How do I install the Youtube Research skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add crawlora-org/youtube-research in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Youtube Research safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Youtube Research?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Youtube Research free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Youtube Research?

Crawlora-org (@crawlora-org) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Youtube Research by crawlora-org — Agent Skill

Name: Youtube Research
Author: Crawlora-org

Youtube Research

Pulls structured YouTube data — video and channel details, transcripts/captions, comments, playlists, and search — via the Crawlora API as clean JSON, with no yt-dlp or HTML scraping. Use when the user provides a YouTube URL or asks for a transcript, comments, channel/video metadata, or video search results.

Crawlora-org ba14640 3 files · 13.6 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

YouTube research

Resolve YouTube videos and channels, and pull transcripts, comments, playlists, and search results as normalized JSON from the Crawlora API — no yt-dlp, no browser, no scraping.

When to use this skill

The user pastes a YouTube URL and wants its transcript, summary, or stats.
"Get the comments on this video" / "what are people saying?"
"List this channel's recent videos / shorts / playlists."
"Search YouTube for …" or "what videos exist about …".
Building a transcript-based summary, sentiment, or research pipeline.

Setup (one-time)

Get a free Crawlora API key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at https://crawlora.net.
Set CRAWLORA_API_KEY in the environment before running the helper.
The helper reads CRAWLORA_API_KEY from the environment and sends requests to https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1. Missing/invalid key → 401.

How it works

Resolve the id. A YouTube watch URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<ID> (or https://youtu.be/<ID>) gives the video id; channel URLs give a channel id. Extract the id before calling.
Transcript: /youtube/transcript/{id} (use /youtube/transcript/{id}/languages first if you need a specific language).
Metadata / comments: /youtube/video/{id}, /youtube/comments/{id}.
Channel: /youtube/channel/{id}/videos, /channel/{id}/shorts, /channel/{id}/playlists, /youtube/profile/{id}.
Discovery: /youtube/search?q=... to find videos by keyword.

Full endpoint list, methods, and params: reference/endpoints.md.

Calling the API

# Transcript for a video id (GET):
scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.'

# Video metadata + comments:
scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.data'
scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/comments/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.data'

# Search:
scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/search q="web scraping tutorial" | jq '.'

Use scripts/crawlora.sh for all requests; it keeps the API key out of command-line arguments.

Endpoint reference

See reference/endpoints.md for every YouTube endpoint this skill uses (method, path, params, description).

Examples

Summarize a video: extract the id from the URL → /youtube/transcript/{id} → concatenate transcript segments → summarize.
Comment sentiment: /youtube/comments/{id} → bucket comments by sentiment and surface common themes.
Channel digest: /youtube/channel/{id}/videos → list recent uploads with view counts and publish dates.

Notes & limits

Credits / pay-on-success: billed only on 2xx; free tier 2,000 credits/mo. Key at https://crawlora.net.
Public data only — public YouTube pages; respect YouTube's terms.
Security: key lives in CRAWLORA_API_KEY only — never hardcode, query-param, or commit it.
Not every video has captions; check /youtube/transcript/{id}/languages when a transcript request returns empty.

---name: youtube-researchdescription: Pulls structured YouTube data — video and channel details, transcripts/captions, comments, playlists, and search — via the Crawlora API as clean JSON, with no yt-dlp or HTML scraping. Use when the user provides a YouTube URL or asks for a transcript, comments, channel/video metadata, or video search results.---# YouTube researchResolve YouTube videos and channels, and pull transcripts, comments, playlists,and search results as normalized JSON from the Crawlora API — no `yt-dlp`, nobrowser, no scraping.## When to use this skill- The user pastes a YouTube URL and wants its transcript, summary, or stats.- "Get the comments on this video" / "what are people saying?"- "List this channel's recent videos / shorts / playlists."- "Search YouTube for …" or "what videos exist about …".- Building a transcript-based summary, sentiment, or research pipeline.## Setup (one-time)- Get a free Crawlora API key (2,000 credits/mo, no card) at [https://crawlora.net](https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills).- Set `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` in the environment before running the helper.- The helper reads `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` from the environment and sends requests to `https://api.crawlora.net/api/v1`. Missing/invalid key → `401`.## How it works1. **Resolve the id.** A YouTube watch URL `https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=<ID>` (or `https://youtu.be/<ID>`) gives the **video id**; channel URLs give a **channel id**. Extract the id before calling.2. **Transcript:** `/youtube/transcript/{id}` (use `/youtube/transcript/{id}/languages` first if you need a specific language).3. **Metadata / comments:** `/youtube/video/{id}`, `/youtube/comments/{id}`.4. **Channel:** `/youtube/channel/{id}/videos`, `/channel/{id}/shorts`, `/channel/{id}/playlists`, `/youtube/profile/{id}`.5. **Discovery:** `/youtube/search?q=...` to find videos by keyword.Full endpoint list, methods, and params: [`reference/endpoints.md`](reference/endpoints.md).## Calling the API```sh# Transcript for a video id (GET):scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.'# Video metadata + comments:scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/video/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.data'scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/comments/dQw4w9WgXcQ | jq '.data'# Search:scripts/crawlora.sh /youtube/search q="web scraping tutorial" | jq '.'```Use `scripts/crawlora.sh` for all requests; it keeps the API key out of command-line arguments.## Endpoint referenceSee [`reference/endpoints.md`](reference/endpoints.md) for every YouTube endpointthis skill uses (method, path, params, description).## Examples- **Summarize a video:** extract the id from the URL → `/youtube/transcript/{id}` → concatenate transcript segments → summarize.- **Comment sentiment:** `/youtube/comments/{id}` → bucket comments by sentiment and surface common themes.- **Channel digest:** `/youtube/channel/{id}/videos` → list recent uploads with view counts and publish dates.## Notes & limits- **Credits / pay-on-success:** billed only on `2xx`; free tier 2,000 credits/mo. Key at [https://crawlora.net](https://crawlora.net?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=crawlora-skills).- **Public data only** — public YouTube pages; respect YouTube's terms.- **Security:** key lives in `CRAWLORA_API_KEY` only — never hardcode, query-param, or commit it.- Not every video has captions; check `/youtube/transcript/{id}/languages` when a transcript request returns empty.

Frequently asked questions