A self-maintained competitor-monitoring machine for YouTube: the read surfaces that matter for market and competitor research plus a local databank of channel histories, snapshots, comments, and packaging assets - market data hours old, not weeks.
The YouTube Data API v3 read surfaces that matter for market and competitor research with complete parameter wiring, feeding a local SQLite databank designed for competitor monitoring: watch your ~15 competitors, monitor refreshes them for ~20-40 quota units per run, and velocity, growth, breakouts, comments-mine, and packaging turn the accumulated snapshots into current market intelligence that lagging analytics platforms deliver one to two weeks late.
Learn more at YouTube.
Created by @justinwfu (Justin).
Contributors: @vieGPT (Maximus).
Authentication
Set YOUTUBE_API_KEY to a YouTube Data API v3 key (create one at console.cloud.google.com under APIs & Services > Credentials), or store it once with auth set-token. A key in the environment overrides the stored one - if doctor shows auth_source env and calls fail with HTTP 400 'API key not valid', the environment copy is stale: unset it or update it. Read-only public-data operations only; no OAuth anywhere.
Quick Start
# Health check: key present, API reachable, cache status - works before any credential is set
youtube-pp-cli doctor --dry-run
# Resolve a competitor channel and see its lifetime totals
youtube-pp-cli youtube channels-list --part statistics,snippet --for-handle @mkbhd
# Put the channel on the watchlist (drop --dry-run to save); backfill seeds its full history
youtube-pp-cli watch add @mkbhd --dry-run
# Preview the refresh of every watched channel; run it on a schedule to keep the databank current
youtube-pp-cli monitor --dry-run
# Which tracked videos are gaining views fastest right now
youtube-pp-cli velocity --json
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Competitor monitoring machine
-
watch — Register the competitor channels your monitoring machine tracks, in a typed watchlist table you own.
Defines the tracked market once; every later monitoring command runs against it without re-specifying channels.
youtube-pp-cli watch add @mkbhd --json
-
monitor — Refresh every watched channel in one run: stats snapshot, new uploads, re-snapshot of recent video statistics.
One command keeps the databank current, so market answers are hours old instead of weeks old.
youtube-pp-cli monitor --json
-
velocity — See which tracked videos are gaining views fastest right now, computed from real between-snapshot deltas.
Current market movement - what is taking off today, not what took off two weeks ago.
youtube-pp-cli velocity --json
-
growth — Channel-level subscriber, view, and upload-count deltas between dated local snapshots.
Tells an agent whether a competitor is accelerating without any external history service.
youtube-pp-cli growth @mkbhd --json
-
backfill — Pull a channel's complete upload history with statistics into the local databank in one command.
Run once per competitor; every later question about that channel is answered offline for free.
youtube-pp-cli backfill @mkbhd --json
-
workspace — Named databanks: keep the competitor machine in one database and explore a new niche in another, switching instantly.
Lets an agent spin up a clean research sandbox per niche without risking the production watchlist databank.
youtube-pp-cli workspace list --json
-
auth keys — Store multiple named YouTube API keys, switch between them instantly, and optionally fail over automatically via --rotate when one runs out of quota.
An agent can finish large collection jobs without human intervention when the first key's daily quota is spent.
youtube-pp-cli auth keys list --json
Fresh market discovery
-
breakouts — Chain search filters into a matrix (terms x upload window x duration x region), join results to channel size, and rank fresh high-momentum videos.
Finds niche breakouts days after upload, weeks before they reach lagging analytics platforms.
youtube-pp-cli breakouts "berlin history" --days 14 --json
-
comments-mine — Sync comments into a typed full-text-searchable table and report top-liked comments, keyword frequencies, and audience questions.
Fast audience signal from data you own - what viewers praise, ask, and complain about across a channel.
youtube-pp-cli comments-mine @mkbhd --json
-
packaging — Collect titles, thumbnails (downloaded as local image files), and hook text from transcript openings into a packaging table.
