🎯 YouTube Shorts Metadata Scraper

Lightning-fast extraction of detailed YouTube Shorts video data into JSON for analytics, automation, or reporting.

📖 Summary

Scrape metadata from YouTube Shorts or playlists including title, channel, views, likes, tags, description, and more.

💡 Use Cases

• Monitor trending Shorts for analytics dashboards
• Track competitor channel performance
• Automate content research for Shorts
• Generate structured reports from playlists or multiple videos

⚡ Quick Start — Apify Console

1. Go to the Actor page in Apify Console.
2. Click Run.
3. Paste an array of YouTube Shorts URLs in startUrls.
4. (Optional) Enable Apify Proxy or provide custom proxies in the Proxy panel.
5. Click Start.

⚡ Quick Start — CLI + API

CLI

$apify run --actor <ACTOR_ID> -p input.json

Python API (apify-client)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('<APIFY_TOKEN>')

run_input = {
    'startUrls': ['https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ'],
    'proxyConfiguration': {'useApifyProxy': True}
}

run = client.acts.run_actor('<ACTOR_ID>', run_input=run_input)
print(run['defaultDatasetId'])

📝 Inputs

• startUrls: List of YouTube Shorts video or playlist URLs.
• proxyConfiguration: Object to configure proxy usage.

⚙️ Configuration

🔑 Name	📝 Type	❓ Required	⚙️ Default	📌 Example	📝 Notes
startUrls	array	✅ Yes	null	["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"]	List of target YouTube Shorts URLs
proxyConfiguration	object	⚙️ Optional	{}	{ "useApifyProxy": true }	Proxy settings for requests
ALL_RESULTS	dataset/key-value	⚙️ Optional	default	ALL_RESULTS	Key for storing all output data

Console example: Paste startUrls in input JSON panel or set APIFY_TOKEN env variable in Actor settings.

📤 Outputs

• Dataset: JSON objects for each Shorts video containing metadata.

Example output item:

{
  "title": "Example Shorts Video",
  "description": "Short video description...",
  "duration": 25,
  "upload_date": "20250101",
  "url": "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "tags": ["fun", "shorts"],
  "views": 12345,
  "likes": 678,
  "dislikes": 10,
  "comment_count": 45,
  "category": ["Entertainment"],
  "thumbnail": "https://example.com/thumb.jpg",
  "shares": 5,
  "engagement_ratio": 0.058,
  "channel_name": "Channel Name",
  "channel_id": "UC1234567890",
  "channel_url": "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1234567890",
  "channel_handle": "@channelhandle",
  "subscribers": 10000,
  "thumbnails": [],
  "thumbnail_url_hq": "https://example.com/thumb_hq.jpg",
  "audio_track": "Song Name",
  "artist": "Artist Name",
  "album": "Album Name",
  "language": "en",
  "subtitles": ["en"],
  "is_short": true
}

🔑 Environment Variables

• APIFY_TOKEN — your Apify account token.

▶️ How to Run

• Console: Run Actor → paste input JSON → Start.
• CLI: apify run --actor <ACTOR_ID> -p input.json
• apify-client: See Python example above.

⏰ Scheduling & Webhooks

• Configure schedules in the Scheduler panel.
• Add webhooks in Webhook settings to trigger external callbacks.

🐞 Logs & Troubleshooting

• ❌ Missing URLs → ensure startUrls is provided.
• ⚠️ Proxy errors → check proxy configuration and credentials.
• ⚠️ Private video errors → may require login cookies.

🔒 Permissions & Storage Notes

• Actor stores output in default dataset; ensure access to Apify storage.
• Proxy credentials should be stored as secrets.

🆕 Changelog / Versioning Tip

• Increment version for major feature additions.
• Patch releases for bug fixes.

🌍 Proxy Configuration

• Enable Apify Proxy: In Console, go to Proxy panel → toggle Use Apify Proxy ✅
• Custom Proxy: Set HTTP_PROXY / HTTPS_PROXY env vars, e.g., http://<PROXY_USER:PROXY_PASS@HOST:PORT>
• Security: Always store credentials as secrets 🔒
• TODO: Add advanced rotating proxy patterns if scraping large playlists.

📚 References

• Apify Actor README Guide
• Apify Input & Output Docs
• Apify CLI Docs

🧐 Inferred from main.py

• Supports multiple YouTube Shorts URLs or playlists.
• Uses optional proxy configuration.
• Extracts detailed Shorts metadata including engagement and channel info.
• TODO: Confirm support for private videos requiring login cookies.

---

input.example.json

{ "startUrls": [ "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ" ], "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true } }

---

CONFIG.md

Configuration Reference

🔑 Name	📝 Type	❓ Required	⚙️ Default	📌 Example	📝 Notes
startUrls	array	✅ Yes	null	["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"]	List of target YouTube Shorts URLs
proxyConfiguration	object	⚙️ Optional	{}	{ "useApifyProxy": true }	Proxy settings for requests
ALL_RESULTS	dataset/key-value	⚙️ Optional	default	ALL_RESULTS	Key for storing all output data

Example Console input:

{
  "startUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQw4w9WgXcQ"]
}