YouTube Data API

Use the YouTube Data API v3 via direct curl calls to search videos, retrieve video details, get channel information, list playlist items, and fetch comments.

Official docs: https://developers.google.com/youtube/v3

When to Use

Use this skill when you need to:

• Search videos by keywords or filters

• Get video details (title, description, statistics, duration)

• Get channel info (subscriber count, video count, description)

• List playlist items (videos in a playlist)

• Fetch comments on videos

• Get trending videos by region

Prerequisites

1. Create Google Cloud Project

• Go to Google Cloud Console

• Create a new project or select existing one

• Go to "APIs & Services" > "Library"

• Search for "YouTube Data API v3" and enable it

2. Get API Key

• Go to "APIs & Services" > "Credentials"

• Click "Create Credentials" > "API Key"

• Copy the API key

export YOUTUBE_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

3. (Optional) Restrict API Key

For production use, restrict the key:

• Application restrictions: HTTP referrers, IP addresses

• API restrictions: YouTube Data API v3 only

Important: When using $VAR in a command that pipes to another command, wrap the command containing $VAR in bash -c '...' . Due to a Claude Code bug, environment variables are silently cleared when pipes are used directly.

bash -c 'curl -s "https://api.example.com" -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" | jq .'

How to Use

Base URL: https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3

1. Search Videos

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=kubernetes+tutorial&type=video&maxResults=5&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title, channel: .snippet.channelTitle}'

2. Search with Filters

Search for videos uploaded this year, ordered by view count:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=react+hooks&type=video&order=viewCount&publishedAfter=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title}'

3. Get Video Details

Replace <your-video-id> with an actual video ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics,contentDetails&#x26;id=&#x3C;your-video-id>&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {title: .snippet.title, views: .statistics.viewCount, likes: .statistics.likeCount, duration: .contentDetails.duration}'

4. Get Multiple Videos

Replace <your-video-id-1> , <your-video-id-2> , <your-video-id-3> with actual video IDs:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics&#x26;id=&#x3C;your-video-id-1>,&#x3C;your-video-id-2>,&#x3C;your-video-id-3>&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, views: .statistics.viewCount}'

5. Get Trending Videos

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics&#x26;chart=mostPopular&#x26;regionCode=US&#x26;maxResults=10&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {title: .snippet.title, channel: .snippet.channelTitle, views: .statistics.viewCount}'

6. Get Channel by ID

Replace <your-channel-id> with an actual channel ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&#x26;id=&#x3C;your-channel-id>&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {title: .snippet.title, subscribers: .statistics.subscriberCount, videos: .statistics.videoCount}'

7. Get Channel by Handle

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&#x26;forHandle=@GoogleDevelopers&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, subscribers: .statistics.subscriberCount}'

8. Get Channel by Username

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&#x26;forUsername=GoogleDevelopers&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[0] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, description: .snippet.description}'

9. List Playlist Items

Replace <your-playlist-id> with an actual playlist ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlistItems?part=snippet&#x26;playlistId=&#x3C;your-playlist-id>&#x26;maxResults=20&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {position: .snippet.position, title: .snippet.title, videoId: .snippet.resourceId.videoId}'

10. Get Channel Uploads Playlist

First get the channel's uploads playlist ID, then list videos. Replace <your-channel-id> with an actual channel ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=contentDetails&#x26;id=&#x3C;your-channel-id>&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq -r '.items[0].contentDetails.relatedPlaylists.uploads'

11. Get Video Comments

Replace <your-video-id> with an actual video ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet&#x26;videoId=&#x3C;your-video-id>&#x26;maxResults=20&#x26;order=relevance&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {author: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.authorDisplayName, text: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.textDisplay, likes: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.likeCount}'

12. Search Comments

Replace <your-video-id> with an actual video ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet&#x26;videoId=&#x3C;your-video-id>&#x26;searchTerms=great+video&#x26;maxResults=10&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {author: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.authorDisplayName, text: .snippet.topLevelComment.snippet.textDisplay}'

13. Get Video Categories

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videoCategories?part=snippet&#x26;regionCode=US&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title}'

14. Search Videos by Category

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&#x26;type=video&#x26;videoCategoryId=28&#x26;maxResults=10&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title}'

Note: Category 28 = Science & Technology

15. Get Playlists from Channel

Replace <your-channel-id> with an actual channel ID:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlists?part=snippet&#x26;channelId=&#x3C;your-channel-id>&#x26;maxResults=20&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, description: .snippet.description}'

Common Video Categories

ID Category

1 Film & Animation

10 Music

17 Sports

20 Gaming

22 People & Blogs

24 Entertainment

25 News & Politics

26 Howto & Style

27 Education

28 Science & Technology

Part Parameter Options

Videos

• snippet

• Title, description, thumbnails, channel

• statistics

• Views, likes, comments count

• contentDetails

• Duration, definition, caption

• status

• Upload status, privacy, license

• player

• Embeddable player

Channels

• snippet

• Title, description, thumbnails

• statistics

• Subscribers, videos, views

• contentDetails

• Related playlists (uploads, likes)

• brandingSettings

• Channel customization

Pagination

Use nextPageToken from response to get more results. Replace <your-next-page-token> with the actual token from the previous response:

bash -c 'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&#x26;q=python&#x26;type=video&#x26;maxResults=50&#x26;pageToken=&#x3C;your-next-page-token>&#x26;key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"' | jq '.items[] | {title: .snippet.title}'

Guidelines

• Quota limits: API has 10,000 units/day quota. Search costs 100 units, most others cost 1 unit

• Rate limits: Implement exponential backoff on 403/429 errors

• API key security: Never expose API keys in client-side code

• Caching: Cache responses to reduce quota usage

• Video IDs: Extract from URLs like youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID or youtu.be/VIDEO_ID