yt-meta

YouTube metadata extraction CLI. Get video info, channel stats, playlists, and comments without the API.

Installation

npm install -g yt-meta-cli

Usage

# Get video metadata
yt-meta video https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

# Channel info
yt-meta channel @mkbhd

# Playlist videos
yt-meta playlist PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf

# Search videos
yt-meta search "typescript tutorial" --limit 20

# Comments
yt-meta comments dQw4w9WgXcQ --limit 100

Commands

video <url|id>

Get video metadata.

yt-meta video dQw4w9WgXcQ
yt-meta video https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
yt-meta video "https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

Returns: title, description, views, likes, duration, upload date, channel, tags, thumbnail URLs.

channel <handle|id>

Get channel information.

yt-meta channel @mkbhd
yt-meta channel UCBcRF18a7Qf58cCRy5xuWwQ

Returns: name, description, subscribers, video count, join date, links.

playlist <id>

Get playlist videos.

yt-meta playlist PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf
yt-meta playlist PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf --limit 50

search <query>

Search for videos.

yt-meta search "react hooks tutorial"
yt-meta search "javascript" --limit 50
yt-meta search "gaming" --sort views

Options:

• --limit <n> - Number of results (default: 20)
• --sort <type> - Sort by: relevance, date, views, rating

comments <video-id>

Get video comments.

yt-meta comments dQw4w9WgXcQ
yt-meta comments dQw4w9WgXcQ --limit 500 --sort top

Options:

• --limit <n> - Number of comments (default: 100)
• --sort <type> - Sort by: top, new

Output Formats

# JSON (default)
yt-meta video dQw4w9WgXcQ

# Pretty table
yt-meta video dQw4w9WgXcQ -o table

# Save to file
yt-meta channel @mkbhd -o json > channel.json
yt-meta playlist PLxxx --save playlist.json

Example Output

{
  "id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "title": "Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up",
  "channel": "Rick Astley",
  "channelId": "UCuAXFkgsw1L7xaCfnd5JJOw",
  "views": 1400000000,
  "likes": 15000000,
  "duration": "3:33",
  "uploadDate": "2009-10-25",
  "description": "The official video for...",
  "tags": ["rick astley", "never gonna give you up", "80s"],
  "thumbnails": {
    "default": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/default.jpg",
    "medium": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/mqdefault.jpg",
    "high": "https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dQw4w9WgXcQ/hqdefault.jpg"
  }
}

Batch Processing

# Multiple videos
echo "dQw4w9WgXcQ
jNQXAC9IVRw
9bZkp7q19f0" | xargs -I {} yt-meta video {}

# Export channel's videos
yt-meta channel @mkbhd --videos --limit 100 > mkbhd-videos.json

Why yt-meta?

• No API key required - Works without YouTube Data API
• Fast - Efficient extraction without browser
• Comprehensive - Videos, channels, playlists, comments
• Multiple formats - JSON, table, CSV output
• Scriptable - Perfect for automation

Built by LXGIC Studios

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