YouTube Search

Reach for this when the user needs to FIND things on YouTube: videos or channels on a topic, creators covering a subject, tutorials, talks and reviews worth reading, or a channel looked up by name or handle. Also good proactively when researching a topic that video would cover well. Skip it for account chores and text-only research.

Search YouTube and fetch transcripts 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/search · 1 credit/page

Search YouTube for videos or channels.

bash

# Videos
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# Channels
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&type=channel&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

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

Param	Required	Default	Validation
q	yes*	-	the query (*or pass next_page_token)
type	no	video	video, channel
limit	no	20	1-50
next_page_token	no	-	token from a previous page

The response carries next_page_token and has_more. Video entries have video_id, title, channel, duration ("M:SS"), view_count, published, url, thumbnails.

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.

Workflow: Search → Transcript

Results are metadata only: choose from them, then transcribe just the chosen few (the transcript endpoint is 1 credit and lives in the transcript skill).

bash

# 1. Search
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/search?q=QUERY&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPTOUT_API_KEY"

# 2. Transcript of a chosen result
curl -s "https://api.transcriptout.com/v1/transcript?video=VIDEO_ID&format=text&video_metadata=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.