!Yutu

yutu





yutu is a fully functional MCP server and CLI for YouTube to automate your YouTube workflows. It can manipulate almost all YouTube resources, like videos, playlists, channels, comments, captions, and more.


Table of Contents

- Prerequisites
- Installation
- GitHub Actions
- Docker
- Gopher
- Linux
- macOS
- Windows
- Verifying Installation
- MCP Server
- Usage
- Features
- Contributing

Prerequisites

Before you begin, an account on Google Cloud Platform is required to create a Project and enable these APIs for this project, in APIs & Services -> Enable APIs and services -> + ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES

- YouTube Data API v3(Required)
- YouTube Analytics API(Optional)
- YouTube Reporting API(Optional)

After enabling the APIs, create an OAuth content screen with yourself as test user, then create an OAuth Client ID of type Web Application with http://localhost:8216 as the redirect URI.

Download this credential to your local machine with name client_secret.json, it should look like

``json
{
"web": {
"client_id": "11181119.apps.googleusercontent.com",
"project_id": "yutu-11181119",
"auth_uri": "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth",
"token_uri": "https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token",
"auth_provider_x509_cert_url": "https://www.googleapis.com/oauth2/v1/certs",
"client_secret": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"redirect_uris": [
"http://localhost:8216"
]
}
}
`

To verify this credential, run the following command

`shell
❯ yutu auth --credential client_secret.json
`

A browser window will open asking for your permission to access your YouTube account, after granting the permission, a token will be generated and saved to youtube.token.json.

`json
{
"access_token": "ya29.XXXXXXXXX",
"token_type":"Bearer",
"refresh_token":"1//XXXXXXXXXX",
"expiry":"2024-05-26T18:49:56.1911165+08:00"
}
`

By default, yutu will read client_secret.json and youtube.token.json from the current directory, --credential/-c and --cacheToken/-t flags are available only in auth subcommand. To modify the default path in all subcommands, set these environment variables

`shell
❯ export YUTU_CREDENTIAL=client_secret.json
❯ export YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN=youtube.token.json


or


❯ YUTU_CREDENTIAL=client_secret.json YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN=youtube.token.json yutu subcommand --flag value
`

Installation

You can download yutu from releases page directly, or use the following methods as you prefer.

$3

There are two actions available for yutu, one is for general purpose and the other is for uploading video to YouTube. Refer to youtube-action and youtube-uploader for more information.

$3

`shell
❯ docker pull ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest
❯ docker run --rm ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest


make sure client_secret.json is in the current directory


❯ docker run --rm -it -u $(id -u):$(id -g) -v $(pwd):/app ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest auth
`

$3

`shell
❯ go install github.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu@latest
`

$3

`shell
❯ curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
`

$3

Install yutu using Homebrew🍺(recommended), or run the shell script.

`shell
❯ brew install yutu

or


❯ curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/eat-pray-ai/yutu/main/scripts/install.sh | bash
`

$3

`shell
❯ winget install yutu
`

$3

Verify the integrity and provenance of yutu using its associated cryptographically signed attestations.

`shell


Docker

❯ gh attestation verify oci://ghcr.io/eat-pray-ai/yutu:latest --repo eat-pray-ai/yutu

Linux and macOS(if installed using shell script)

❯ gh attestation verify $(which yutu) --repo eat-pray-ai/yutu

Windows

❯ gh attestation verify $(where.exe yutu.exe) --repo eat-pray-ai/yutu
`

MCP Server


As a MCP server, yutu can be used in MCP clients like Claude Desktop, VS Code or Cursor, which allows you to interact with YouTube resources in a chat-like interface.

Before using yutu as an MCP server, make sure yutu is installed(see Installation section), and you have a valid client_secret.json and youtube.token.json files(refer to Prerequisites section).

You can add yutu as a MCP server in VS Code or Cursor by clicking corresponding badge above, or add the following configuration manually to your MCP client. Remember to replace the values of YUTU_CREDENTIAL and YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN with correct paths on your local machine.

`json
{
"yutu": {
"type": "stdio",
"command": "yutu",
"args": [
"mcp"
],
"env": {
"YUTU_CREDENTIAL": "/absolute/path/to/client_secret.json",
"YUTU_CACHE_TOKEN": "/absolute/path/to/youtube.token.json"
}
}
}
`

Usage

`shell
❯ yutu is a fully functional MCP server and CLI for YouTube, which can manipulate almost all YouTube resources

Usage:
yutu [flags]
yutu [command]

Available Commands:
activity List YouTube activities
auth Authenticate with YouTube API
caption Manipulate YouTube captions
channel Manipulate YouTube channels
channelBanner Insert Youtube channel banner
channelSection Manipulate YouTube channel sections
comment Manipulate YouTube comments
commentThread Manipulate YouTube comment threads
completion Generate the autocompletion script for the specified shell
help Help about any command
i18nLanguage List YouTube i18n languages
i18nRegion List YouTube i18n regions
mcp Start MCP server
member List channel's members' info
membershipsLevel List memberships levels' info
playlist Manipulate YouTube playlists
playlistImage Manipulate YouTube playlist images
playlistItem Manipulate YouTube playlist items
search Search for YouTube resources
subscription Manipulate YouTube subscriptions
superChatEvent List Super Chat events for a channel
thumbnail Set thumbnail for a video
version Show the version of yutu
video Manipulate YouTube videos
videoAbuseReportReason List YouTube video abuse report reasons
videoCategory List YouTube video categories
watermark Manipulate YouTube watermarks

Flags:
-h, --help help for yutu

Use "yutu [command] --help" for more information about a command.
``

Features

Please refer to FEATURES.md for more information.

Contributing

Please refer to CONTRIBUTING.md for more information.

Star History