YouTube

Search YouTube and get video transcripts

The YouTube tool lets an agent search videos, fetch details, and pull transcripts.

Overview

YouTube tool allows you to search videos, get video details, and extract transcripts.

Installation

pip install "praisonai[tools]"

Environment Variables

export YOUTUBE_API_KEY="${YOUTUBE_API_KEY:?Set YOUTUBE_API_KEY in your shell}"  # Optional for basic features

Quick Start

1. Simple Usage

   from praisonai_tools import YouTubeTool
   
   # Initialize
   youtube = YouTubeTool()
   
   # Search
   results = youtube.search("Python tutorials")
   print(results)
   
2. With Configuration

   Use the same tool with an agent — see Usage with Agent below, or pass env vars and options from the sections above.

How It Works

Usage with Agent

from praisonaiagents import Agent
from praisonai_tools import YouTubeTool

agent = Agent(
    name="VideoResearcher",
    instructions="You help find and summarize YouTube videos.",
    tools=[YouTubeTool()]
)

response = agent.chat("Find videos about machine learning basics")
print(response)

Available Methods

search(query, max_results=5)

Search YouTube videos.

from praisonai_tools import YouTubeTool

youtube = YouTubeTool()
videos = youtube.search("AI tutorials", max_results=5)

get_video(video_id)

Get video details.

video = youtube.get_video("dQw4w9WgXcQ")

get_transcript(video_id)

Get video transcript.

transcript = youtube.get_transcript("dQw4w9WgXcQ")

Common Errors

Error	Cause	Solution
youtube-transcript-api not installed	Missing dependency	Run pip install youtube-transcript-api
Transcript not available	No captions	Try different video
Rate limited	Too many requests	Add delays

Best Practices

Add YOUTUBE_API_KEY for search

Basic transcript features work without a key, but video search needs YOUTUBE_API_KEY. Set it in your shell or .env.

Cap max_results

search(query, max_results=5) defaults to 5. Keep it low so the agent processes fewer videos per query.

Handle missing transcripts

Not every video has captions. Wrap get_transcript(video_id) in try/except so the agent can skip or report videos without transcripts.

Related Tools

Spotify

Music search

Wikipedia

Knowledge base