yutu

yutu

yutu is a CLI, MCP server, and AI agent to automate YouTube workflows — from uploading and optimizing videos to managing comments, playlists, and channel branding — and provides a skill for AI agents, so you can get more views, higher click-through rates, and stronger audience engagement with less manual effort. 中文文档

Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Agent
• MCP Server
• Skills
• Usage
• Features
• Contributing

Prerequisites

An account on Google Cloud Platform is required. Set up the following:

1. Create a GCP Project and enable these APIs under APIs & Services -> Enable APIs and services:

   • YouTube Data API v3 (Required)
   • YouTube Analytics API (Optional)
   • YouTube Reporting API (Optional)

2. Create OAuth credentials:

   • Go to APIs & Services -> OAuth consent screen, create a consent screen with yourself as a test user
   • Go to Credentials -> Create Credentials -> OAuth Client ID, select Desktop app
   • Download the credential file and save it as client_secret.json, it should look like

   {
     "installed": {
       "client_id": "11181119.apps.googleusercontent.com",
       "project_id": "yutu-11181119",
       "auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
       "token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
       "auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
       "client_secret": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
       "redirect_uris": [
         "http://localhost"
       ]
     }
   }
   

3. Authenticate:

   yutu auth --credential client_secret.json
   

   A browser window will open for you to grant YouTube access. After granting permission, a token is saved to youtube.token.json.

   {
     "access_token": "ya29.XXXXXXXXX",
     "token_type": "Bearer",
     "refresh_token": "1//XXXXXXXXXX",
     "expiry": "2024-05-26T18:49:56.1911165+08:00",
     "expires_in": 3599
   }
   

By default, yutu will read client_secret.json and youtube.token.json from the current directory, --credential/-c and --cacheToken/-t flags are available only in auth subcommand. To modify the default path in all subcommands, set these environment variables.

Global Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Default
YUTU_CREDENTIAL	Path, Base64, or JSON of OAuth client secret	client_secret.json
YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN	Path, Base64, or JSON of cached OAuth token	youtube.token.json
YUTU_ROOT	Root directory for file resolution	Current working directory
YUTU_LOG_LEVEL	Log level: DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR	INFO

Installation

If you're using an AI agent, copy and paste the following prompt to finish the installation:

Install and configure yutu by following https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu/main/internal/tools/skillgen/setup.md

You can download yutu from releases page directly, or use the following methods as you prefer.

There are two actions available for yutu, one is for general purpose and the other is for uploading video to YouTube. Refer to youtube-action and youtube-uploader for more information.

❯ npm i -g @eat-pray-ai/yutu

❯ docker pull ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest
❯ docker run --rm ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest
# make sure client_secret.json is in the current directory
❯ docker run --rm -it -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd):/app -p 8216:8216 ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest

❯ go install github.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu@latest

❯ curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

Install yutu using Homebrew🍺(recommended), or run the shell script.

❯ brew install yutu

# or
❯ curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu/main/scripts/install.sh | bash

❯ winget install yutu

Verify the integrity and provenance of yutu using its associated cryptographically signed attestations.

# Docker
❯ gh attestation verify oci://ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest --repo eat-pray-ai/yutu

# Linux and macOS(if installed using shell script)
❯ gh attestation verify $(which yutu) --repo eat-pray-ai/yutu

# Windows
❯ gh attestation verify $(where.exe yutu.exe) --repo eat-pray-ai/yutu

Agent

yutu provides an agent mode (Miffy) to automate YouTube workflows. The agent can retrieve, create, update, and delete YouTube content, with built-in YouTube growth strategy and SEO expertise.

# Gemini(compatible) (default)
❯ yutu agent --provider google --model gemini-3.8-flash --api-key "YOUR_KEY"
❯ yutu agent --provider google --model gemini-3.8-flash --api-key "YOUR_KEY" --base-url "https://custom.endpoint.com/"
# OpenAI(compatible) (OpenAI, DeepSeek, Ollama, vLLM, etc.)
❯ yutu agent --provider openai --model gpt-5.6-terra --api-key "YOUR_KEY"
❯ yutu agent --provider openai --model deepseek-flash --api-key "YOUR_KEY" --base-url "https://api.deepseek.com/"
# web mode with sub-launchers
❯ yutu agent --args "web api a2a webui" --api-key "YOUR_KEY"
# show available launcher args
❯ yutu agent --args ""

Agent Flags

Flag	Description	Default
-a, --args	Launcher arguments as a single string	console
-p, --provider	LLM provider: google for Gemini(compatible), openai for OpenAI(compatible)	google
-m, --model	Model name	gemini-3.8-flash
--api-key	API key for the model provider
--base-url	Base URL for the model provider's API endpoint
-i, --instruction	Override the built-in agent instruction	INSTRUCTION.md

MCP Server

Before using yutu as an MCP server, make sure yutu is installed(see Installation section), and you have a valid client_secret.json and youtube.token.json files(refer to Prerequisites section).

You can configure yutu as an MCP server for your preferred tool using the instructions below.

# Stdio mode
❯ claude mcp add --env YUTU_CREDENTIAL=/absolute/path/to/client_secret.json \
  --env YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN=/absolute/path/to/youtube.token.json \
  yutu -- yutu mcp

# HTTP mode (start the server first: yutu mcp --mode http)
❯ claude mcp add --transport http \
  --client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com \
  --client-secret \
  yutu http://localhost:8216/mcp

# Stdio mode
❯ codex mcp add --env YUTU_CREDENTIAL=/absolute/path/to/client_secret.json \
  --env YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN=/absolute/path/to/youtube.token.json \
  yutu -- yutu mcp

# HTTP mode (start the server first: yutu mcp --mode http)
❯ codex mcp add --url http://localhost:8216/mcp \
  --oauth-client-id YOUR_CLIENT_ID.apps.googleusercontent.com \
  yutu

Add the following to your MCP settings. Remember to replace the values of YUTU_CREDENTIAL and YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN with correct paths on your local machine.