CreatorLens

A Claude Skill that diagnoses common YouTube growth problems — weak hooks, bad packaging, niche doubt — through pluggable strategy lenses. Built on top of @kirbah/mcp-youtube.

Instead of a dashboard full of metrics, CreatorLens asks what you're actually stuck on, pulls the relevant public YouTube data, and gives you a point of view on it — not just numbers.

Where this works: CreatorLens is a Claude Skill, which means it needs a Claude surface that supports skills + MCP connectors — Claude Code or Claude Cowork. It will not work in the regular claude.ai chat box.

Quick start

1. Get a free YouTube Data API v3 key (~5 minutes, no cost) — instructions here.
2. Install and connect @kirbah/mcp-youtube using that key, following its setup guide.
3. Add this skill:

   npx skills add kirbah/CreatorLens
   

4. Try it — paste a channel or video link and describe what's bugging you, e.g.:

   "Why did my last video flatline? Here's the link: [video URL]"

That's it — no separate install or config for the skill itself, it's just instructions that direct Claude on how to use the tools mcp-youtube already gives it.

Optional: niche discovery

One feature — finding other channels doing well in your specific niche — needs a free MongoDB Atlas connection string in addition to the API key. Everything else in this skill works without it. If you skip this step, CreatorLens will tell you plainly when a request needs it rather than silently skipping the step.

Sample prompts

• "Why did my last video flatline? Here's the link: [video URL]"
• "People click on my videos but leave in the first 10 seconds, what's going on?"
• "My titles feel fine but nobody's clicking, can you take a look at my channel?"
• "Should I switch from long-form to Shorts, or try faceless content?"
• "I keep bouncing between topics, is that hurting my growth? Here's my channel: [link]"
• "Can you look at my channel and tell me what's actually holding it back?"

You don't need to name a specific problem — a channel or video link is enough for CreatorLens to make its best guess and tell you what it's assuming.

What it diagnoses

CreatorLens is built around five questions creators actually ask (sourced from r/NewTubers, r/PartneredYoutube, r/SmallYTChannel):

1. Retrospective audit — why did this video flatline?
2. Hook & retention check — people click but leave immediately
3. Title & packaging multiplier — good content, nobody clicks
4. Formatting pivot — should I switch to faceless / long-form / Shorts?
5. Niche selection doubt — am I hurting growth by covering too many topics?

What it can't see: this runs on YouTube's public Data API, plus direct thumbnail image fetches (img.youtube.com) for actual visual review — no separate tool or key needed for that part. It can tell you a lot about packaging, positioning, and what's working in your niche right now. It cannot see your CTR, impressions, or audience retention curve — that data lives in YouTube Studio Analytics and isn't exposed by the public API. If a diagnosis genuinely needs that data, CreatorLens will say so instead of guessing.

How it works

Which question matches your problem?
        ↓
Resolve channel + pull public snapshot
        ↓
Gather the data that question actually needs
        ↓
Apply one or more lenses to interpret it

The pipeline (what data to pull) and the lenses (how to interpret it) are kept separate, so new lenses can be added without touching the data-gathering logic.

Lenses

CreatorLens is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to any of the creators named below. See Credits for the full disclaimer and sourcing rules.

Each lens is modeled on the public teaching of a specific, named YouTube strategist, and covers all five diagnostic questions above:

• Paddy Galloway lens — macro strategy, audience-overlap discipline, packaging as the decisive lever
• Ed Lawrence lens — business-first, niche-down, revenue-per-viewer over raw reach
• Kallaway lens — modern pacing and visual execution, format-as-identity, AI-assisted ideation

CreatorLens applies 1-2 relevant lenses per question rather than all four at once, and shows both takes when they'd genuinely disagree (e.g. "grow as big as possible" vs. "build a smaller, monetizable audience").

Naming these creators directly is intentional — it makes recommendations concrete and gives a real next step ("want to go deeper? here's the specific video"). Each lens file links out to the creator's own content rather than replacing it.

Credits

The three lenses are informed by patterns publicly discussed by YouTube educators: Paddy Galloway, Ed Lawrence, and Kallaway. CreatorLens is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to any of them. It draws on their public commentary (interviews, videos, published articles), not proprietary course material, and every claim in the lens files is sourced back to specific public content.

A few rules this project follows when naming them:

• Recommendations are always written in CreatorLens's own words, attributed as "an approach X has taught," never as an invented quote or personal message from that creator.
• Every lens file links to specific public videos/articles rather than reproducing them. The goal is to send attention to the source, not substitute for it.
• Nothing here claims these creators use, endorse, or are aware of this project.

A note on cost

The YouTube Data API has a 10,000-unit daily quota, and CreatorLens is built to stay well within it — cheap reads are used freely, and the few pricier calls only run when a question genuinely needs them.

Roadmap

• v1: three lenses (Paddy Galloway, Ed Lawrence, Kallaway) across all 5 diagnostic questions
• Thumbnail visual review (built from video ID via img.youtube.com, since mcp-youtube doesn't return a thumbnail URL — zero quota cost, no API call)
• Community-contributed lenses
• Periodic re-check that lens content still reflects each creator's current public teaching

License

MIT