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

with an actual video ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics,contentDetails&id=&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"'

|

jq

'.items[0] | {title: .snippet.title, views: .statistics.viewCount, likes: .statistics.likeCount, duration: .contentDetails.duration}'

4. Get Multiple Videos

Replace

,

,

with actual video IDs:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/videos?part=snippet,statistics&id=,,&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&chart=mostPopular&regionCode=US&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"'

|

jq

'.items[] | {title: .snippet.title, channel: .snippet.channelTitle, views: .statistics.viewCount}'

6. Get Channel by ID

Replace

with an actual channel ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=snippet,statistics&id=&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&forHandle=@GoogleDevelopers&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&forUsername=GoogleDevelopers&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"'

|

jq

'.items[0] | {id: .id, title: .snippet.title, description: .snippet.description}'

9. List Playlist Items

Replace

with an actual playlist ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlistItems?part=snippet&playlistId=&maxResults=20&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

with an actual channel ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/channels?part=contentDetails&id=&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"'

|

jq

-r

'.items[0].contentDetails.relatedPlaylists.uploads'

11. Get Video Comments

Replace

with an actual video ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet&videoId=&maxResults=20&order=relevance&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

with an actual video ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/commentThreads?part=snippet&videoId=&searchTerms=great+video&maxResults=10&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&regionCode=US&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&type=video&videoCategoryId=28&maxResults=10&key=${YOUTUBE_API_KEY}"'

|

jq

'.items[] | {videoId: .id.videoId, title: .snippet.title}'

Note: Category 28 = Science & Technology

15. Get Playlists from Channel

Replace

with an actual channel ID:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/playlists?part=snippet&channelId=&maxResults=20&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

with the actual token from the previous response:

bash

-c

'curl -s "https://www.googleapis.com/youtube/v3/search?part=snippet&q=python&type=video&maxResults=50&pageToken=&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