Aside Youtube

YouTube

Use the youtube global in the REPL tool. It uses direct YouTube HTTP endpoints and returns compact JSON; you do not need to inspect YouTube DOM.

Quick Reference

const search = await youtube.search('OpenAI DevDay 2025', { limit: 5 });
const videoId = search[0].videoId;

const [metadata, transcript, comments] = await Promise.all([
  youtube.getMetadata(videoId),
  youtube.getTranscript(videoId),
  youtube.getComments(videoId, { limit: 20 }),
]);

Methods

youtube.search(query: string, opts?: YouTubeSearchOptions): Promise<YouTubeVideoSummary[]>

Search YouTube videos.

• query — search query.
• opts.limit — max video results. Defaults to 10.
• opts.lang — YouTube UI language. Defaults to 'en'.
• opts.region — YouTube region. Defaults to 'US'.

youtube.getMetadata(videoIdOrUrl: string, opts?: YouTubeMetadataOptions): Promise<YouTubeVideoMetadata>

Fetch compact video metadata such as title, channel, thumbnail, duration, view count, description, publish date, and live status.

Accepts normal watch URLs, Shorts URLs, live URLs, embed URLs, youtu.be URLs, or raw video IDs.

youtube.listTranscriptLanguages(videoIdOrUrl: string): Promise<YouTubeTranscriptLanguage[]>

List caption tracks available for a video.

youtube.getTranscript(videoIdOrUrl: string, opts?: { lang?: string; includeTimestamp?: boolean }): Promise<string>

Fetch transcript text. Omit lang to use YouTube's default caption track for that video. Pass a language code such as 'en' or 'ko' when you need a specific track. By default, it returns sentence-like plain text. Pass includeTimestamp: true to return one line per transcript segment formatted like [00:00 - 00:04] text.

youtube.getComments(videoIdOrUrl: string, opts?: YouTubeCommentsOptions): Promise<YouTubeCommentsResponse>

Fetch top-level comments.

• opts.limit — max comments. Defaults to 20.
• opts.continuation — pass the previous response's continuation for the next page.
• opts.lang — YouTube UI language. Defaults to 'en'.
• opts.region — YouTube region. Defaults to 'US'.

Types

interface YouTubeVideoSummary {
  /** YouTube video ID, e.g. "hS1YqcewH0c". */
  videoId: string;
  /** Canonical watch URL, e.g. "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS1YqcewH0c". */
  url: string;
  /** Video title. */
  title: string;
  /** Channel display name when YouTube returns it. */
  channelName?: string;
  /** Largest thumbnail URL for UI previews. */
  thumbnailUrl?: string;
}

interface YouTubeVideoMetadata extends YouTubeVideoSummary {
  /** Video length in seconds when available. */
  durationSeconds?: number;
  /** Numeric view count when available. */
  viewCount?: number;
  /** Full video description when available. */
  description?: string;
  /** Publish date in YouTube's YYYY-MM-DD format, e.g. "2025-10-06". */
  publishDate?: string;
  /** True for live videos or completed livestreams marked as live content. */
  isLiveContent?: boolean;
}

interface YouTubeCommentsResponse {
  /** Source video ID. */
  videoId: string;
  comments: Array<{
    /** Direct comment URL when YouTube returns a comment ID. */
    url?: string;
    /** Comment author's display name. */
    authorName: string;
    /** Author channel URL, e.g. "https://www.youtube.com/@OpenAI". */
    authorUrl?: string;
    /** Plain comment text. */
    text: string;
    /** YouTube's relative timestamp text, e.g. "2 months ago". */
    publishedAtText?: string;
    /** YouTube's displayed like count text, e.g. "1.2K". */
    likeCountText?: string;
    /** YouTube's displayed reply count text, e.g. "12 replies". */
    replyCountText?: string;
  }>;
  /** True when a continuation token is available. */
  hasMore: boolean;
  /** Pass this to `opts.continuation` to fetch the next page. */
  continuation?: string;
}