SignalYouTube · video/comments
List public comments on a YouTube video. GET /api/v1/youtube/video/comments accepts your x-api-key header. Production live requests are disabled pending source and commercial-use authorization, including cross-channel use.
Request parameters
Reads comments and public author details exposed by the logged-out YouTube watch page. Top or newest ordering is supported when the page exposes it. The result is paginated and may exclude moderated, held, deleted, or otherwise unavailable comments.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
url | string | Yes | Public YouTube watch, Shorts or youtu.be URL. Private, unlisted-only, age-gated and otherwise inaccessible videos are not extracted. |
order | string | No | Sort by the source’s Top or Newest comment order. Allowed: top, newest. Default: top. |
continuationToken | string | No | Opaque SignalShelf cursor from the previous comments page. Keep the same video and order. |
freshness | string | No | 24h (default), 1h, 7d, or live. Accepted cache hits are free; live forces refresh except simultaneous requests may share newly fetched data. |
Code examples
Set SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL and SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY on your server.
curl "$SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL/api/v1/youtube/video/comments?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2reQut8WNGc" \
-H "x-api-key: $SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY"const response = await fetch(process.env.SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL + "/api/v1/youtube/video/comments?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2reQut8WNGc", {
headers: { 'x-api-key': process.env.SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY },
});
const body = await response.json();
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(body.error.message);
console.log(body.data, body.meta);import os, requests
response = requests.get(
os.environ['SIGNALSHELF_BASE_URL'] + "/api/v1/youtube/video/comments?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2reQut8WNGc",
headers={'x-api-key': os.environ['SIGNALSHELF_API_KEY']},
timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json())Response and pagination
The response contains data and meta. data includes platform, resource, sample:false, provider, and the public source payload. Lists return data.items; individual resources return data.data.
Author feeds include data.next_cursor. Return it unchanged in cursor for the next page. Feed entries can include reposts. Single-post lookups resolve the handle to a DID first. Deleted or moderated posts may be unavailable.
meta includes event_id, mode, cache, credits_charged, fetched_at, age_seconds, and duration_ms. A fresh successful result costs one credit; accepted cached results and failures cost zero.
Availability and failures
Implementation is not a continuous availability guarantee. Source rate limits, retention, deleted content, restrictions, and regional availability apply. This is an independent SignalShelf contract, not a drop-in competitor response format.
400: invalid parameters. 401: missing/revoked key. 402: insufficient credits. 404: missing public resource. 429: SignalShelf throttle. 502/503: upstream failure or rate limit, with credit restored.