YouTube Channels

Reach for this when a YouTube channel is the subject: a pasted @handle or channel URL, a creator's recent uploads, their full catalogue, or a search inside one channel. Also good for keeping an eye on what somebody publishes. Skip it for creating channels or account chores.

YouTube channel tools via TranscriptOut.com.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Header

Every request needs one header:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY

Every response is one JSON envelope. Success: {"ok": true, "request_id": "...", "data": {...}}. Error: {"ok": false, "code": "...", "detail": "...", "request_id": "..."}. Branch on the machine-readable code, not on the human text. The remaining credit balance rides in the X-Credits-Remaining response header.

API Reference

Base URL: https://api.transcriptout.com/v1. Full reference with the latest parameters and schemas: transcriptout.com/docs.

GET /v1/channel/latest · 1 credit

The ~15 most recent videos of a channel, served from its RSS feed: the fastest and cheapest way to check what a creator published recently.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/latest?name=@kurzgesagt" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

name accepts an @handle, a channel name, a UC... channel ID or a channel URL. No resolve step needed: pass the handle directly.

GET /v1/channel/videos · 1 credit/page

Every video from a channel's Videos tab, newest first.

bash

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@3blue1brown" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?next_page_token=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# IDs only, 500 per page (feed these into the bulk job)
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@3blue1brown&ids_only=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Provide name on the first call and only next_page_token afterwards. limit goes up to 100, or up to 500 with ids_only=true (the response is then video_ids[] instead of full video objects). The response carries next_page_token and has_more.

GET /v1/channel/search · 1 credit/page

Search inside one channel using YouTube's native relevance search. A result whose title lacks the query word is normal: it is relevance, not substring match.

bash

curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/search?name=@kurzgesagt&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Param	Required	Default	Validation
name	yes*	-	@handle, channel name, UC... ID or URL (*or next_page_token)
q	yes*	-	query to search within the channel
limit	no	30	1-100
next_page_token	no	-	token from a previous page

Cheaper and better-ranked than downloading the catalogue and grepping it.

Typical workflow

Start with channel/latest when recent uploads are enough. channel/videos is for genuine catalogue work.

bash

# Cheapest first: what did they post lately?
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/latest?name=@handle" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Whole catalogue as IDs when bulk work follows
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/channel/videos?name=@handle&ids_only=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
400/422	Bad parameter	Fix the request. Credit refunded automatically
401	Bad or missing API key	Check the key. It must start with sk_
402	Out of credits	transcriptout.com/billing
404	No captions on that language/track, or bad ID	Definitive answer, do not retry. Try another lang or kind=auto. Billed
410	Video removed	Do not retry
451	Age-restricted or members-only	Do not retry
429	Rate limit (200 req/min per key)	Wait, respect Retry-After. Refunded
502	Failed on YouTube's side	One retry is reasonable. Billed
503	Service at capacity	Retry after Retry-After. Refunded

Every error body carries a machine-readable code and a request_id. Include the request_id when contacting support.