YouTube Channel Scraper

A browser-based YouTube channel discovery and scraping tool.

> Part of ScrapeClaw — a suite of production-ready, agentic social media scrapers for Instagram, YouTube, X/Twitter, and Facebook built with Python & Playwright, no API keys required.

---
name: youtube-scrapper
description: Discover and scrape YouTube channels from your browser.
emoji: 📺
version: 1.0.2
author: influenza
tags:
  - youtube
  - scraping
  - social-media
  - channel-discovery
  - influencer-discovery
metadata:
  clawdbot:
    requires:
      bins:
        - python3
        - chromium

    config:
      stateDirs:
        - data/output
        - data/queue
        - thumbnails
      outputFormats:
        - json
        - csv
---

Overview

This skill provides a two-phase YouTube scraping system:

1. Channel Discovery — Find YouTube channels via Google Search (browser-based, no API key required)
2. Browser Scraping — Scrape public channel data using Playwright with anti-detection (no login required)

Features

• 🔍 - Discover YouTube channels by location and category
• 🌐 - Full browser simulation for accurate scraping
• 🛡️ - Browser fingerprinting, human behavior simulation, and stealth scripts
• 📊 - Channel info, subscribers, views, videos, engagement data, and media
• 💾 - JSON export with downloaded thumbnails
• 🔄 - Resume interrupted scraping sessions
• ⚡ - Auto-skip unavailable channels and low-subscriber profiles
• 🌍 - Built-in residential proxy support with 4 providers
• 🗺️ - Regional configs for US, UK, Europe, India, Gulf, and East Asia

Usage

Agent Tool Interface

For OpenClaw agent integration, the skill provides JSON output:

# Discover YouTube channels (returns JSON queue)
python scripts/youtube_channel_discovery.py --categories tech --locations India

# Scrape from a queue file
python scripts/youtube_channel_scraper.py --queue data/queue/your_queue_file.json

# Full orchestration — discover + scrape in one go
python scripts/youtube_orchestrator.py --config resources/scraper_config_ind.json

Output Data

Channel Data Structure

{
  "channel_name": "Marques Brownlee",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd",
  "subscribers": 19200000,
  "total_views": 4500000000,
  "video_count": 1800,
  "description": "MKBHD: Quality Tech Videos...",
  "joined_date": "Mar 21, 2008",
  "country": "United States",
  "profile_pic_url": "https://...",
  "profile_pic_local": "thumbnails/mkbhd/profile_abc123.jpg",
  "banner_url": "https://...",
  "banner_local": "thumbnails/mkbhd/banner_def456.jpg",
  "influencer_tier": "mega",
  "category": "tech",
  "scrape_location": "New York",
  "scraped_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00",
  "recent_videos": [
    {
      "title": "Galaxy S26 Ultra Review",
      "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...",
      "views": 5200000,
      "published": "2 days ago",
      "duration": "14:32",
      "thumbnail_url": "https://...",
      "thumbnail_local": "thumbnails/mkbhd/video_0_ghi789.jpg"
    }
  ]
}

Queue File Structure

{
  "location": "India",
  "category": "tech",
  "total": 20,
  "channels": ["@channel1", "@channel2", "..."],
  "completed": ["@channel1"],
  "failed": {"@channel3": "not_found"},
  "current_index": 2,
  "created_at": "2026-02-17T12:00:00",
  "source": "google_search"
}

Influencer Tiers

| Tier | Subscribers Range | |-------|---------------------| | nano | < 1,000 | | micro | 1,000 – 10,000 | | mid | 10,000 – 100,000 | | macro | 100,000 – 1M | | mega | > 1,000,000 |

File Outputs

• Queue files: data/queue/{region}/{location}_{category}_{timestamp}.json
• Scraped data: data/output_{region}/{channel_name}.json
• Thumbnails: thumbnails_{region}/{channel}/profile_.jpg, thumbnails_{region}/{channel}/video_.jpg
• Progress: data/progress/discovery_progress_{region}.json

Configuration

Regional config files live in resources/:

resources/scraper_config_us.json
resources/scraper_config_uk.json
resources/scraper_config_eur.json
resources/scraper_config_ind.json
resources/scraper_config_gulf.json
resources/scraper_config_east.json

Example config (resources/scraper_config_ind.json):

{
  "proxy": {
    "enabled": false,
    "provider": "brightdata",
    "country": "",
    "sticky": true,
    "sticky_ttl_minutes": 10
  },
  "categories": [
    "gaming", "tech", "beauty", "fashion", "fitness",
    "food", "travel", "music", "education", "comedy",
    "lifestyle", "cooking", "diy", "art", "finance",
    "health", "entertainment"
  ],
  "locations": [
    "India", "Mumbai", "Delhi", "Bangalore", "Hyderabad",
    "Chennai", "Kolkata", "Pune", "Ahmedabad", "Jaipur"
  ],
  "max_videos_to_scrape": 6,
  "headless": false,
  "results_per_search": 20,
  "search_delay": [3, 7],
  "scrape_delay": [2, 5],
  "rate_limit_wait": 60,
  "max_retries": 3
}

Filters Applied

The scraper automatically filters out:

• ❌ Unavailable or terminated channels
• ❌ Channels with < 500 subscribers (configurable)
• ❌ Non-existent channel URLs
• ❌ Already scraped entries (deduplication)
• ❌ Rate-limited requests (auto-retry with backoff)

Anti-Detection

The scraper uses multiple anti-detection techniques:

• Browser fingerprinting — Rotating fingerprint profiles (viewport, user agent, timezone, WebGL, etc.)
• Stealth JavaScript — Hides navigator.webdriver, spoofs plugins/languages/hardware, canvas noise, fake chrome object
• Human behavior simulation — Random delays, mouse movements, scrolling patterns
• Network randomization — Variable timing between requests
• Request interception — Blocks known fingerprinting and tracking scripts

Troubleshooting

No Channels Discovered

• Try different location/category combinations
• Check if Google Search is returning CAPTCHA pages
• Run with --headless false to debug visually

Rate Limiting

• Reduce scraping speed (increase delays in config)
• Run during off-peak hours
• Use a residential proxy (see below)

Browser Crashes

• The orchestrator auto-restarts the browser every 50 channels
• Interrupted scrapes can be resumed — queue files track progress automatically

---

🌐 Residential Proxy Support

Why Use a Residential Proxy?

Running a scraper at scale without a residential proxy will get your IP blocked fast. Here's why proxies are essential for long-running scrapes:

| Advantage | Description | |-----------|-------------| | Avoid IP Bans | Residential IPs look like real household users, not data-center bots. YouTube is far less likely to flag them. | | Automatic IP Rotation | Each request (or session) gets a fresh IP, so rate-limits never stack up on one address. | | Geo-Targeting | Route traffic through a specific country/city so scraped content matches the target audience's locale. | | Sticky Sessions | Keep the same IP for a configurable window (e.g. 10 min) — critical for maintaining a consistent browsing session. | | Higher Success Rate | Rotating residential IPs deliver 95%+ success rates compared to ~30% with data-center proxies on YouTube. | | Long-Running Scrapes | Scrape thousands of channels over hours or days without interruption. | | Concurrent Scraping | Run multiple browser instances across different IPs simultaneously. |

Recommended Proxy Providers

We have affiliate partnerships with top residential proxy providers. Using these links supports continued development of this skill:

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