name: youtube-search
description: "Use when the user wants to find YouTube content on any topic: searching for videos or channels, finding creators who cover a subject, discovering tutorials, talks, or expert discussions, or looking up a channel by name or handle. Also use proactively when the user wants to research a topic and YouTube is a good source. Not for account management or written-source-only research."
version: "1.5.0"
user-invocable: true
compatibility: Requires internet access to reach transcriptapi.com. No additional runtimes or dependencies needed.
requiredenvironmentvariables:

• name: TRANSCRIPTAPIKEY

prompt: Your TranscriptAPI key (starts with sk_)
help: Free account at https://transcriptapi.com — 100 credits, no card required. Or let the agent create one for you.
required_for: all API requests
metadata: {"openclaw":{"emoji":"🔍","requires":{"env":["TRANSCRIPTAPIKEY"]},"primaryEnv":"TRANSCRIPTAPIKEY","homepage":"https://transcriptapi.com"},"hermes":{"tags":["youtube","search","video","channels","discovery","research"],"category":"media"}}

YouTube Search

Search YouTube and fetch transcripts via TranscriptAPI.com.

Setup

If $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY is not set, read references/auth-setup.md and follow the instructions there to get and store the key.

Required Headers

Every request needs two headers:

• Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
• User-Agent: your agent's name and version if known (e.g. HermesAgent/0.11.0, ClaudeCode/1.0). Version is optional — agent name alone is fine. Do not omit this header or send a bare default — Cloudflare will return a 403 (error code 1010) and block the request.

API Reference

Full OpenAPI spec: transcriptapi.com/openapi.json — consult this for the latest parameters and schemas.

GET /api/v2/youtube/search — 1 credit

Search YouTube globally for videos or channels.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search?q=QUERY&type=video&limit=20" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Default | Validation |
| ------- | -------- | ------- | --------------------- |
| q | yes | — | 1-200 chars (trimmed) |
| type | no | video | video or channel |
| limit | no | 20 | 1-50 |

Video search response:

{
  "results": [
    {
      "type": "video",
      "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
      "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
      "channelTitle": "Rick Astley",
      "channelHandle": "@RickAstley",
      "channelVerified": true,
      "lengthText": "3:33",
      "viewCountText": "1.5B views",
      "publishedTimeText": "14 years ago",
      "hasCaptions": true,
      "thumbnails": [{ "url": "...", "width": 120, "height": 90 }]
    }
  ],
  "result_count": 20
}

Channel search response (type=channel):

{
  "results": [{
    "type": "channel",
    "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
    "title": "Rick Astley",
    "handle": "@RickAstley",
    "url": "https://www.youtube.com/@RickAstley",
    "description": "Official channel...",
    "subscriberCount": "4.2M subscribers",
    "verified": true,
    "rssUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UC...",
    "thumbnails": [...]
  }],
  "result_count": 5
}

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/search — 1 credit

Search videos within a specific channel. Accepts channel — an @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID.

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/search\
?channel=@TED&q=climate+change&limit=30" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

| Param | Required | Validation |
| --------- | -------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| channel | yes | @handle, channel URL, or UC... ID |
| q | yes | 1-200 chars |
| limit | no | 1-50 (default 30) |

Returns up to ~30 results (YouTube limit). Same video response shape as global search.

GET /api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve — FREE

Convert @handle to channel ID:

curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/channel/resolve?input=@TED" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Workflow: Search → Transcript

# 1. Search for videos
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/search\
?q=python+web+scraping&type=video&limit=5" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

# 2. Get transcript from result
curl -s "https://transcriptapi.com/api/v2/youtube/transcript\
?video_url=VIDEO_ID&format=text&include_timestamp=true&send_metadata=true" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY" \
  -H "User-Agent: YourAgent/1.0"

Errors

| Code | Meaning | Action |
| -------- | ---------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| 401 | Bad API key | Check key |
| 402 | No credits | transcriptapi.com/billing |
| 403/1010 | Cloudflare block | Add or fix User-Agent header |
| 404 | Not found | Resource doesn't exist |
| 408 | Timeout | Retry once |
| 422 | Invalid param | Check param format |

Free tier: 100 credits, 300 req/min.