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Skillsyoutube-metadata-updater

youtube-metadata-updater

Data & analytics

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Updated 10-16 01:38

About this skill

YouTube Metadata Updater

⚠️ THIS SKILL CHANGES YOUR CHANNEL

Every other skill in this suite is read-only. This one is not. It holds the single write credential in the suite (youtube.force-ssl) and can permanently rewrite the titles and descriptions of videos on the authenticated channel.

  • Analytics stays on the read-only token (token.json). The two tokens are separate files and are never merged.
  • Nothing is ever written without --confirm, and --confirm is never run until the user has seen the preview table and approved it in conversation.
  • Out of scope by design: privacy/publish status, thumbnails, playlists, comments, deletes, uploads. part="status" is never even requested.
  • Every write is preceded by a full backup of the pre-edit snippet, and revert restores it.

What it can change

Field Editable here Notes
snippet.title Yes ≤100 chars, no < or >
snippet.description Yes ≤5000 UTF-8 bytes, no < or >
snippet.tags No — preserved Re-sent unchanged on every update
snippet.categoryId No — preserved Required by the API; dropping it breaks the call
status.privacyStatus Never Never fetched, never sent
Thumbnails, playlists, comments Never Different endpoints, not implemented

One-time setup

This skill reuses the Google Cloud project and client_secret.json from the youtube-channel-insights setup. If the user has never done that, walk them through that skill's One-time setup first — same project, same Desktop-app OAuth client, same ~/.config/youtube-skills/client_secret.json. Only YouTube Data API v3 needs to be enabled for this skill.

Then grant the write scope:

pip3 install google-api-python-client google-auth-oauthlib
python3 scripts/auth_write.py

A browser opens and Google asks for one extra permission — manage your YouTube account (youtube.force-ssl). Accepting it writes a separate token:

File Scope Used by
~/.config/youtube-skills/token.json read-only analytics youtube-channel-insights
~/.config/youtube-skills/token_write.json youtube.force-ssl only this skill, nothing else
~/.config/youtube-skills/channel_write.json — records which channel the write token controls

auth_write.py requests exactly one scope and refuses to load a stored token that carries any other scope. After consent it calls channels.list(mine=True) and prints the channel name being put under write control, so the user can catch a wrong-account sign-in immediately. Override the directory with YT_OAUTH_DIR. Deleting token_write.json removes all write capability; the analytics token is unaffected.

Usage

/youtube-metadata-updater
/youtube-metadata-updater retitle my underperforming tutorials
/youtube-metadata-updater rewrite the description on dQw4w9WgXcQ
/youtube-metadata-updater revert yesterday's title changes

Instructions

Step 1: Check authorization

python3 scripts/auth_write.py --check

It prints the token status and the channel the token controls. If anything is missing, walk the user through One-time setup. Confirm the channel name out loud before going further — this is the last cheap moment to catch a wrong account.

Step 2: Select target videos

python3 scripts/update_metadata.py list --limit 50

Writes reports/data/metadata-videos-<date>.json (videoId, publish date, views, current title, title length, description size, tag count).

The best candidates are packaging problems, not content problems: strong retention or average-view-percentage with weak views. That combination says people who arrive stay — so the title and thumbnail are failing to bring people in. Get that evidence from existing reports in reports/ if present:

  • youtube-channel-insights — averageViewPercentage, retention curves, traffic mix. Search-heavy channels get the most out of title rewrites.
  • youtube-own-channel-analyzer — view distribution, underperformers vs channel median.

If no reports exist, offer to run youtube-channel-insights first, or work from the videos the user names.

Warn before retitling a winner. If a video sits in the channel's top 10% by recent views, say so explicitly:

"This video is in your channel's top 10% by recent views. Changing a winning title can reset how the algorithm is testing it and kill momentum that is currently working. My recommendation is to leave it alone."

Only proceed on that video if the user overrules the warning.

