/youtube

name: youtube
description: 'Interact with YouTube — search videos, get video details, browse channels, read comments, view trending, browse playlists, like/unlike videos, subscribe/unsubscribe to channels. Use this skill whenever the user mentions YouTube, wants to search for videos, get video info, read comments, browse a channel, check trending videos, view a playlist, or interact with YouTube content. Also trigger when the user pastes a YouTube URL (e.g. youtube.com/watch?v=..., youtu.be/...) or mentions a YouTube channel.'

YouTube

Search videos, get video details, browse channels, read comments, view trending, browse playlists, and interact with YouTube.

Skill Directory

`<SKILL_DIR>` is the directory containing this SKILL.md file. Determine it ONCE at the start and reuse it.

Setup (run FIRST — every time, before any operation)

You MUST complete this setup before running any script. Do NOT skip this step.

sig status youtube 2>&1

Check the JSON output fields `configured` and `valid`:

• **`configured: false`** → run Provider Setup below. Do NOT proceed without completing it.
• **`valid: false` (but configured: true)** → run `sig login youtube`, then re-check.
• **`valid: true`** → detect proxy (see below), then execute the user's request.

Provider Setup

1. Read `<SKILL_DIR>/references/provider-config.yaml` 2. Append the provider block to `~/.sig/config.yaml` under `providers:` 3. IMPORTANT! ASK THE USER: "Do you need a proxy to access this site?" — if yes, add `networkProxy: <url>` under the provider in config.yaml 4. Run `sig login youtube` (with `--network-proxy <url>` if proxy was specified) 5. Verify: run `sig status youtube` again — must show `valid: true` before proceeding

Proxy Detection (after provider is valid)

grep -A15 "^\s*youtube:" ~/.sig/config.yaml | grep networkProxy | awk '{print $2}'

If this outputs a URL, prefix ALL python3 commands with `HTTPS_PROXY=<url> HTTP_PROXY=<url>`. If using socks5, convert to socks5h for python (e.g. `socks5://...` → `socks5h://...`). If empty, no proxy needed.

Running Scripts

All scripts require setup to be completed first (see above).

**Read operations** — use `sig run` to inject cookie (enables authenticated features):

sig run youtube -- bash -c 'python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/youtube_video.py --cookie "$SIG_YOUTUBE_COOKIE" --video dQw4w9WgXcQ'

**Write operations** — require `sig run` (cookie is mandatory):

sig run youtube -- bash -c 'python3 <SKILL_DIR>/scripts/youtube_like.py --cookie "$SIG_YOUTUBE_COOKIE" --video dQw4w9WgXcQ'

Env var: `SIG_YOUTUBE_COOKIE`

**On auth error (401/403):** run `sig login youtube` automatically (no user prompt), then retry.

Scripts Reference

All scripts are in this skill's `scripts/` directory. Run via Bash tool.

Read Operations

| Script | Purpose | Auth | | --------------------- | ------------------------ | ---- | | `youtube_video.py` | Video details | None | | `youtube_search.py` | Search videos | None | | `youtube_channel.py` | Channel info and videos | None | | `youtube_comments.py` | Video comments | None | | `youtube_trending.py` | Trending videos | None | | `youtube_playlist.py` | Playlist info and videos | None |

Write Operations

| Script | Purpose | Auth | | ---------------------- | --------------------- | -------- | | `youtube_like.py` | Like/unlike a video | Required | | `youtube_subscribe.py` | Subscribe/unsubscribe | Required |

youtube_video.py

--video URL           YouTube video URL or video ID (required)

youtube_search.py

--query TEXT          Search query (required)
--limit N            Max results (default: 20)

youtube_channel.py

--channel ID         Channel ID (UCxxxx), handle (@name), or URL (required)
--limit N            Max recent videos (default: 10)

youtube_comments.py

--video URL          YouTube video URL or video ID (required)
--limit N            Max comments (default: 20)

youtube_trending.py

--limit N            Max videos (default: 20)

youtube_playlist.py

--playlist ID        Playlist URL or ID (PLxxxxxx) (required)
--limit N            Max videos (default: 50)

youtube_like.py

--cookie COOKIE      YouTube session cookie (required)
--video URL          YouTube video URL or video ID (required)
--action ACTION      Action: like, unlike (default: like)

youtube_subscribe.py

--cookie COOKIE      YouTube session cookie (required)
--channel ID         Channel ID (UCxxxx), handle (@name), or URL (required)
--action ACTION      Action: subscribe, unsubscribe (default: subscribe)

Safety

**`youtube_like.py` and `youtube_subscribe.py` are reversible** — use `--action unlike` to remove a like, `--action unsubscribe` to unsubscribe.

Key Concepts

**Video IDs** — `youtube_video.py` and `youtube_comments.py` accept: bare ID (`dQw4w9WgXcQ`), full URL (`https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ`), short link (`https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ`), or shorts/embed/live URLs.

**Channel IDs** — Accept `UCxxxx` channel IDs, `@handle` format, or full channel URLs. Handles are resolved to channel IDs automatically.

**Playlist IDs** — Accept `PLxxxxxx` playlist IDs or full playlist URLs. The `list=` parameter is extracted from URLs.

**InnerTube API** — All operations use YouTube's InnerTube API (`/youtubei/v1/`), which is the same internal API the YouTube website uses. Read operations require no auth; write operations require SAPISIDHASH authentication derived from session cookies.

**SAPISIDHASH Auth** — Write operations compute `SAPISIDHASH {timestamp}_{SHA1(timestamp + " " + SAPISID + " " + origin)}` from the SAPISID cookie for the Authorization header.

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Fix