A YouTube Data API token that can upload to your channel.
YouTube's Data API lives inside Google Cloud. You'll create a project, enable the API, add your channel as a tester, and run through an OAuth consent screen that opens locally on localhost:8765. At the end you have a refresh token that keeps working for years.
YouTube's Data API lives inside Google Cloud, and every call must be tied to a project. Think of the project as the folder that holds your credentials — the name is invisible to your viewers, call it whatever you'll recognize later.
New Project
Open Cloud Console, hit New Project in the project switcher at the top, pick a name you'll remember in a year (autoposting works), leave the organization on default, and click Create.
Create OAuth credentials · add the redirect URI · download the JSON key · run the bootstrap script · click Allow on localhost:8765 · copy the refresh token into your .env. This preview stops at step 3 so you can feel the flow before we build the rest.