MCP YouTube Transcript Server

Retrieves transcripts from YouTube videos for content analysis and processing.

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.

- Features
- Getting Started

- Prerequisites
- Installation

- Basic Configuration
- Testing
- Troubleshooting and Maintenance

{ "mcpServers": { "youtube-transcript": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@sinco-lab/mcp-youtube-transcript" ] } } }

# Create directory if it doesn't exist mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude # Create or update config file cat > ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json << 'EOL' { "mcpServers": { "youtube-transcript": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "-y", "@sinco-lab/mcp-youtube-transcript" ] } } } EOL

Option 2: Via Smithery (Development Only)

npx -y @smithery/cli install @sinco-lab/mcp-youtube-transcript --client claude

⚠️Note: This method is not recommended for production use as it relies on Smithery's proxy services.

To use with Claude Desktop / Cursor / cline, ensure your configuration matches:

{ "mcpServers": { "youtube-transcript": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "@sinco-lab/mcp-youtube-transcript"] } } }

- Restart the Claude app after installation
- Test with a simple command:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJpK3YTTKZ4 Summarize this video

# Clone and setup git clone https://github.com/sinco-lab/mcp-youtube-transcript.git cd mcp-youtube-transcript npm install npm run build # Launch inspector npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector node "dist/index.js" # Access http://localhost:6274 and try these commands: # 1. List Tools: clink List Tools # 2. Test get_transcripts with: # url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJpK3YTTKZ4" # lang: "en" (optional) # enableParagraphs: false (optional)

To monitor Claude's logs, you can use the following command:

tail -n 20 -f ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp*.log

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.

If you encounter issues related to thenpxcache, you can manually clean it using:

This will remove the cached packages and allow you to start fresh.

Fetches transcripts from YouTube videos.

- url(string, required): YouTube video URL or ID
- lang(string, optional): Language code (default: "en")
- enableParagraphs(boolean, optional): Enable paragraph mode (default: false)

{ "content": [{ "type": "text", "text": "Video title and transcript content", "metadata": { "videoId": "video_id", "title": "video_title", "language": "transcript_language", "timestamp": "processing_time", "charCount": "character_count", "transcriptCount": "number_of_transcripts", "totalDuration": "total_duration", "paragraphsEnabled": "paragraph_mode_status" } }] }

├── src/ │ ├── index.ts # Server entry point │ ├── youtube.ts # YouTube transcript fetching logic ├── dist/ # Compiled output └── package.json

- YouTubeTranscriptFetcher: Core transcript fetching functionality
- YouTubeUtils: Text processing and utilities

- Invalid URLs/IDs
- Unavailable transcripts
- Language availability
- Network errors
- Rate limiting

- HTML entity decoding
- Punctuation normalization
- Space normalization
- Smart paragraph detection

We welcome contributions! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see theLICENSEfile for details.

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