YouTube Search Library

A powerful, purely client-side JavaScript library for searching YouTube videos without an official API key. Built with modern JavaScript, zero dependencies, and comprehensive caching.

✨ Key Features

• No API Key Required - Works with YouTube's InnerTube API
• 100% Client-Side - No server code needed (with configurable CORS proxies)
• Smart Caching - LRU cache with localStorage persistence
• TypeScript Support - Full type definitions included
• Zero Dependencies - Pure JavaScript, no bloat
• Works Everywhere - Browser and Node.js compatible

🚀 Quick Start

npm install yt-search-lib

import { YouTubeClient } from 'yt-search-lib';

const client = new YouTubeClient({
  proxyUrl: 'http://127.0.0.1:3000/proxy?url=' // or use Render, etc.
});

const results = await client.search('lofi hip hop', { limit: 5 });
results.forEach(video => console.log(video.title));

📚 Documentation

Complete documentation is in the /docs directory.

Quick Links

• Getting Started Guide - Setup in 5 minutes
• API Reference - Complete API documentation
• Usage Examples - React, Express, and more
• Deployment Guides - Deploy locally or to Render
• Troubleshooting - Solve common problems
• Architecture - How it works under the hood
• Contributing - Help improve the library

📋 Installation

npm install yt-search-lib

🔧 Configuration

const client = new YouTubeClient({
  proxyUrl: 'https://your-proxy.com/proxy?url=', // Required for browsers
  useCache: true,                                    // Enable caching
  cacheMaxAge: 3600000                              // 1 hour cache TTL
});

See API Reference for all configuration options.

⚠️ Important: CORS Proxies

Browsers block direct requests to YouTube. You must use a CORS proxy:

• Development: http://127.0.0.1:3000/proxy?url= (run npm run proxy:start)
• Production: Deploy your own proxy or use Render

See Deployment Guide for options.

💡 Common Use Cases

Goal	Guide
Search from React	React Integration
Build API backend	Express.js Integration
Deploy to production	Deployment Options
Handle errors	Error Handling
Optimize caching	Caching Strategy
Fix a problem	Troubleshooting

🛠️ Development

npm run build          # Build the library
npm run test           # Run tests
npm run test:integration:proxy  # Integration tests with proxy
npm run proxy:start    # Start local CORS proxy
npm run lint          # Run ESLint
npm run format        # Format with Prettier

See Development Guide for details.

📄 License

MIT - See LICENSE file for details

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! See Contributing Guide and Code of Conduct.

🆘 Support

• Questions? → Support & Help
• Found a bug? → GitHub Issues
• Have an idea? → GitHub Discussions

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Ready to get started? → Full Documentation