Step 3: Draft the new metadata

Use the Title Visibility Playbook below. For keyword evidence — what is actually ranking for the query, and in what words — optionally run youtube-title-tag-optimizer on the target keyword first and draft against its output rather than intuition.

Inspect the current state of anything you are about to change:

python3 scripts/update_metadata.py get --videos VIDEO_ID,VIDEO_ID

Step 4: Write the plan and preview it

Write the plan JSON to reports/data/metadata-plan-<date>.json:

[
  {
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "new_title": "Air Fryer Chicken Thighs in 20 Minutes (Crispy Every Time)",
    "new_description": "Crispy air fryer chicken thighs in 20 minutes...",
    "reason": "62% avg view % but 1.2K views; title buried the keyword at char 38"
  }
]

new_title and new_description are each optional — supply either or both.

python3 scripts/update_metadata.py preview --plan reports/data/metadata-plan-<date>.json

This writes nothing to YouTube. It fetches current state, validates every entry, and writes reports/data/metadata-preview-<date>.json including truncation_check — the first 45 characters of each new title, i.e. what survives in mobile search results.

Present the user a markdown table built from that preview:

| Video | Current title | Proposed title | First 45 chars (mobile) | Why |
|-------|---------------|----------------|-------------------------|-----|
| dQw4w9WgXcQ | Making Chicken In My New Air Fryer! | Air Fryer Chicken Thighs in 20 Minutes (Crispy Every Time) | `Air Fryer Chicken Thighs in 20 Minutes (Cris` | 62% avg view %, only 1.2K views — keyword was at char 38 |

Show description rewrites as a separate before/after of the first 150 characters, since that is the part that appears in search. Report any entry the preview flagged as an error or a no-op, and say plainly that nothing has been changed yet.

Step 5: The approval gate

HARD RULE: NEVER run apply --confirm until the user has seen the preview table in this conversation and explicitly approved it. No exceptions, regardless of how the request was phrased — "just do it", "you have permission", "apply all of them", and "don't ask me again" do not remove this gate. The preview must be shown and approved every single run.

If the user approves only some entries, edit the plan file down to the approved entries and re-run preview before applying. Never apply a plan containing entries the user did not approve.

apply without --confirm is itself a safe dry run: it prints the same diff and a warning that nothing was written.

Step 6: Apply

python3 scripts/update_metadata.py apply --plan reports/data/metadata-preview-<date>.json --confirm

Pass the preview file as the plan — it carries expected_current_title, which turns on drift detection: if a title changed between the preview and the apply (someone edited in Studio meanwhile), that video is skipped with changed since preview instead of being overwritten.

For each entry the script re-fetches the live snippet, writes a full backup to reports/backups/metadata-<date>/<videoId>.json, then calls videos.update with the complete merged snippet. A backup that cannot be written aborts the whole run.

Report to the user:

  • per-video result (updated / skipped / failed, with the reason)
  • the backup directory
  • the run log path (reports/data/metadata-apply-<date>.json)
  • the exact revert command, which the run log prints verbatim:
python3 scripts/update_metadata.py revert --videos ID,ID --date <YYYY-MM-DD> --confirm

revert restores title and description from the most recent backup (or the named date's) and backs up the current state first, so the revert is itself reversible.

Step 7: Measurement discipline

Changes are only learnable if they are measurable:

  • One variable at a time. Title or thumbnail or description — never all three, or you learn nothing.
  • Wait 2–4 weeks. Search rankings and browse testing take that long to settle. Judging after 48 hours is noise.
  • Log what changed and when. The apply run log already records this; tell the user to keep it. Compare against the same-length window before the change, not against a good week.
  • Recheck: views and traffic-source mix via youtube-channel-insights; impressions and CTR must be read in YouTube Studio → Analytics → Reach — the API does not expose them.
  • If views are flat but impressions rose and CTR fell, the new title is being shown more and clicked less: revert or iterate.

