yt-search-lib

YouTube Search Library

A powerful, purely client-side JavaScript library for searching YouTube videos without an official API key. It uses YouTube's internal InnerTube API pattern and provides a high-performance, cached searching experience.

✨ Features

• No API Key Required: Works by emulating the internal YouTube web client.
• 100% Client-Side: No server-side code needed (bypasses CORS via configurable proxies).
• Persistent LRU Cache: Automatically stores results in localStorage to save bandwidth and improve speed.
• Rich Metadata: Returns titles, high-res thumbnails, watch links, durations, view counts, and channel names.
• Modular & Lightweight: Zero dependencies, built with modern ES Modules.
• Premium Demo: Includes a state-of-the-art, glassmorphic search interface.

🚀 Quick Start

1. Installation

npm install yt-search-lib

2. Usage

import YouTubeClient from 'yt-search-lib';

// Initialize the client
const client = new YouTubeClient({
  // Bypassing CORS is mandatory for browser usage
  proxyUrl: 'https://api.allorigins.win/raw?url=', 
  useCache: true,
  cacheMaxAge: 3600000 // 1 hour in ms
});

// Perform a search
async function search() {
  try {
    const results = await client.search('lofi hip hop', { limit: 5 });
    
    results.forEach(video => {
      console.log(`Title: ${video.title}`);
      console.log(`Link: ${video.link}`);
      console.log(`Thumbnail: ${video.thumbnail_url}`);
    });
  } catch (err) {
    console.error('Search failed:', err);
  }
}

search();

📂 Project Structure

• src/index.js: Main library entry point.
• src/lib/parser.js: Robust logic for parsing YouTube's complex JSON responses.
• src/lib/transport.js: Network layer with proxy and error handling.
• src/lib/cache.js: LocalStorage-based LRU caching mechanism.
• src/lib/constants.js: InnerTube configuration and API keys.
• index.html: A premium, responsive demo page.

⚙️ Configuration

The YouTubeClient constructor accepts an options object:

Option	Type	Default	Description
proxyUrl	string	''	Prefix URL for a CORS proxy.
useCache	boolean	true	Enable or disable localStorage caching.
cacheMaxAge	number	3600000	How long to keep results in cache (ms).
clientContext	object	WEB	Override the InnerTube client version/name.

⚠️ Important Note on CORS

Browsers block direct requests to YouTube. To use this library in a browser, you must use a CORS proxy.

• For development: https://api.allorigins.win/raw?url= or https://cors-anywhere.herokuapp.com/
• For production: It is highly recommended to host your own simple proxy server for stability and security.

📜 License

MIT