Hands a multimodal agent everything it needs for thumbnail and hook analysis without any scraping or manual collection.
youtube-pp-cli packaging @mkbhd --json
Recipes
Stand up the monitoring machine
youtube-pp-cli watch add @mkbhd --json
Add each competitor once; backfill seeds history and every monitor run keeps them current
What moved today
youtube-pp-cli velocity --agent --select items.title,items.views_per_day
Between-snapshot view velocity for tracked videos, narrowed to the fields an agent needs
Fresh breakouts in a niche
youtube-pp-cli breakouts "berlin history" --days 14 --json
Chained filter matrix joined to channel size - high views-per-subscriber uploads from the last two weeks
Packaging dossier for the agent
youtube-pp-cli packaging @mkbhd --json
Titles, local thumbnail files, and hook text side by side, ready for multimodal packaging analysis
What the audience keeps asking
youtube-pp-cli comments-mine @mkbhd --json
Top-liked comments, keyword frequencies, and extracted questions from the synced comment table
Usage
Run youtube-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.
Paths & environment variables
This CLI separates local files into four path kinds:
| Kind | Contents |
|---|
config | User-editable settings such as config.toml and saved profiles |
data | Durable local data: credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, browser-session proof files, and other auth sidecars |
state | Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log |
cache | Regenerable HTTP/cache files |
Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:
- Per-kind env var:
YOUTUBE_CONFIG_DIR, YOUTUBE_DATA_DIR, YOUTUBE_STATE_DIR, or YOUTUBE_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationYOUTUBE_HOME for a flat relocated root- XDG env vars:
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Platform defaults matching existing installs
For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:
export YOUTUBE_HOME=/srv/youtube
youtube-pp-cli doctor
Under YOUTUBE_HOME=/srv/youtube, the four dirs resolve to /srv/youtube/config, /srv/youtube/data, /srv/youtube/state, and /srv/youtube/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube": {
"command": "youtube-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"YOUTUBE_HOME": "/srv/youtube"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as YOUTUBE_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use YOUTUBE_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting YOUTUBE_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find credentials left under a former root. Move the files manually before unsetting relocation variables.
Existing installs keep working because the platform-default rung matches the legacy layout. On the first auth write, stored secrets leave config.toml and are consolidated into credentials.toml under the data directory. Run youtube-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path and credential-location warnings in automation.
Commands
youtube
Manage youtube
youtube-pp-cli youtube activities-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube captions-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube channel-sections-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube channels-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube comment-threads-list - Retrieves a list of top-level comment threads, filterable by video, channel, or thread id. Public read-only when filtered by videoId, channelId, or id; moderationStatus filtering is OAuth-only and not exposed here.youtube-pp-cli youtube i18n-languages-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube i18n-regions-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube playlist-items-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube playlists-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube search-list - Retrieves a list of search resourcesyoutube-pp-cli youtube video-categories-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.youtube-pp-cli youtube videos-list - Retrieves a list of resources, possibly filtered.
Self-learning loop
This CLI caches per-question discovery so repeat queries skip the walk and structurally similar queries get answered via entity substitution. The loop also self-captures: every invocation is journaled locally, and failed-flag corrections plus fresh teaches surface as candidates on the next recall for confirm/reject judgment. Agents call recall before discovery and fire teach & after answering. See the ## Automatic learning section in SKILL.md for the full protocol.
youtube-pp-cli recall <query> - Look up cached resources for a query before running discoveryyoutube-pp-cli teach - Record a query -> resource mapping (silent on success, safe to background with &)youtube-pp-cli learnings list - Inspect taught rowsyoutube-pp-cli learnings forget <query> - Undo a teachyoutube-pp-cli learnings candidates - List auto-captured candidates awaiting confirm/rejectyoutube-pp-cli learnings stats - Local loop metrics: recall hit rate, teach-to-reuse, playbook resolution, candidate countsyoutube-pp-cli teach-pattern - Install a query/resource template up frontyoutube-pp-cli teach-lookup - Add an entity mapping (e.g. country code, team alias) for pattern substitution
Pass --no-learn or set YOUTUBE_NO_LEARN=true to disable the loop for deterministic flows.
The local store's schema version stamp is one-way: once this version of youtube-pp-cli opens the database, older binaries refuse it with a version error — upgrade the binary rather than downgrading.
