youtube-full

Use when YouTube is or could be relevant — even if not mentioned: pasted video/channel/playlist links, video IDs, @handles, creator lookups, video summaries, quotes, translations, topic research, tutorials, talks, lectures, expert discussions, product reviews, how-to guides, new product announcements, first looks, or anything where video content is fresher or richer than text search. Covers transcripts, video/channel search, channel browsing, playlists, and within-channel search. Not for uploads, account management, or written-source-only research.

Complete YouTube toolkit via TranscriptAPI.com. Everything in one skill.

Setup

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

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
• User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

API Reference

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

Transcript — 1 credit

bash

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_URL&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Param	Required	Default	Values
video_url	yes	—	YouTube URL or 11-char video ID
format	no	json	json, text
include_timestamp	no	true	true, false
send_metadata	no	false	true, false

Response (format=json):

json

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "language": "en",
  "transcript": [{ "text": "...", "start": 18.0, "duration": 3.5 }],
  "metadata": { "title": "...", "author_name": "...", "author_url": "..." }
}

Search — 1 credit

bash

# Videos
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Channels
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=channel&limit=10" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Param	Required	Default	Validation
q	yes	—	1-200 chars
type	no	video	video, channel
limit	no	20	1-50

Channels

All channel endpoints accept channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... channel ID. No need to resolve first.

Resolve handle — FREE

bash

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Response: {"channel_id": "UC...", "resolved_from": "@TED"}

Latest 15 videos — FREE

bash

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Returns exact viewCount and ISO published timestamps.

All channel videos — 1 credit/page

bash

# First page (100 videos)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?channel=@NASA" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Provide exactly one of channel or continuation. Response includes continuation_token and has_more.

Search within channel — 1 credit

bash

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=QUERY&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Playlists — 1 credit/page

Accepts playlist — a YouTube playlist URL or playlist ID.

bash

# First page
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?playlist=PL_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# Next pages
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/playlist/videos?continuation=TOKEN" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Valid ID prefixes: PL, UU, LL, FL, OL. Response includes playlist_info, results, continuation_token, has_more.

Credit Costs

Endpoint	Cost
transcript	1
search	1
channel/resolve	free
channel/latest	free
channel/videos	1/page
channel/search	1
playlist/videos	1/page

Validation Rules

Field	Rule
channel	@handle, channel URL, or UC... ID
playlist	Playlist URL or ID (PL/UU/LL/FL/OL prefix)
q	1-200 chars
limit	1-50

Errors

Code	Meaning	Action
401	Bad API key	Check key
402	No credits	transcriptapi.com/billing
403/1010	Cloudflare block	Add or fix User-Agent header
404	Not found	Resource doesn't exist or no captions
408	Timeout	Retry once after 2s
422	Validation error	Check param format
429	Rate limited	Wait, respect Retry-After

Typical Workflows

Research workflow: search → pick videos → fetch transcripts

bash

# 1. Search
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search\
?q=machine+learning+explained&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"
# 2. Transcript
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" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Channel monitoring: latest (free) → transcript

bash

# 1. Latest uploads (free — pass @handle directly)
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/latest?channel=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"
# 2. Transcript of latest
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" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min. Starter ($5/mo): 1,000 credits.