YouTube API CLI

Manage your YouTube account from the command line. Complete CLI for YouTube Data API v3 - list/search videos, upload, manage playlists, and more.

yt-api-cli

Manage your YouTube account from the terminal. A complete CLI for the YouTube Data API v3.

Installation

bash

# Using go install
go install github.com/nerveband/youtube-api-cli/cmd/yt-api@latest

# Or download from releases
curl -L -o yt-api https://github.com/nerveband/youtube-api-cli/releases/latest/download/yt-api-darwin-arm64
chmod +x yt-api
sudo mv yt-api /usr/local/bin/

Setup

1. Google Cloud Console Setup

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create/enable YouTube Data API v3
3. Create OAuth 2.0 credentials (Desktop app)
4. Download client configuration

2. Configure yt-api

bash

mkdir -p ~/.yt-api
cat > ~/.yt-api/config.yaml << EOF
default_auth: oauth
default_output: json
oauth:
  client_id: "YOUR_CLIENT_ID"
  client_secret: "YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET"
EOF

3. Authenticate

bash

yt-api auth login  # Opens browser for Google login
yt-api auth status # Check auth state

Commands

List Operations

bash

# List your videos
yt-api list videos --mine

# List channel videos
yt-api list videos --channel-id UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw

# List playlists
yt-api list playlists --mine

# List subscriptions
yt-api list subscriptions --mine

Search

bash

# Basic search
yt-api search --query "golang tutorial"

# With filters
yt-api search --query "music" --type video --duration medium --order viewCount

Upload Operations

bash

# Upload video
yt-api upload video ./video.mp4 \
  --title "My Video" \
  --description "Description here" \
  --tags "tag1,tag2" \
  --privacy public

# Upload thumbnail
yt-api upload thumbnail ./thumb.jpg --video-id VIDEO_ID

Playlist Management

bash

# Create playlist
yt-api insert playlist --title "My Playlist" --privacy private

# Add video to playlist
yt-api insert playlist-item --playlist-id PLxxx --video-id VIDxxx

Channel Operations

bash

# Get channel info
yt-api list channels --id UCxxx --part snippet,statistics

# Update channel description
yt-api update channel --id UCxxx --description "New description"

Output Formats

bash

# JSON (default - LLM-friendly)
yt-api list videos --mine

# Table (human-readable)
yt-api list videos --mine -o table

# YAML
yt-api list videos --mine -o yaml

# CSV
yt-api list videos --mine -o csv > videos.csv

Global Flags

Flag	Short	Description
--output	-o	Output format: json (default), yaml, csv, table
--quiet	-q	Suppress stderr messages
--config		Path to config file
--auth-type		Auth method: oauth (default), service-account

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
YT_API_AUTH_TYPE	Auth method: oauth or service-account
YT_API_OUTPUT	Default output format
YT_API_CLIENT_ID	OAuth client ID
YT_API_CLIENT_SECRET	OAuth client secret
YT_API_CREDENTIALS	Path to service account JSON

Authentication Methods

OAuth 2.0 (Default)

Best for interactive use and accessing your own YouTube account.

bash

yt-api auth login  # Opens browser

Service Account

Best for server-side automation.

bash

yt-api --auth-type service-account --credentials ./key.json list videos

Quick Diagnostic Commands

bash

yt-api info                      # Full system state
yt-api info --test-connectivity  # Verify API access
yt-api info --test-permissions   # Check credential capabilities
yt-api auth status               # Authentication details
yt-api version                   # Version info

Error Handling

Exit codes:

• 0 - Success
• 1 - General error
• 2 - Authentication error
• 3 - API error (quota, permissions)
• 4 - Input error

For LLMs and Automation

• JSON output by default
• Structured errors as JSON objects
• --quiet mode for parsing
• --dry-run validates without executing
• Stdin support for piping data

Notes

• Requires valid Google Cloud credentials with YouTube Data API v3 enabled
• OAuth tokens stored in ~/.yt-api/tokens.json (0600 permissions)
• Default output is JSON (LLM-optimized)
• Supports all YouTube Data API v3 resources

Source

GitHub: https://github.com/nerveband/youtube-api-cli