YouTube Topic Researcher

Research any topic or niche across YouTube to find what's working, identify content gaps, and generate data-driven video ideas.

Usage

/youtube-topic-researcher air fryer recipes
/youtube-topic-researcher "Python automation"
/youtube-topic-researcher meditation for beginners
/youtube-topic-researcher --topic "home gym setup" --max-results 75

Instructions

Step 1: Parse Arguments

• Topic/keyword (required): the search term to research
• --max-results N (optional): videos per search ordering (default: 50, max: 100)

Step 2: Get the API Key

Check the user's Claude memory for a YouTube Data API v3 key. If not found, ask:

"I need a YouTube Data API v3 key to research this topic. You can get one from the Google Cloud Console. Please paste your key."

Export it as YTAPIKEY when running the script.

Step 3: Run the Bundled Script

Run scripts/research_topic.py — resolve the path relative to this skill's own directory:

YT_API_KEY=API_KEY python3 <skill-dir>/scripts/research_topic.py "TOPIC" [--max-results N]

Dependency: pip3 install google-api-python-client (the script tells you if it's missing).

The script searches by relevance, view count, and date; batches video and channel details; computes percentiles, format performance, title patterns, tag cloud, outliers, and saturation signals; then writes the raw JSON and prints the exact markdown path for the report.

Step 4: Read the Data

Read the JSON the script wrote:

reports/data/topic-research-<topic-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.json

Step 5: Write the Report

Write the markdown report to the path the script printed:

reports/topic-research-<topic-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md

Report Structure

# Topic Research: [Topic]
*Analyzed [date] | [N] videos across [N] channels*

## Executive Summary
- 3-4 bullet points: Is this niche worth entering? Key findings at a glance.
- Overall assessment: Saturated / Growing / Underserved / Emerging

## Market Overview
| Metric | Value |
|--------|-------|
| Videos Analyzed | |
| Total Views (sample) | |
| Average Views | |
| Median Views | |
| Avg Engagement Rate | |
| Unique Channels | |
| Avg Video Duration | |

## Performance Benchmarks
- What view count = "good" in this niche (use `view_percentiles`)
- 25th / 50th / 75th / 90th percentile views
- Engagement rate benchmarks

## Content Format Analysis
Table showing format breakdown (Short, Medium, Long-form, etc.) with avg views per format
(use `format_performance`). Which format performs best? Which is most common?

## Channel Landscape
- Channel size distribution (micro/small/medium/large)
- Top channels dominating the results
- Is this a "winner take all" niche or distributed?
- Opportunities for small channels

## Title Patterns That Work
- Data from `title_patterns`
- Most common words/phrases
- Title formulas used by top performers
- What distinguishes high-performing titles

## Tag Cloud & SEO
- Top tags used
- Tag clusters (groups of related tags)
- Missing tag opportunities

## Outlier Videos (Breakout Hits)
Table of outlier videos with views, channel size, outlier score.
What do these have in common? Why did they break out?

## Content Freshness
- Age distribution of top results
- Is YouTube favoring new or evergreen content for this topic?
- Recency signals

## Content Gaps & Opportunities
- Subtopics underrepresented in results
- Formats not being used effectively
- Angle/perspective gaps
- Audience segments not being served

## Video Ideas (Data-Backed)
3-5 specific video ideas with:
- Suggested title
- Why this would work (data backing)
- Target format and duration
- Key tags to use

## Saturation Assessment
- Competition density score (unique channels / total videos)
- Big channel dominance percentage
- Recent content velocity
- Final verdict: Is this niche worth entering?

## Quota Usage
| Operation | Calls | Units |
|-----------|-------|-------|
Use the `quota_used.breakdown` block from the JSON.

Step 6: Report Completion

Tell the user the report path, the data path, the single most interesting insight, the saturation verdict, the number of video ideas generated, and the quota consumed.

Quota Estimate

Keyword search is the whole point of this skill, so search.list (100 units/call) stays.

With --max-results 100 each ordering paginates twice: ~507 units. Daily default allowance is 10,000 units, resetting at midnight Pacific Time.