Yutu
Free, Apache-2.0 YouTube automation as a CLI, an MCP server, and an A2A agent — script your channel instead of clicking it.
If your YouTube workflow belongs in git, Yutu is the cleanest free option: real API depth across 30+ commands, three automation modes (CLI, MCP server, A2A agent), and $0/mo under Apache-2.0. It is a floor-to-ceiling API client, not a growth coach — anyone wanting keyword suggestions, thumbnail A/B tests, or competitor analytics should look at TubeBuddy or vidIQ instead. Budget a couple of hours for the Google Cloud OAuth client and client_secret.json step before you judge it, and test on a secondary channel before pointing the agent at your main one.
Verified 3d ago · liveness 73/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/yutu
- Developers who want to script YouTube uploads, playlists, and moderation from the terminal
- Teams publishing video on a schedule through GitHub Actions or Docker pipelines
- Claude Desktop, Cursor, or OpenCode users who want to manage a channel by chatting with an MCP server
- DevOps engineers folding video publishing into an existing CI/CD workflow
- Creators who need keyword research, thumbnail A/B tests, or competitor analytics
- Anyone unwilling to create a Google Cloud OAuth client and work with a client_secret.json file
- Editors looking for built-in video editing or rendering
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Skip Yutu if you want a growth dashboard with keyword scoring, thumbnail A/B tests, and competitor analytics — or if you are not willing to create a Google Cloud OAuth client and keep a client_secret.json file on disk.
YouTube Data API v3 enforces daily quota limits, so heavy upload or moderation volume can stall mid-pipeline once your project's allocation is spent.
At $0/mo under Apache-2.0, Yutu undercuts subscription YouTube managers like TubeBuddy and vidIQ entirely — and there is no seat count, tier ladder, or usage meter to grow into. That makes it an easy fit for solo developers and small DevOps teams running one or many channels; the trade is that you supply the OAuth setup, the quota management, and your own support, which is exactly what the paid tools charge for.
In short
Yutu — Free, Apache-2.0 YouTube automation as a CLI, an MCP server, and an A2A agent — script your channel instead of clicking it. Best for Developers who want to script YouTube uploads, playlists, and moderation from the terminal, Teams publishing video on a schedule through GitHub Actions or Docker pipelines, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or OpenCode users who want to manage a channel by chatting with an MCP server. Free to use.
What people actually say about Yutu — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
19 mentions across 2 sources (Hacker News, Lemmy) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 2 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +30+ YouTube API commands in one CLI tool.
- +Integrates as MCP server for chat-based IDE control.
- +Supports AI agent autonomy (A2A) for hands-off workflows.
- +One-command install via Homebrew, Winget, or curl.
- +Open-source under Apache-2.0 with GitHub Actions support.
- −Virtually no community or user reviews available.
- −Documentation quality and completeness are untested.
- −Requires YouTube API credentials and setup knowledge.
- −No GUI—only CLI, MCP, or AI agent interfaces.
- −Potential for API rate limiting on large operations.
- • No hidden costs, but requires your own YouTube API keys which may incur usage charges from Google beyond free quota.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Yutu? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- CLI with 30+ commands covering YouTube Data API v3 operations
- MCP server that exposes YouTube management to Claude Desktop, OpenCode, and Cursor
- A2A agent mode for autonomous multi-agent channel workflows (yutu agent)
- Unified YouTube skill for OpenClaw via npx skills add
- Upload, update, delete, and rate videos (yutu video insert)
- Create playlists and manage playlist items and playlist images
- Retrieve and moderate comment threads
- Upload and manage captions
- Set video thumbnails
- Configure channel banners, sections, and watermarks
- Track membership levels and super chat events
- Search videos, channels, and playlists
- Manage subscriptions and activity
- Handle abuse reports and video categories
- i18n language and region configuration
About Yutu
Yutu is an open-source toolkit from eat-pray-ai that gives you three ways to drive the same YouTube Data API v3 surface: a CLI with 30+ commands, an MCP server you add to Claude Desktop, OpenCode, or Cursor, and an A2A agent for autonomous multi-agent workflows. Install is a one-liner — brew install yutu on macOS, winget install yutu on Windows, or a curl script on Linux — then authenticate with yutu auth --credential client_secret.json. The command surface covers the practical work of running a channel: video insert, update, delete and rate; playlists, playlist items and playlist images; comment thread retrieval and moderation; caption uploads; thumbnail setting; channel banners, sections and watermarks; membership levels; super chat events; i18n language and region; video categories; abuse reports; plus search, subscriptions and activity. The difference from GUI growth tools is the delivery mechanism: Yutu is meant to be embedded in GitHub Actions or Docker, committed to git, and published on merge, or added to an editor config so you can ask an assistant in plain language to clean up comments. It suits developers, DevOps engineers, and terminal-comfortable creators. TubeBuddy and vidIQ sell dashboards, keyword scoring and thumbnail A/B testing; Yutu sells raw API reach at $0/mo under Apache-2.0, with no ads and no subscription.
