YouTube Transcript MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that fetches transcripts and metadata from YouTube videos directly into your LLM workflows.

Designed specifically for AI agents, it seamlessly handles long-form videos through automatic pagination and provides robust proxy support to circumvent YouTube rate limits and IP bans.

Key Features

• Rich Transcript Retrieval: Fetch raw text, timestamped segments, and video metadata in multiple languages.
• Smart Chunking & Pagination: Automatically chunks long transcripts (default: 50,000 characters) to prevent context window overflow, letting models page through hours of video effortlessly.
• Resilient Proxy Support: Built-in support for residential proxies (Webshare, ScrapingAnt) and standard HTTP/HTTPS proxies to prevent IP blocks.
• Universal Compatibility: Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, LM Studio, Goose, and any standard MCP client.

Quick Start & Installation

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

This server communicates via standard stdio. Most MCP clients can run it directly using uvx (part of Astral uv).

General Configuration (Standard MCP JSON)

Add this entry to your client's MCP configuration file (typically under mcpServers):

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

Client-Specific Setup Guides (Click to expand)

Claude Desktop

• GUI (Drag & Drop): Download the .mcpb bundle from the Releases page and drop it into your Claude Desktop Settings.
• Manual Config: Add the JSON above to claude_desktop_config.json (restart Claude Desktop after saving):
  • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
  • Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Cursor

1. Go to Cursor Settings > Features > MCP Servers.
2. Click + Add New MCP Server.
3. Name: youtube-transcript, Type: command.
4. Command: uvx --from git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript mcp-youtube-transcript

Goose

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

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.

Available Tools

The server registers the following MCP tools for LLM agents: