Youtube Research
Research public YouTube channels, comment samples, and video metrics through PostPlus hosted collection before content or positioning decisions.
Overview
YouTube Research is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Grow, Validate) that collects public YouTube channel summaries, comment samples, video records, and metrics via PostPlus Cloud collection keys.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/postplusai/postplus-skills --skill youtube-researchWhat is this skill?
- Routes four hosted collection keys: youtube-channel-summary, youtube-comments, youtube-video-download, youtube-videos
- Default workflow: channel summary first, then small comments sample for audience proxies
- Explicit boundary: comment authors are not the subscriber base
- Shares PostPlus rulebook and user-guidance from postplus-shared
- Trigger: YouTube account research or public video metrics via PostPlus Cloud
- 4 released hosted collection keys
- Default 3-step workflow: summary → comments → public-video plan
Adoption & trust: 1 installs on skills.sh; 8 GitHub stars; 1/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits); trending (+100% hot-view momentum).
What problem does it solve?
You need structured public YouTube channel and video signals without building scrapers or misreading comment data as full audience lists.
Who is it for?
Solo builders validating a niche on YouTube or planning content using channel stats and comment samples.
Skip if: Teams that need verified subscriber identities, private analytics, or deep SEO keyword tooling outside PostPlus collections.
When should I use this skill?
The user wants YouTube account research or public video metrics using PostPlus Cloud collection.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get routed PostPlus collections (summary, comments, download, public videos) with clear public-data boundaries for the next positioning or content decision.
- Channel metadata and subscriber counts
- Comments sample for audience proxy research
- Hosted video record or public-video collection plan
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Channel and audience proxy research typically happens before you commit to a content or product angle. Fits the research shelf for competitor and channel discovery using public metadata and comment samples.
Where it fits
Pull channel summary and subscriber counts before picking a content niche.
Compare public channels in a category using summary and video lists.
Sample comments on a flagship video to sanity-check messaging resonance.
Compile a small public-video plan to benchmark topics and formats.
How it compares
Hosted PostPlus collection routing, not a generic browser scraper or YouTube Studio export.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is youtube-research for?
Indie builders and marketers who use PostPlus and want agent-guided YouTube public research before they invest in content or positioning.
When should I use youtube-research?
In Idea research for channel and competitor scans, in Validate when proving audience interest from comments, and in Grow when comparing public video performance—whenever the user asks for YouTube account research or public video metrics.
Is youtube-research safe to install?
Review the Security Audits panel on this catalog page and treat network/API collection as sensitive; the skill uses external PostPlus Cloud services.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Youtube Research
# Youtube Research # YouTube Research Use this skill for public YouTube channel summaries, audience comment samples, downloadable video records, and public video metrics through PostPlus hosted collection. Apply shared rulebook and user-guidance rules from `postplus-shared`. ## Before Collection Boundary The released collection does not expose subscriber identities. Use channel metadata and comments as public proxies, and do not present comment authors as the subscriber base. ## Collection Key Routing Released hosted collection keys: - `youtube-channel-summary`: channel metadata and subscriber counts. - `youtube-comments`: audience proxy research from comments on a specific video or Shorts URL. - `youtube-video-download`: hosted video record for explicit video URLs. - `youtube-videos`: public-video collection through the installed public-video entrypoint. ## Default Workflow 1. For channel research, start with `youtube-channel-summary`. 2. For audience research, collect a small comments sample with `youtube-comments`. 3. For broad public video discovery, compile a small public-video plan and run the installed public-video collection entrypoint. 4. If the public-video run is pending, preserve `collection-report.json` and resume with the emitted poll command. 5. Keep observation separate from inference, especially for audience claims. While collection is pending, tell the user the public collection is running from a saved checkpoint and continue independent brief or source-review work. ## Output Return channel metadata, public video records, comment-sample findings, source URLs, metric fields that were present, and clear notes about unavailable subscriber identities. ## Failure Modes - Stop if the request includes non-YouTube platforms. - Stop if no public YouTube URL, channel, or query can be used. - Stop if hosted collection cannot resolve the channel handle or URL. - Stop on hosted capability, auth, DNS, proxy, network, or malformed-output hard errors. - Do not promise private audience identities or logged-in analytics. ## Handoff Benchmark findings can feed `benchmark-to-brief`, `video-analysis`, or broader cross-platform synthesis. ## Public Command Boundary - Choose the smallest matching command or workflow from the user input and run it directly. - Readiness diagnostics: `postplus doctor --skill youtube-research`. - If an owned CLI or script command fails, report the exact error and stop. Do not bypass the failure with metadata-only answers, readiness probing, local payload rewrites, fallback providers, or unpublished tools. - Use `postplus research schema --collection-key youtube-channel-summary --json` only when constructing or repairing an unknown request shape. - Hosted collection: `postplus research collect --skill youtube-research --collection-key youtube-channel-summary --input <hosted-envelope.json> --output <collection-result.json>`. - Public video collection: `postplus research capability --request <hosted-capability-request.json> --output <collection-result.json>` with `public-content-collection` sourceKey `youtube-videos`. - Resume a pending collection: `postplus research collect --run-handle <runHandle> --output <collection-result.json>`. - Keep the first pass bounded; expand only after inspecting the first result. - If the CLI returns a quote-confirmation challenge, run `postplus quote confirm --json --challenge-file <challenge.json>` and retry with the returned token.