YouTube search API for AI assistants

The YouTube search API takes a keyword or phrase and returns matching videos, each with its title, the channel name, when it was published, and view counts. Your assistant uses it to find videos on a topic without opening YouTube.

What it does

You pass a search query, and you can set the maximum number of results, the sort order, and the publish date range. The provider returns videos that match, with the title, the channel name and ID, the publish date, the thumbnail, and the view count or engagement stats depending on the provider.

Each video comes with its YouTube link and video ID, so your assistant can pass the link to you or call another API to get the transcript or the full metadata.

How a Joshu assistant uses it

When you ask for videos on a topic, Joshu searches YouTube and returns the three or four most relevant or most viewed videos with a one line note on each.

Before a presentation or research project, Joshu pulls recent videos on the topic and picks out the ones with high engagement or from known channels.

When monitoring a channel or a keyword, Joshu can run the same search weekly and flag new videos that match your criteria.

Choosing a provider

Providers differ in how they rank results and in which fields they include. Some return only the title and link, and some add the full description, tags, and engagement counts. The official YouTube API has stricter rate limits than third-party providers.

curl https://hello.joshu.me/api/router/call \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JOSHU_ROUTER_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "endpoint": "crawl4ai.youtube.search.videos",
    "params": {
      "query": "rust programming"
    }
  }'