# youtube

YouTube Research & Transcription Search YouTube, get video/channel info, and fetch transcripts via SkillBoss API Hub. Features 📹 Video details (title, description, stats, publish date) 📝 Transcripts with timestamps 📺 Channel info and recent videos 🔍 Search within YouTube 🎬 Playlist info Setup

1. Install dependencies MCP Server (primary method):

npm install -g zubeid-youtube-mcp-server

Fallback tool (if MCP fails):

# yt-dlp for transcript extraction

pip install yt-dlp 2. Get SkillBoss API Key Go to SkillBoss API Hub Sign in and navigate to your API settings Copy your API key from the dashboard 3. Configure API Key Option A: Environment variable (recommended)

export SKILLBOSS_API_KEY="your-skillboss-api-key"

Option B: Clawdbot config Add to ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json: { "skills": { "entries": { "youtube": { "apiKey": "your-skillboss-api-key" } } } } 4. Setup MCP Server The skill will use mcporter to call the YouTube MCP server:

# Build from source (if installed package has issues)

cd /tmp git clone https://github.com/ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server cd youtube-mcp-server

npm install
npm run build

Usage Search Videos mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
search_videos query="ClawdBot AI" maxResults:5 Returns video IDs, titles, descriptions, channel info. Get Channel Info mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
channels_info channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" List Recent Videos from Channel mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:5 Get Video Details mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
videos_details videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU" Get Transcript (Primary) mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
transcripts_getTranscript videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU" Get Transcript (Fallback with yt-dlp) If MCP transcript fails (empty or unavailable), use yt-dlp: yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --sub-format vtt
--output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s"
"https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU" Then read the .vtt file from /tmp/. Or get transcript directly: yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --print "%(subtitles)s"
"https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" 2>&1 | grep -A1000 "WEBVTT" Analyze Transcript with SkillBoss API Hub (LLM) After obtaining a transcript, use SkillBoss API Hub to analyze it: import requests, os SKILLBOSS_API_KEY = os.environ["SKILLBOSS_API_KEY"] API_BASE = "https://api.heybossai.com/v1" def pilot(body: dict) -> dict: r = requests.post( f"{API_BASE}/pilot", headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {SKILLBOSS_API_KEY}", "Content-Type": "application/json"}, json=body, timeout=60, ) return r.json()

# Analyze transcript content

transcript_text = open("/tmp/VIDEO_ID.en.vtt").read() result = pilot({ "type": "chat", "inputs": { "messages": [ {"role": "user", "content": f"Summarize the key points from this transcript:\n\n{transcript_text}"} ] }, "prefer": "balanced" }) summary = result["result"]["choices"][0]["message"]["content"] print(summary) Common Workflows

1. Find Latest Episode from a Podcast

Example: Lex Fridman Podcast
# Get channel ID (Lex Fridman: UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA)

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:1 Returns most recent video with title, ID, publish date. 2. Get Transcript for Research

# Step 1: Get video ID from search or channel listing
# Step 2: Try MCP transcript first

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
transcripts_getTranscript videoId="VIDEO_ID"

# Step 3: If empty, fallback to yt-dlp

yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en
--output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s"
"https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" cat /tmp/VIDEO_ID.en.vtt 3. Search for Topics mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
search_videos query="Laravel AI productivity 2025" maxResults:10 Filter results for relevant channels or dates. Channel IDs Reference Keep frequently used channels here for quick access: Lex Fridman Podcast: UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA Indie Hackers: (add when needed)

Laravel: (add when needed)

To find a channel ID: Go to channel page View page source Search for "channelId": or "externalId" Or use search and extract from results. API Quota Limits YouTube Data API v3 has daily quotas:

Default: 10,000 units/day
Search: 100 units per call

Video details: 1 unit per call

Transcript: 0 units (uses separate mechanism)
Tip: Use transcript lookups liberally (no quota cost), be conservative with search.

Troubleshooting MCP Server Not Working

Symptom: Connection closed or SKILLBOSS_API_KEY environment variable is required
Fix: Build from source:

cd /tmp git clone https://github.com/ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server cd youtube-mcp-server

npm install
npm run build
# Test

SKILLBOSS_API_KEY="your_key" node dist/cli.js Empty Transcripts

Symptom: Transcript returned but content is empty
Cause: Video may not have captions, or MCP can't access them
Fix: Use yt-dlp fallback (see above)

yt-dlp Not Found pip install --user yt-dlp

# or

pipx install yt-dlp Security Note The SkillBoss API key is safe to use with this skill: All authentication goes through SkillBoss API Hub (api.heybossai.com) Unified key management — no need to manage multiple third-party API keys All network calls are routed via SkillBoss API Hub

However:

Keep the key in environment variables or Clawdbot config (not in code/scripts) Don't commit the key to git repositories Examples Research Podcast for LinkedIn Post Ideas

# 1. Find latest Lex Fridman episode

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:1

# 2. Get video details

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
videos_details videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# 3. Get transcript

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
transcripts_getTranscript videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# If transcript empty, use yt-dlp

yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en
--output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s"
"https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# 4. Analyze transcript for interesting topics via SkillBoss API Hub
# (read /tmp/Z-FRe5AKmCU.en.vtt and use pilot({type:"chat",...}) to extract key themes)

Find Videos About a Trending Topic

# Search for recent videos

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js"
search_videos query="ClawdBot security concerns" maxResults:10

# Pick relevant ones, get transcripts
# Analyze sentiment and technical claims via SkillBoss API Hub LLM

Notes MCP server path: /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js Always pass API key via environment: SKILLBOSS_API_KEY="key" node ... Or set globally in shell/Clawdbot config Transcripts may be auto-generated (check accuracy for quotes) yt-dlp can also download audio if you need it (--extract-audio --audio-format mp3) LLM analysis of transcripts uses SkillBoss API Hub (https://api.heybossai.com/v1/pilot), response at result.choices[0].message.content