YouTube through HasData
Four tools. hasdata_youtube_search_getYoutubeSearchResults takes q, hasdata_youtube_video_getYoutubeVideo and hasdata_youtube_transcript_getYoutubeTranscript take a video id as v, and hasdata_youtube_channel_getYoutubeChannel takes channelId, which also accepts an @handle.
The search page is five lists, not one
Results split into videoResults, inlineShortsResults, playlistResults, adsResults and sponsoredResults. Reading only the first misses the shorts and the playlists, and folding the last two into the organic set reports paid placements as rankings.
searchInformation.totalResults sizes the query, and pagination.nextPageToken goes back in as paginationToken for the next page.
sortBy takes relevance, popularity, rating, date or views. date narrows to hour, today, week, month or year, videoType to video, shorts, channel, playlist or movie, and length to under4, between420 or plus20. filters__, spelled with two underscores, takes flags including subtitles, which is how to keep only videos that have a transcript to read.
Counts use two opposite conventions
In the search and channel payloads views is the number and viewsOriginal is the printed string. The video call reverses it, where views reads "482,284 views" and extractedViews holds 482284, the same way as extractedLikes and channel.extractedSubscribers. Read the type rather than the name, and sort on whichever one is numeric.
publishedDate is a relative string such as 4 years ago, so it cannot be turned into a date. A window belongs in the date filter rather than in post-processing.
What the search already answers
videoResults entries carry chapters on many rows as title and time pairs. That is a video's structure with no second call behind it, and it is the cheapest signal here for deciding what to open.
The video call adds lengthSeconds, category, keywords, isFamilySafe, isUnlisted, likes with extractedLikes, a description split into content and links, a channel block, captions, relatedVideos, endScreenVideos and an aiSummary.
Transcripts, and a silent failure
transcript is an array of segments with startMs, endMs, snippet and startTimeText, so quoting a moment means citing the segment. availableTranscripts lists the tracks with a languageCode, a type where asr is machine-generated, and selected marking the one you received. type is also an input, so passing asr forces the automatic track.
A video id that does not resolve still answers 200 with requestMetadata.status of ok and no transcript and no availableTranscripts keys at all. Check the key exists before summarising, because its absence is a failed lookup rather than a video with nothing in it.
Channels are tab-addressed
tab takes featured, videos, shorts, streams, playlists, posts, community, podcasts, releases, about or store. The content lands in sections, each with a title and an items array where a video carries duration rather than length, alongside a separate featuredVideo.
channelInfo.availableTabs lists display labels such as Home and Search, not tab values. Home is the featured tab and Search is not a tab you can request, so map the labels rather than lowercasing them.
Each successful call spends credits, and a transcript is a second call, so read captions on the video first.
