YouTube Toolbox
An MCP server that provides AI assistants with powerful tools to interact with YouTube, including video searching, transcript extraction, comment retrieval, and more.
What is YouTube Toolbox?
YouTube Toolbox is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to mcp server that provides ai assistants with powerful tools to interact with youtube, including video searching, transcript extraction, comment retrieval, and more.
An MCP server that provides AI assistants with powerful tools to interact with YouTube, including video searching, transcript extraction, comment retrieval, and more.
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- An MCP server that provides AI assistants with powerful tool
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
Manual Installation
npx youtube-toolboxConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use YouTube Toolbox
YouTube Toolbox MCP server gives AI assistants direct access to YouTube's Data API v3 and transcript extraction capabilities through a set of Python-based MCP tools. It supports searching for videos, retrieving video details and comments, fetching related and trending videos, getting channel information, and extracting plain or timestamped transcripts with multi-language support. Content researchers, educators, and developers use it to analyze YouTube content, summarize videos, extract transcript text, and mine comment sections for insights without leaving their AI assistant.
Prerequisites
- Python 3.12 or later installed
- uv package manager installed (curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh)
- A YouTube Data API v3 key from Google Cloud Console (APIs & Services → Enable YouTube Data API v3 → Create Credentials)
- An MCP-compatible client such as Claude Desktop or Cursor IDE
Clone the repository and set up the Python environment
Clone the py-mcp-youtube-toolbox repository and create a Python 3.12 virtual environment using uv.
git clone https://github.com/jikime/py-mcp-youtube-toolbox.git
cd py-mcp-youtube-toolbox
uv venv -p 3.12
source .venv/bin/activate # macOS/Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate # Windows
uv pip install -r requirements.txtObtain a YouTube Data API v3 key
Go to https://console.cloud.google.com, create or select a project, navigate to APIs & Services → Library, search for 'YouTube Data API v3', enable it, then go to APIs & Services → Credentials and create an API key. Copy the key — it is the value for YOUTUBE_API_KEY.
Configure Claude Desktop to run the server
Open your Claude Desktop config file and add the youtube-toolbox entry. Use absolute paths for both uv and server.py. Set YOUTUBE_API_KEY in the env block.
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-toolbox": {
"command": "/absolute/path/to/py-mcp-youtube-toolbox/.venv/bin/python",
"args": ["/absolute/path/to/py-mcp-youtube-toolbox/server.py"],
"env": {
"YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "AIzaSy_your_api_key_here"
}
}
}
}Alternatively: run with mcp dev for testing
Before configuring Claude Desktop, you can test the server interactively using the mcp CLI tool.
cd /path/to/py-mcp-youtube-toolbox
source .venv/bin/activate
YOUTUBE_API_KEY=AIzaSy_your_key mcp dev server.pyRestart Claude Desktop and verify video search works
Quit and reopen Claude Desktop. Ask Claude to search for a YouTube video. If results are returned, the server is connected and the API key is valid.
YouTube Toolbox Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop configuration running the YouTube Toolbox Python server with a YouTube Data API v3 key.
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-toolbox": {
"command": "/Users/yourname/py-mcp-youtube-toolbox/.venv/bin/python",
"args": ["/Users/yourname/py-mcp-youtube-toolbox/server.py"],
"env": {
"YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "AIzaSy_your_youtube_api_key"
}
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example prompts using YouTube Toolbox's video search, transcript, and comment tools.
- "Search YouTube for 'Model Context Protocol tutorial' and show me the top 5 results"
- "Get the full transcript of YouTube video zRgAEIoZEVQ"
- "Summarize this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRgAEIoZEVQ"
- "What are the top comments on video ID dQw4w9WgXcQ?"
- "Get the channel details for the Anthropic YouTube channel"
- "Show me trending videos in the Technology category"Troubleshooting YouTube Toolbox
API key error: 'YOUTUBE_API_KEY not set' or 400 Bad Request
Ensure YOUTUBE_API_KEY is set in the env block of your Claude Desktop config and the value is the full API key string starting with 'AIzaSy'. Also confirm the YouTube Data API v3 is enabled in your Google Cloud project — having a key is not enough, the specific API must also be enabled.
Transcript retrieval fails for some videos
Not all YouTube videos have transcripts available. Auto-generated captions may not be available for very new videos or those in less common languages. Try specifying a different language code in get_video_enhanced_transcript, or fall back to get_video_transcript which uses the default available caption track.
ModuleNotFoundError when starting the server
The server must run inside the virtual environment where dependencies were installed. Ensure the command in your Claude Desktop config points to the Python binary inside .venv/bin/python (or .venv/Scripts/python.exe on Windows), not the system Python. Re-run 'uv pip install -r requirements.txt' if packages are missing.
Frequently Asked Questions about YouTube Toolbox
What is YouTube Toolbox?
YouTube Toolbox is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that mcp server that provides ai assistants with powerful tools to interact with youtube, including video searching, transcript extraction, comment retrieval, and more. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install YouTube Toolbox?
Follow the installation instructions on the YouTube Toolbox GitHub repository. Clone the repo, install dependencies, and add the server config to your AI client.
Which AI clients work with YouTube Toolbox?
YouTube Toolbox works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is YouTube Toolbox free to use?
Yes, YouTube Toolbox is open source and available under the Apache 2.0 license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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Set Up YouTube Toolbox in Your Editor
Choose your AI client for step-by-step setup instructions.
Quick Config Preview
Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json
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