YouTube Transcript MCP Server

This MCP server retrieves transcripts for given YouTube video URLs.

Tools

This MCP server provides the following tools:

get_transcript

Fetches the transcript of a specified YouTube video.

Parameters

• url (string): The full URL of the YouTube video. This field is required.
• lang (string, optional): The desired language for the transcript. Defaults to en if not specified.
• next_cursor (string, optional): Cursor to retrieve the next page of the transcript.

get_timed_transcript

Fetches the transcript of a specified YouTube video with timestamps..

Parameters

• url (string): The full URL of the YouTube video. This field is required.
• lang (string, optional): The desired language for the transcript. Defaults to en if not specified.
• next_cursor (string, optional): Cursor to retrieve the next page of the transcript.

get_video_info

Fetches the metadata of a specified YouTube video.

Parameters

• url (string): The full URL of the YouTube video. This field is required.

Installation

[!NOTE] You'll need uv installed on your system to use uvx command.

For codename goose

Please refer to this tutorial for detailed installation instructions: YouTube Transcript Extension.

For Claude Desktop

Download the latest MCP bundle mcp-youtube-transcript.mcpb from the Releases page, then open the downloaded .mcpb file or drag it into the Claude Desktop's Settings window.

You can also manually configure this server for Claude Desktop. Edit the claude_desktop_config.json file by adding the following entry under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript",
        "mcp-youtube-transcript"
      ]
    }
  }
}

After editing, restart the application. For more information, see: For Claude Desktop Users - Model Context Protocol.

For LM Studio

To configure this server for LM Studio, click the button below.

Using Docker

A Docker image for this server is available on Docker Hub. Please refer to the Docker Hub page for detailed usage instructions and documentation.

Response Pagination

When retrieving transcripts for longer videos, the content may exceed the token size limits of the LLM. To avoid this issue, this server splits transcripts that exceed 50,000 characters. If a transcript is split, the response will include a next_cursor. To retrieve the next part, include this next_cursor value in your request.

The token size limits vary depending on the LLM and language you are using. If you need to split responses into smaller chunks, you can adjust this using the --response-limit command line argument. For example, the configuration below splits responses to contain no more than 15,000 characters each:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript",
        "mcp-youtube-transcript",
        "--response-limit",
        "15000"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using Proxy Servers

In environments where access to YouTube is restricted, you can use proxy servers.

When using Webshare, set the username and password for the Residential Proxy using either the environment variables WEBSHARE_PROXY_USERNAME and WEBSHARE_PROXY_PASSWORD, or the command line arguments --webshare-proxy-username and --webshare-proxy-password.

When using other proxy servers, set the proxy server URL using either the environment variables HTTP_PROXY or HTTPS_PROXY, or the command line arguments --http-proxy or --https-proxy.

For more details, please visit: Working around IP bans - YouTube Transcript API.

License

This application is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.