YouTube

YouTube Connector: Integration Overview & Requirements

This document outlines the technical requirements and configuration steps for connecting your YouTube channel to the indexing service.

Overview

This integration allows for the automated indexing of video content to enhance searchability and data retrieval. To ensure a successful connection, please review the following technical constraints and authentication requirements.

Functional Requirements

To maintain data quality and ensure the connector functions as intended, the following rules apply:

  • Public Content Only: The connector only processes public videos. Private or unlisted videos will not be indexed.

  • Captions Required: Only videos with subtitles/captions (either auto-generated by YouTube or manually uploaded) can be processed. Videos without a caption track will be skipped.

  • Channel Mapping: We support multi-channel indexing; however, each individual connection must be mapped to a single, specific YouTube channel.

Authentication & Access Control

The integration utilizes OAuth 2.0 for secure authentication. Because our system uses the YouTube Data API captions.download endpoint, specific permission levels are required:

Requirement

Description

Account Type

A Google-managed account (Service Account or Workspace account) capable of OAuth authentication.

Permission Level

The authenticated account must have Manager access on the Brand Account associated with the YouTube channel.

Association

The YouTube channel must be directly associated with the account used for indexing.

Note: The YouTube Data API's captions.download endpoint requires edit-level access on the video. Manager is the minimum Brand Account role that satisfies this requirement, enabling the authenticated service account to retrieve video transcripts via the API.

Implementation Recommendation

To streamline the setup and maintain security, we recommend one of the following two paths:

  1. Service Account (Recommended): We partner with your IT team to create a dedicated service account (e.g., [CLIENT]@capacity.com). You then grant this account the necessary permissions to your YouTube channel.

  2. Client Domain Account: Alternatively, we can use an existing account within your own domain, provided it meets the access requirements and can complete the OAuth flow.

Add Capacity Service Account as Manager on YouTube Brand Account

To connect your YouTube channel to Capacity Answer Engine, you'll need to grant Manager access to our service account on your Google Brand Account. The account owner must complete these steps:

  1. Go to Brand Account settings — Visit the Brand Accounts section of your Google Account. You must be the Owner of the Brand Account.
  2. Select your channel — Under "Your Brand Accounts," select the YouTube channel you want to connect.
  3. Open permissions — Click Manage permissions to see who currently manages the account.
  4. Invite a new user — Choose Invite new users.
  5. Enter the service account email — Type the Capacity service account address provided to you (e.g., [customer]@capacity.com).
  6. Assign the Manager role — Under their name, select Manager.
  7. Send the invitation — Tap Invite, then Done.








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