yt-research

YouTube Research Skill

Search YouTube for videos on a topic and return structured metadata.

CRITICAL: If no topic is provided in $ARGUMENTS, you MUST ask the user what topic they want to research before proceeding. Do NOT guess or assume a topic.

Usage

1. Activate the virtual environment and run the search script:

cd /home/user/Sneha && source .venv/bin/activate && python .claude/skills/yt-research/scripts/yt_search.py --query "<TOPIC>" --max-results <N> --sort <relevance|date>

Parameters

• --query / -q: The search topic (REQUIRED - ask user if not provided)
• --max-results / -n: Number of videos to return (default: 10)
• --sort: Sort order
  • relevance (default): Most relevant results
  • date: Most recent uploads (use when user says "latest", "trending", "newest", or "recent")

Interpreting User Requests

• "Find 25 latest videos on X" → --query "X" -n 25 --sort date
• "Search for videos about X" → --query "X" (defaults are fine)
• "25 trending videos on X" → --query "X" -n 25 --sort date

Output

The script outputs a JSON array to stdout. Parse it and present results as a formatted table with columns: #, Title, Author, Views, Duration, URL.

Example Output

[
  {
    "title": "Video Title",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...",
    "author": "Channel Name",
    "views": 123456,
    "duration": "12:34",
    "upload_date": "20250401"
  }
]

Format views with commas (e.g., 123,456) and upload_date as readable dates (e.g., "Apr 1, 2025").