Youtube Scout

youtube-scout

One topic in, one ranked YouTube research workbook out. Type /scout matcha recipe in
Claude Code and get an .xlsx with the most relevant videos ranked by performance, the
creators behind them, what the audience says in the comments, the opening lines that hooked
viewers, and the moments people replay.
Not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by YouTube or Google. YouTube and Google product
names are trademarks of their owners.

Why youtube-scout

- Everything the public API exposes, in one sheet. 48 columns per video: views, likes,
  comments, engagement, views per day, views per subscriber, format, category, tags, language,
  captions, paid promotion flag, channel size and country, and more. No field left on the table.
- Signals you cannot get from the YouTube UI. Breakout ratio (views per subscriber),
  momentum (views per day), the top comment per video, hook text from captions, and replay
  hotspots from the "most replayed" curve, the closest public proxy for retention.
- Fits an existing research sheet. The first columns match a social ads tracking layout, so
  --into your-sheet.xlsx appends YouTube rows next to TikTok and Instagram rows, dedups by
  video id, re-sorts, and keeps your manual columns and hyperlinks intact.

What you get

Installation

No GitHub account is needed to install.

Manual install (Unix, macOS, Linux)

./install.sh --target codex, --target agents, --target portable, or --target all
install to other agent runtimes. ./uninstall.sh removes it.

Plugin install (Claude Code)

API key

Create a YouTube Data API v3 key in Google Cloud Console, restrict it to that API, then either
export it or put it in a key file:

SCOUT_ENV_FILE=/path/to/keys.env points the skill at any other env file.

Quick start

Each run prints a top-10…