Behind the Verdict
Yutu's bet is that the interesting part of YouTube automation is the transport layer, not the dashboard. Everything it does maps to a documented YouTube Data API v3 resource, and the homepage enumerates them: video, channel, playlist, comment, caption, thumbnail, search, subscription, activity, member, comment thread, playlist item, playlist image, channel banner, channel section, watermark, memberships level, super chat event, i18n language, i18n region, video category, abuse report. If a resource exists in the API, there is likely a subcommand for it — that breadth is the strongest argument for choosing it. The three delivery modes are what make it more than a wrapper around curl. The CLI handles scripted uploads with metadata (`yutu video insert --file video.mp4 --title "My Video"`). The MCP server drops into Claude Desktop, OpenCode, or Cursor with a small JSON block (`{"yutu": {"command": "yutu", "args": ["mcp"]}}`), so comment moderation becomes a chat request. The A2A agent (`yutu agent --args "web api a2a webui"`) runs autonomous multi-agent channel operations. A unified skill for OpenClaw and an `npx skills add` path for the youtube skill extend the same reach into those assistants. Where it fits: teams that already publish through GitHub Actions or Docker and want video publishing to be a pipeline step; engineers who would rather commit a config than log into a growth dashboard; anyone running multiple channels who wants one licence (Apache-2.0, $0/mo) covering all of them. Where it doesn't: the tool ships no keyword research, no thumbnail A/B testing, and no competitor benchmarking, so a creator whose bottleneck is discovery rather than throughput gets nothing from it. Setup is also real work — a Google Cloud OAuth client, a credential file, and a shell — and the underlying API is quota-bound, so heavily automated channels need to watch their own usage. Teams needing an SLA, a support contract, or a managed service should look elsewhere; this is community open source.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Yutu actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Install with brew install yutu, authenticate with yutu auth --credential client_secret.json, then script yutu video insert --file video.mp4 --title "My Video" into a shell script that also sets the thumbnail and uploads captions.
Outcome: A repeatable publish step you can re-run from the terminal instead of clicking through YouTube Studio for each upload.
Commit the upload config to git and run Yutu inside a GitHub Actions workflow so a merge to main publishes the rendered video, updates the playlist, and refreshes the channel banner.
Outcome: Publishing becomes a reviewed pull request, with the same audit trail as the rest of your code.
Add the MCP block ({"yutu": {"command": "yutu", "args": ["mcp"]}}) to the editor config, then ask the assistant in plain language to pull comment threads and flag the abusive ones.
Outcome: Comment moderation happens inside the editor you already have open, without opening a separate dashboard.
Use Cases
- Automate video uploads with metadata from a script or CI/CD pipeline.
- Monitor and reply to comments by chatting with an MCP-integrated AI assistant.
- Schedule playlist updates and thumbnail swaps via cron jobs.
- Back up channel subscriptions and activity logs periodically.
- Flag or delete abusive comments through scripted moderation.
- Sync channel branding — banner, section, watermark — across locales.
- Upload captions and thumbnails in bulk for multi-language channels.
- Run the A2A agent to keep channel operations moving around the clock.
Limitations
- Yutu is an open-source CLI, MCP server, and AI agent for automating YouTube channel management.
- It requires installation via brew, winget, or a curl script and authentication with a client_secret.json credential file.
- It offers both CLI and MCP integration with editors like Claude Desktop, Cursor, and OpenCode, and includes an A2A agent for autonomous workflows.
- As an open-source tool it relies on the YouTube Data API, which may impose quotas.
- It ships no keyword research, thumbnail A/B testing, or competitor analytics — it is an API client, not a growth dashboard — and there is no built-in video editing or rendering.
as of 2026-10-07
Verification history
We have re-verified Yutu 9 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 9 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Yutu tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Open Source
$0/mo
Ideal for
Developers, DevOps engineers, and terminal-comfortable creators who want full YouTube Data API reach across one or many channels without a subscription.
What this tier adds
Starting tier — Apache-2.0, $0/mo, and it includes every capability: 30+ CLI commands, the MCP server for Claude Desktop/OpenCode/Cursor, the A2A agent, and the OpenClaw skill, with no feature gating.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Yutu's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
At $0/mo under Apache-2.0, Yutu undercuts subscription YouTube managers like TubeBuddy and vidIQ entirely — and there is no seat count, tier ladder, or usage meter to grow into. That makes it an easy fit for solo developers and small DevOps teams running one or many channels; the trade is that you supply the OAuth setup, the quota management, and your own support, which is exactly what the paid tools charge for.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Yutu — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Expect roughly one to two hours before first value: install is seconds (brew install yutu, winget install yutu, or the curl script), but creating a Google Cloud OAuth client and producing client_secret.json is the real time sink. The MCP server is a two-line config add afterward; the A2A agent and CI pipelines need another pass once auth works.
Switching to or from Yutu
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From manual YouTube Studio uploads: script yutu video insert with the same title, description, and file, then run it per release instead of clicking through the uploader.
- →From TubeBuddy or vidIQ: keep those for keyword research and thumbnail testing, and move the upload, playlist, and moderation work to Yutu commands.
- →From a custom YouTube Data API script: replace your hand-rolled OAuth and HTTP calls with yutu auth plus the matching subcommand for each resource.
- ↗To a paid growth suite (TubeBuddy, vidIQ): move over if your bottleneck becomes discovery — keywords, thumbnail tests, competitor tracking — none of which Yutu covers.
- ↗To a managed publishing service: move over if you need an SLA, vendor support, and someone else handling OAuth and quota management.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Yutu”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Yutu” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Yutu.
Official links
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
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