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)