crewAIInc/crewAI · error · ValueError

Invalid YouTube channel URL: {channel_url}

Error message

Invalid YouTube channel URL: {channel_url}

What it means

ValueError from the YouTube channel loader's URL validation. It does simple substring matching: the URL must contain one of 'youtube.com/channel/', 'youtube.com/c/', 'youtube.com/@', or 'youtube.com/user/'. Anything else — including youtu.be links, plain watch URLs, or non-YouTube URLs — is rejected before any network call.

Source

Thrown at lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/rag/loaders/youtube_channel_loader.py:44

        try:
            from pytube import Channel  # type: ignore[import-untyped]
        except ImportError as e:
            raise ImportError(
                "YouTube channel support requires pytube. Install with: uv add pytube"
            ) from e

        channel_url = source.source

        if not any(
            pattern in channel_url
            for pattern in [
                "youtube.com/channel/",
                "youtube.com/c/",
                "youtube.com/@",
                "youtube.com/user/",
            ]
        ):
            raise ValueError(f"Invalid YouTube channel URL: {channel_url}")

        metadata: dict[str, Any] = {
            "source": channel_url,
            "data_type": "youtube_channel",
        }

        try:
            channel = Channel(channel_url)

            metadata["channel_name"] = channel.channel_name
            metadata["channel_id"] = channel.channel_id

            max_videos = kwargs.get("max_videos", 10)
            video_urls = list(channel.video_urls)[:max_videos]
            metadata["num_videos_loaded"] = len(video_urls)
            metadata["total_videos"] = len(list(channel.video_urls))

            content_parts = [

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

1. Use a canonical channel URL form: https://www.youtube.com/@handle, /channel/UC..., /c/CustomName, or /user/LegacyName.
2. For single videos, use the YouTube video loader instead of the channel loader.
3. Before loading, validate the URL contains one of the four accepted substrings yourself and route to the correct loader.
4. If you only have a video ID or youtu.be link, expand it to the full watch URL first and use the video loader.

Example fix

# before
loader.load(SourceContent(path="https://youtu.be/abc123"))  # rejected

# after
loader.load(SourceContent(path="https://www.youtube.com/@somechannel"))

CHANNEL_MARKERS = ("youtube.com/channel/", "youtube.com/c/", "youtube.com/@", "youtube.com/user/")

def is_channel_url(url: str) -> bool:
    return any(m in url for m in CHANNEL_MARKERS)

try:
    result = channel_loader.load(src)
except ValueError as e:
    if "Invalid YouTube channel URL" in str(e):
        route_to_correct_loader(src)  # video loader for watch/youtu.be links
    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a single video URL (youtube.com/watch?v=... or youtu.be/...), a playlist URL, a shorts URL, or a handle URL missing the '@' prefix. Note the check is literal substring matching, so even youtube.com/watch triggers 'invalid' despite being a valid YouTube page, and https://m.youtube.com/@name works only because '@' appears anywhere in the string.

Common situations: Users assume any YouTube URL works and pass video links to the channel loader; mobile youtu.be share links; URLs with the handle spelled without @; region-specific domains like youtube.co.uk.

Related errors

• Invalid YouTube URL: {video_url}
• Blocked unsafe {label}: {e}
• Blocked unsafe URL: {e}
• Client is not initialized
• Invalid data_type: '{raw_data_type}'. Valid values are: 'fil

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/77513c51fb70fe48. Report an issue: GitHub.