ytsubs 0.1.1

Personal YouTube subscriptions scraper that ranks videos and generates a static feed.

YouTube subscriptions viewer

A local web app that displays your YouTube subscription videos sorted by a sophisticated performance algorithm. The scoring system uses multiple factors to surface high-quality content while giving smaller channels a fair chance to compete.

Ranking Algorithm

The performance score is calculated using a weighted combination of factors, designed to surface exceptional videos even when the scraper is run sporadically:

1. Base Performance (35% weight)

   • Compares video views to the channel's average (capped at 5×)
   • Highlights true standouts within each channel's history

2. Engagement Rate (25% weight)

   • Rewards videos reaching 10%+ of subscribers
   • Square-root scaling to give diminishing returns without punishing lower reach

3. Forecasted 48h Performance (20% weight)

   • Projects total views at 48h assuming ~60% arrive in the first 8h and ~95% by 48h
   • Gives very new uploads credit for strong early velocity

4. Velocity Metric (10% weight)

   • Views per hour since publication, logarithmically scaled as a bonus
   • Keeps currently surging content competitive without penalizing slower burns

5. Channel Size Normalization (7% weight)

   • Small channels (<100k subs): +7% bonus
   • Medium channels (100k-1M): +5% bonus
   • Large channels (1M-10M): +2% bonus
   • Helps smaller creators compete fairly

6. Duration Adjustment (3% weight)

   • Slightly boosts videos in the 10–30 minute sweet spot
   • Keeps short/long content competitive without heavy bias

This scoring system keeps the focus on videos that outperform their channel norms, credits early momentum as a forecast (not just recency), and avoids decaying scores just because content is older when you run the scraper.

Overview

A tool to track YouTube subscriptions and surface high-performing videos. It consists of:

1. A channel stats scraper that collects subscriber counts and average views
2. A video scraper that collects new videos from subscribed channels
3. A static page generator that creates a feed of videos sorted by performance

Quick start (recommended: uvx)

You can run the tool directly with uvx — no cloning and no manual installs:

uvx ytsubs scrape-channels
uvx ytsubs scrape-videos
uvx ytsubs open

Setup (local dev)

1. Requirements:

   • Python 3.12+
   • Google Chrome browser

2. (Optional) Install tool versions with mise:

mise install

3. Install dependencies with uv:

uv sync

Usage

First-time setup

Run these commands in order:

uv run ytsubs scrape-channels   # When Chrome opens, log in to YouTube
uv run ytsubs scrape-videos     # Collect recent videos and generate the feed
uv run ytsubs open              # Open the feed in your browser

Your YouTube login is saved in ~/.local/state/ytsubs/chrome_profile (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/ytsubs/chrome_profile), so you'll only need to log in once. Subsequent runs will reuse this profile.

Regular usage

1. Collect video data:

uv run ytsubs scrape-videos  # Run daily to get new videos

2. Update channel statistics (subscriber counts, average views):

uv run ytsubs scrape-channels  # Run occasionally (e.g., monthly)

3. Open the feed:

uv run ytsubs open  # Opens the latest feed

The feed is written to ~/.local/state/ytsubs/ytsubs_feed.html (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/ytsubs/ytsubs_feed.html).

Data locations (XDG)

• Chrome profile: ~/.local/state/ytsubs/chrome_profile (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/ytsubs/chrome_profile)
• SQLite DB: ~/.local/state/ytsubs/youtube.db (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/ytsubs/youtube.db)
• Feed output: ~/.local/state/ytsubs/ytsubs_feed.html (or $XDG_STATE_HOME/ytsubs/ytsubs_feed.html)

Debug tooling

uv run ytsubs debug-scrape --scrolls 4 --filter "gymkhana"

Development

The project uses:

• SQLite for data storage
• Playwright for web scraping
• Preact for the frontend (served statically)

Makefile commands

The project includes several helpful make commands:

• make clean: Remove Python cache files
• make reset-db: Reset database to empty tables
• make reset-videos: Clear only the videos table
• make reset-channels: Clear only the channels table

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• Google Chrome