Channel search response (

type=channel

{
  "results": [{
    "type": "channel",
    "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
    "title": "Rick Astley",
    "handle": "@RickAstley",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",
    "description": "Official channel...",
    "subscriberCount": "4.2M subscribers",
    "verified": true,
    "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC...",
    "thumbnails": [...]
  }],
  "result_count": 5
}

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

Search videos within a specific channel. Accepts

channel

— an

@handle

, channel URL, or

UC...

ID.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Param Required Validation

channel

yes

@handle

, channel URL, or

UC...

yes

1-200 chars

limit

1-50 (default 30)

Returns up to ~30 results (YouTube limit). Same video response shape as global search.

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

Convert @handle to channel ID:

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

Workflow: Search → Transcript

# 1. Search for videos
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search\
?q=python+web+scraping&type=video&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

# 2. Get transcript from result
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY"

Errors

Code	Action
402	No credits — transcriptapi.com/billing
404	Not found
408	Timeout — retry once
422	Invalid channel identifier

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.