11 free Claude skills that help you run a YouTube channel.
The YouTube agent skill is a free pack of eleven skills for Claude Code made by Jake Schincariol. A skill is a text file of instructions that Claude reads when a job matches it. This pack covers the jobs around a video: the script and its first line, the title and thumbnail, the edit, the comments, the weekly plan and what is working in your niche. It is open source under the MIT license and had 3,987 stars on GitHub when I checked it on October 31, 2026.
It writes, and you decide. Nothing gets uploaded or posted by itself: every skill ends with text you copy and a question about whether to use it or change it.
- plugin: a small package that adds skills or tools to Claude Code.
- skill: a saved set of instructions that Claude follows when it fits the job.
- marketplace: a catalog of plugins that Claude Code can install from.
- session: one conversation with Claude Code, from when you start it until you close it.
- Claude Code installed and signed in, which needs a paid Claude plan (how to install it).
- Python on your PC for the six small tools inside the pack. Type python --version in PowerShell, and any number means you have it.
What I checked: I read every file in the pack before writing this page, at the version from September 16, 2026. The six Python tools only read the files you give them, they do not go online and they need nothing extra installed. The pack adds no background scripts and no outside connections.
Two ways to install
The easy way. Open Claude Code in any folder, paste this message and send it. Claude reads the page, installs the skills and checks that the main one works.
Type this inside Claude Code, in the message box
> https://github.com/Jakeschincariol/youtube-agent-skill Install this skill, then confirm /yt-script works.
The manual way. Type these two lines in PowerShell, not inside Claude. The first one tells Claude Code where the pack lives, the second one installs it.
Type this in PowerShell
$ claude plugin marketplace add Jakeschincariol/youtube-agent-skill claude plugin install youtube-agent@youtube-agent-skill
Then start a new session or type /reload-plugins inside Claude Code. When you type /yt you should see the eleven commands in the list.
Teach it your voice
Every skill reads one file about how you talk, and the scripts sound like you only if that file exists. The quickest way is to send Claude three of your own videos (links or transcripts) and say: "write my voice.md from these". If you prefer to write it yourself, the pack has a template in templates/voice.md, and Claude keeps your copy in your user folder at .claude/youtube/voice.md. Spend ten minutes on it, because you will say these words out loud.
The eleven skills
Type the command inside Claude Code and add what it needs, for example your idea, a transcript file or a list of comments.
| Type this | What it does |
|---|---|
| /yt-script | Turns one idea into a script. It writes five opening lines from 21 hook formulas, scores each one, then writes the spoken script and marks where viewers tend to drift off. |
| /yt-package | Writes the title and the thumbnail text together and checks them as one pair, so they do not repeat each other or get cut off. |
| /yt-edit | Reads the transcript of your recording and lists every pause, filler word and retake to cut, each with its timecode. |
| /yt-comment | Sorts your comments into questions, corrections, praise and bait, says how many are in each pile, then drafts replies in your voice and tells you which one to pin. |
| /yt-plan | Plans a week that fits the hours you have: one main video, one quick one and three Shorts. |
| /yt-viral | Takes public video lists from channels in your niche and ranks each video by how far it beat its own channel's usual views, then names the title formula it used. |
| /yt-retention | Reads the audience retention file you download from YouTube Studio and tells you the second people left and what you were saying then. |
| /yt-shorts | Finds the Shorts already hiding inside a long video and writes a new first line for each. |
| /yt-seo | Writes the description, picks the tags worth having and names three searches the video should win. |
| /yt-chapters | Makes chapters from a transcript and checks them against YouTube's rules, so they show up on the video. |
| /yt-audit | Looks at the whole channel and ends with one fix to do first, not a list of twenty. |
Your first script
Start with the one the pack is built around. Type /yt-script and your idea in one sentence, for example:
Type this inside Claude Code, in the message box
> /yt-script how I plan a whole week of videos in ten minutes
You get five opening lines, each built on a named formula such as The Question, The Mistake or Before and After, with a score for each one. The score looks at five things: how specific the line is, whether it speaks to the viewer, what is at stake, how curious it makes you and how short it is. Pick a line, and Claude writes the rest of the script with the spots marked where viewers usually leave.
Finding what works in your niche
/yt-viral does not count raw views, because big channels always win that. It compares each video with its own channel's usual views, so a small channel's breakout shows up too. It needs at least four videos per channel, and Claude collects them from public channel pages. It then hands back the top five with how many times each beat its channel, the title formula each one used and the one thing they share. The formula describes the title only, so treat it as a hint about why the video worked.
What it cannot do
- It does not publish anything. You upload the video and post the text yourself.
- The hook score is a rule of thumb, not a prediction of views. The author built it on 74 real short video openings.
- /yt-retention needs the retention file from YouTube Studio: open a video, then Analytics, Engagement, the audience retention chart and its download icon.
- Without Claude Code you can still paste one skill file into a normal Claude chat and use it, but the six tools do not run there, and those are most of the point of /yt-script, /yt-retention and /yt-edit.
How to remove it
Type the same line with uninstall in place of install:
Type this in PowerShell
$ claude plugin uninstall youtube-agent@youtube-agent-skill
If something fails
The install line says the plugin was not found
Run the marketplace add line first. Claude Code has to know where the pack lives before it can install it.
I installed it, but /yt-script does not show up
Type /reload-plugins inside Claude Code, or close it and start a new session.
A tool says python is not found
Install Python from python.org, tick "Add python.exe to PATH" in the installer, then open a new PowerShell window and try again.
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