The analyst databank (SQL schema)
Every analyst command writes into one local SQLite databank — the file doctor --json reports
as the store path. The filename is scoped by the active API key (data-<hash>.db); workspace
switches between entirely separate databank files. Agents query it two ways: the MCP sql tool
(read-only, validated) and the MCP search / CLI search full-text surface.
| Table | One row per | Key columns |
|---|
yt_watchlist | tracked competitor channel | channel_id, handle, title, note, added_at, last_monitored_at |
yt_channel_snapshots | channel per capture time | channel_id, captured_at, subscriber_count, view_count, video_count |
yt_videos | known video (dimension table) | video_id, channel_id, title, published_at, duration_seconds, is_short, description |
yt_video_snapshots | video per capture time | video_id, captured_at, view_count, like_count, comment_count |
yt_comments | synced comment | comment_id, video_id, channel_id, author, text, like_count, published_at, is_reply |
yt_comments_fts | FTS5 index over yt_comments.text | MATCH queries; kept in sync by insert/update/delete triggers |
yt_packaging | collected packaging asset | video_id, channel_id, title, thumb_url, thumb_path, hook_text, view_count, captured_at, hook_error, thumb_error |
yt_monitor_runs | one monitor run | run_id, started_at, finished_at, channels, new_videos, video_snapshots, comments_synced, quota_units_est |
monitor, backfill, breakouts, comments-mine, and packaging feed these tables
automatically (write-through); velocity and growth are computed from consecutive
yt_video_snapshots / yt_channel_snapshots rows — two runs on different days are the
minimum for a non-empty answer.
Example queries (all verified against a live-populated store):
-- What moved: views per video from the latest snapshots
SELECT s.video_id, v.title, s.view_count, s.captured_at
FROM yt_video_snapshots s JOIN yt_videos v USING(video_id)
ORDER BY s.captured_at DESC, s.view_count DESC LIMIT 20;
-- Audience signal: most-liked comments mentioning a topic (FTS5)
SELECT c.like_count, c.author, c.text
FROM yt_comments_fts f JOIN yt_comments c ON c.rowid = f.rowid
WHERE yt_comments_fts MATCH 'gemini' ORDER BY c.like_count DESC LIMIT 10;
-- Growth rate per tracked channel between first and last snapshot
SELECT channel_id,
MAX(subscriber_count) - MIN(subscriber_count) AS subs_delta,
MIN(captured_at) AS first_seen, MAX(captured_at) AS last_seen
FROM yt_channel_snapshots GROUP BY channel_id;
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
youtube-pp-cli youtube activities-list --part snippet
# JSON for scripting and agents
youtube-pp-cli youtube activities-list --part snippet --json
# Filter to specific fields
youtube-pp-cli youtube activities-list --part snippet --json --select contentDetails,etag,id
# Dry run — show the request without sending
youtube-pp-cli youtube activities-list --part snippet --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
youtube-pp-cli youtube activities-list --part snippet --agent
Agent Usage
This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:
- Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
- Pipeable -
--json output to stdout, errors to stderr
- Filterable -
--select <field>[,<field>...] returns only fields you need
- Previewable -
--dry-run shows the request without sending
- Read-only by default - this CLI does not create, update, delete, publish, send, or mutate remote resources
- Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
- Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless
--human-friendly is set
Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 4 auth error, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
youtube-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run youtube-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/youtube-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, YOUTUBE_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Environment variables:
| Name | Kind | Required | Description |
|---|
YOUTUBE_API_KEY | per_call | Yes | Set to your API credential. |
agentcookie (optional)
If you use agentcookie to sync secrets across machines, this CLI auto-adopts agentcookie-managed credentials with no extra setup. When the daemon writes to this CLI's config, youtube-pp-cli doctor reports agentcookie: detected and auth status labels the source as agentcookie. Skip this section if you don't use agentcookie - the CLI works the same as any other.
Troubleshooting
Authentication errors (exit code 4)
- Run
youtube-pp-cli doctor to check credentials
- Verify the environment variable is set:
echo $YOUTUBE_API_KEY
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
API-specific
- HTTP 400 'API key not valid' although auth set-token succeeded — An environment YOUTUBE_API_KEY is overriding the stored key - run doctor to check auth_source, then unset or update the env var
- velocity or growth report 'need at least 2 snapshots' — They compare dated snapshots - run
youtube-pp-cli monitor again later (or schedule it); deltas appear from the second run onward
- search or breakouts stop working while other commands still do — search.list has its own 100-calls-per-day bucket (each page and each matrix cell costs one call) - narrow the filter matrix or wait for the daily reset
- packaging rows missing thumbnails or hook text — Thumbnail download needs network access and hook text needs an available transcript - rerun
packaging for those videos; rows record which asset failed
- quota exhausted mid-backfill or mid-sweep — Add a second key with
auth keys add <name> <key> and switch with auth keys use <name> (or pass --rotate on the long-running command) - quota is per key
Sources & Inspiration
This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:
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