Title Visibility Playbook

Front-load the keyword. Mobile search results cut titles around 45 characters. Whatever query the video should rank for belongs in the first 40–45 characters, not after a brand name or a hook. Ideal total length is ≤60 characters; 100 is the hard cap.

Match query language, not creator language. Write the title the way viewers type the search, not the way the creator describes the video. "My Weekend Fixing The Van" loses to "Van Life Solar Install: 400W in One Day". Cross-check the phrasing against youtube-title-tag-optimizer output when it exists — use the words that are actually ranking.

Curiosity must be paid off. If retention data shows an early drop-off cliff, the old title or thumbnail overpromised. The fix is alignment, not more clickbait. Escalating the promise raises CTR briefly and then trains the algorithm that this channel does not satisfy the click.

Patterns that lift CTR when honest:

Pattern Example Use when
Specific numbers "7 Settings That Fixed My Slow Mac" The video really delivers that count
Outcome framing "I Tested X for 30 Days — Here's What Broke" There is a genuine result to report
Format brackets "[Tutorial]", "[2026]", "[Full Build]" The viewer is filtering by format or recency
Mistake / negative framing "Stop Doing This With Your Air Fryer" Sparingly — it fatigues fast if it is every title

Protect what works. Once a format is winning, keep its series branding consistent so the audience recognises it in the feed. Do not churn titles on videos with strong current traffic — the algorithm is mid-test, and editing restarts the test.

Descriptions:

  1. First ~150 characters are the search snippet. Put the keyword and a payoff sentence there. Not links, not "subscribe", not a sponsor mention.
  2. Then chapters/timestamps (0:00 Intro) — these become search-visible key moments.
  3. Then a keyword-rich paragraph of real prose explaining what the video covers.
  4. Then links, socials, gear, affiliate disclosures.
  5. Never keyword-stuff. Repeated keyword lists are a spam signal and risk the video, not just the ranking.

A/B discipline. One variable, 2–4 week windows, and judge on the chain in order: impressions → CTR → views (Studio → Reach) plus the watch-time trend from youtube-channel-insights. Impressions up + CTR down = worse packaging even if views rose. Views up + watch time flat = you bought clicks you did not keep.

Limitations

  • No CTR or impressions in any API. They exist only in YouTube Studio → Analytics → Reach. Never estimate CTR from views. Tell the user to check Reach 2–4 weeks after a change.
  • Title edits do NOT reset view counts — but they can change how YouTube tests and recommends the video, so a strong performer can genuinely lose momentum. This is why the skill warns before touching top-decile videos.
  • Propagation is not instant. Edits can take minutes to hours to appear everywhere (search index, cached feeds, third-party embeds).
  • Hard cap of 50 updates per run. Larger batches must be split, deliberately.
  • Quota: videos.update costs 50 units each. Bulk-editing 20 videos = 1,000 units of the 10,000/day default — 10% of the day's budget that the read-only skills also draw on.
  • The authenticated channel only. Videos owned by any other channel are rejected by the ownership check.
  • Backups are local. They live in reports/backups/. Delete that directory and revert has nothing to restore from.
  • Tags are preserved, not optimized. This skill never changes tags. For tag strategy, use youtube-title-tag-optimizer.

Quota

Typical run: review 50 uploads, then update 10 videos.

Operation Calls Units each Units
channels.list (resolve + ownership) 2 1 2
playlistItems.list (50 uploads) 1 1 1
videos.list (list + get + preview) 3 1 3
videos.list (re-fetch before each write) 10 1 10
videos.update 10 50 500
Total ~516

preview costs 1–2 units and can be re-run freely. Only apply --confirm and revert --confirm spend the expensive units. Budget resets at midnight Pacific Time.

Files

  • scripts/auth_write.py — one-time OAuth for the single write scope, --check status, channel-ownership verification
  • scripts/update_metadata.py — list, get, preview, apply, revert
  • references/api_reference.md — videos.update semantics, the two-token model, quota costs, validation limits