MCP YouTube Transcript Server
A Model Context Protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from YouTube videos. This server provides direct access to video transcripts through a simple interface, making it ideal for content analysis and processing.
Table of Contents
- Features
- Getting Started
- Usage
- API Reference
- Development
- Contributing
- License
Features
Key capabilities:
- Extract transcripts from YouTube videos
- Support for multiple languages
- Format text with continuous or paragraph mode
- Retrieve video titles and metadata
- Automatic paragraph segmentation
- Text normalization and HTML entity decoding
- Robust error handling
- Timestamp and overlap detection
Getting Started
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18 or higher
Installation
We provide two installation methods:
Option 1: Manual Configuration (Recommended for Production)
- Create or edit the Claude Desktop configuration file:
- Add the following configuration:
Quick setup script for macOS:
Option 2: Via Smithery (Development Only)
Note: This method is not recommended for production use as it relies on Smithery's proxy services.
Usage
Basic Configuration
To use with Claude Desktop / Cursor / cline, ensure your configuration matches:
Testing
With Claude App
- Restart the Claude app after installation
- Test with a simple command:
Example output:
Demo
With MCP Inspector
Troubleshooting and Maintenance
Checking Claude Logs
To monitor Claude's logs, you can use the following command:
This will display the last 20 lines of the log file and continue to show new entries as they are added.
Note: Claude app automatically prefixes MCP server log files withmcp-server-. For example, our server's logs will be written tomcp-server-youtube-transcript.log.
Cleaning the `npx` Cache
If you encounter issues related to the
npx cache, you can manually clean it using:This will remove the cached packages and allow you to start fresh.
API Reference
get_transcripts
Fetches transcripts from YouTube videos.
Parameters:
url(string, required): YouTube video URL or ID
lang(string, optional): Language code (default: "en")
enableParagraphs(boolean, optional): Enable paragraph mode (default: false)
Response Format:
Development
Project Structure
Key Components
YouTubeTranscriptFetcher: Core transcript fetching functionality
YouTubeUtils: Text processing and utilities
Features and Capabilities
- Error Handling:
- Text Processing:
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.
License
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
Related Projects
MCP YouTube Transcript Server
A Model Context Protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from YouTube videos. This server provides direct access to video transcripts through a simple interface, making it ideal for content analysis and processing.
Table of Contents
- Features
- Getting Started
- Usage
- API Reference
- Development
- Contributing
- License
Features
Key capabilities:
- Extract transcripts from YouTube videos
- Support for multiple languages
- Format text with continuous or paragraph mode
- Retrieve video titles and metadata
- Automatic paragraph segmentation
- Text normalization and HTML entity decoding
- Robust error handling
- Timestamp and overlap detection
Getting Started
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18 or higher
Installation
We provide two installation methods:
Option 1: Manual Configuration (Recommended for Production)
- Create or edit the Claude Desktop configuration file:
- Add the following configuration:
Quick setup script for macOS:
Option 2: Via Smithery (Development Only)
Note: This method is not recommended for production use as it relies on Smithery's proxy services.
Usage
Basic Configuration
To use with Claude Desktop / Cursor / cline, ensure your configuration matches:
Testing
With Claude App
- Restart the Claude app after installation
- Test with a simple command:
Example output:
Demo
With MCP Inspector
Troubleshooting and Maintenance
Checking Claude Logs
To monitor Claude's logs, you can use the following command:
This will display the last 20 lines of the log file and continue to show new entries as they are added.
Note: Claude app automatically prefixes MCP server log files withmcp-server-. For example, our server's logs will be written tomcp-server-youtube-transcript.log.
Cleaning the `npx` Cache
If you encounter issues related to the
npx cache, you can manually clean it using:This will remove the cached packages and allow you to start fresh.
API Reference
get_transcripts
Fetches transcripts from YouTube videos.
Parameters:
url(string, required): YouTube video URL or ID
lang(string, optional): Language code (default: "en")
enableParagraphs(boolean, optional): Enable paragraph mode (default: false)
Response Format:
Development
Project Structure
Key Components
YouTubeTranscriptFetcher: Core transcript fetching functionality
YouTubeUtils: Text processing and utilities
Features and Capabilities
- Error Handling:
- Text Processing:
Contributing
We welcome contributions! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.
License
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.