YouTube Search

Search YouTube videos and list results.

Quick Start

/mk-youtube-search <query> [count] [mode]

Parameters

| Parameter | Required | Default | Description | |-----------|----------|---------|-------------| | query | Yes | - | Search keywords | | count | No | 10 | Number of results | | mode | No | fast | fast or full (see below) |

Mode Selection

| Mode | Speed | Metadata | Use When | |------|-------|----------|----------| | fast | ~1-2s | Basic (no upload_date) | General searches, topic exploration | | full | ~5-8s | Complete (includes upload_date, description) | Time-sensitive searches, recent content |

When to use full mode:

• User asks for "recent" or "latest" videos on a topic
• Search query includes time indicators (e.g., "2024", "this week", "new")
• User wants to sort or filter by upload date
• Content is time-sensitive (news, events, updates)

When to use fast mode (default):

• General topic searches
• Tutorial or educational content
• Evergreen content that doesn't require recency

Examples

• /mk-youtube-search AI tutorial → fast mode (general topic)
• /mk-youtube-search "machine learning" 10 → fast mode
• /mk-youtube-search "Claude AI news" 5 full → full mode (time-sensitive)
• /mk-youtube-search "latest iPhone review" 10 full → full mode (recent content)

How it Works

1. Execute: {baseDir}/scripts/search.sh "<query>" <count> <mode>
2. Parse JSON output
3. Write video metadata to centralized store (/tmp/monkey_knowledge/youtube/meta/)
4. Display results in table format

Output Format

| # | Title | Channel | Duration | Views | Upload Date | URL | |---|-------|---------|----------|-------|-------------|-----| | 1 | ... | ... | 10:23 | 1.2M | 2024-01-15 | https://... |

Note: Upload Date is only available in full mode.

JSON Output

{
  "status": "success",
  "videos": [
    {
      "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
      "title": "Video Title",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...",
      "channel": "Channel Name",
      "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC...",
      "duration_string": "10:23",
      "view_count": 1234567,
      "upload_date": "20240115",
      "live_status": "not_live",
      "description": "First 200 chars..."
    }
  ]
}

Note: In fast mode, upload_date, live_status, and description will be null.

Notes

• Default result limit: 10 videos
• Default mode: fast (use full for time-sensitive searches)
• Uses system yt-dlp/jq if available, otherwise auto-downloads on first run
• Search results are saved to centralized metadata store for use by other skills (only in full mode)