Chan Meng's Knowledge Base

YouTube + GitHub Actions Automation

4 min read

YouTube Video Cards Setup Guide

📋 Setup Checklist

✅ Already Done

  • Created GitHub Actions workflow at .github/workflows/youtube-cards.yml
  • Added YouTube video showcase section to README.md
  • Added required HTML comment markers <!-- BEGIN YOUTUBE-CARDS --> and <!-- END YOUTUBE-CARDS -->

🔧 Steps You Need to Complete

Step 1: Get Your YouTube Channel ID

There are several ways to find your channel ID:

Method 1: From the Channel URL

If your channel URL looks like this:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Then UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is your channel ID.

Method 2: Via YouTube Settings

  1. Sign in to YouTube
  2. Click your avatar in the top-right corner
  3. Select “YouTube Studio”
  4. Choose “Settings” > “Channel” > “Advanced settings” from the left menu
  5. Find your ID in the “Channel ID” field

Method 3: From Any Video

  1. Open any video on your channel
  2. Right-click the channel name and select “Copy link address”
  3. The UCxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx part in the link is your channel ID

Step 2: Update the Workflow Configuration File

Open .github/workflows/youtube-cards.yml and find this line:

channel_id: UCYOUR_CHANNEL_ID_HERE

Replace UCYOUR_CHANNEL_ID_HERE with your actual channel ID, for example:

channel_id: UCipSxT7a3rn81vGLw9lqRkg

Find this line in README.md:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@YourChannelHandle?sub_confirmation=1">

Replace @YourChannelHandle with your channel handle, for example:

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ChanMeng?sub_confirmation=1">

💡 Tip: Your channel handle is the username starting with @, which you can find in your channel page URL.

Step 4: Commit Your Changes

  1. Commit the changes to .github/workflows/youtube-cards.yml and README.md
  2. Push to GitHub
git add .github/workflows/youtube-cards.yml README.md
git commit -m "feat: add YouTube video cards integration"
git push origin main

Step 5: Manually Trigger the Workflow (First Run)

  1. Go to your GitHub repository
  2. Click the “Actions” tab at the top
  3. Select the “GitHub Readme YouTube Cards” workflow on the left
  4. Click the “Run workflow” button on the right
  5. Choose your branch (usually main) and click the green “Run workflow” button

After a few seconds, the workflow will automatically:

  • Fetch your latest 6 videos
  • Generate SVG cards
  • Update your README.md
  • Commit the changes

🎨 Advanced Configuration Options

Change the Number of Videos Displayed

Edit in youtube-cards.yml:

max_videos: 6  # change to your preferred number, e.g. 8 or 10

Adjust Card Width

card_width: 250  # default 250px, adjustable

Change Title Line Count

max_title_lines: 2  # maximum number of lines for the title

Change Run Frequency

Edit the cron expression in youtube-cards.yml:

schedule:
  - cron: "0 */6 * * *"  # runs every 6 hours
  # or
  - cron: "0 0 * * *"    # runs every day

🔑 Optional: Enable Video Duration Display

If you want to show video duration, you need to:

  1. Get a YouTube API key:

    • Visit Google Cloud Console
    • Create a new project or select an existing one
    • Enable “YouTube Data API v3”
    • Create an API key

  2. Add the secret to your GitHub repository:

    • Go to repository Settings > Secrets and variables > Actions
    • Click “New repository secret”
    • Name: YOUTUBE_API_KEY
    • Value: paste your API key

  3. Enable it in youtube-cards.yml:

    youtube_api_key: ${{ secrets.YOUTUBE_API_KEY }}
show_duration: true

📝 Notes

  1. Auto-update: The workflow runs every hour by default and automatically refreshes your video cards
  2. Write permission: The workflow requires contents: write permission to auto-commit changes
  3. Branch protection: If your main branch has protection rules enabled, you may need to adjust settings to allow GitHub Actions to commit

🐛 Troubleshooting

Issue: Workflow run fails

Solution:

  • Verify the channel ID is correct
  • Confirm the workflow has write permission
  • Check the Actions logs for detailed error messages

Issue: Videos are not updating

Solution:

  • Manually trigger the workflow to test
  • Check that the cron expression is correct
  • Confirm your channel has public videos

Issue: Cards display incorrectly

Solution:

  • Check that the HTML comment markers are intact
  • Confirm the README.md path is configured correctly
  • Verify that the generated commit succeeded

📚 More Resources

Once the setup is complete, your README will automatically showcase your latest YouTube videos! 🎉

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