YouTube Transcript
A Model Context Protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from YouTube videos. This server provides direct access to video captions and subtitles through a simple interface.
What is YouTube Transcript?
YouTube Transcript is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to model context protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from youtube videos. this server provides direct access to video captions and subtitles through a simple interface.
A Model Context Protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from YouTube videos. This server provides direct access to video captions and subtitles through a simple interface.
This server falls under the Search & Data Extraction category on MCPgee, the world's largest MCP server directory with 33,000+ servers.
Features
- get_transcript
Use Cases
Maintainer
Works with
Installation
NPM
npx -y @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcriptManual Installation
npx -y @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcriptConfiguration
Configuration Details
claude_desktop_config.json
Performance
Response Metrics
Resource Usage
How to Set Up and Use YouTube Transcript
mcp-server-youtube-transcript is a Model Context Protocol server that retrieves full transcripts and subtitles from any YouTube video, including standard videos and YouTube Shorts. It provides a single focused tool — get_transcript — that returns captions in any available language with optional timestamps and automatic ad-content filtering. Content creators, researchers, and developers use it to let AI assistants summarize, translate, or analyze video content without watching the video.
Prerequisites
- Node.js 18 or later installed
- An MCP client such as Claude Desktop
- npx available on your PATH (bundled with Node.js)
- The target YouTube videos must have captions or subtitles available
Install via Smithery (recommended)
The easiest way to add this server to Claude Desktop is via the Smithery CLI, which handles all configuration automatically.
npx -y @smithery/cli install @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript --client claudeOr configure Claude Desktop manually
Add the server block directly to your Claude Desktop configuration file at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-transcript": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript"]
}
}
}Restart Claude Desktop
Save the config file and restart Claude Desktop. The YouTube Transcript tool will appear in the available tools list.
Retrieve a transcript
Ask Claude to get the transcript from a YouTube video by providing the full URL, a shortened youtu.be link, or just the video ID. Optionally request a specific language.
Use timestamps or disable ad filtering
The get_transcript tool supports include_timestamps (default false) and strip_ads (default true). Request timestamps when you need to reference specific moments in the video.
YouTube Transcript Examples
Client configuration
Claude Desktop configuration for the YouTube Transcript MCP server.
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-transcript": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript"]
}
}
}Prompts to try
Example queries once the YouTube Transcript server is connected.
- "Get the transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
- "Summarize this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID"
- "Extract the key points from this lecture: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ABC123"
- "Get the Spanish transcript of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"
- "Transcribe this YouTube Short with timestamps: https://youtube.com/shorts/ID"Troubleshooting YouTube Transcript
Transcript not available error for a specific video
Not all YouTube videos have captions. Check on YouTube.com whether the video has CC (closed captions) or auto-generated subtitles available. Videos without any captions cannot be transcribed by this server.
Requested language not available, getting English instead
The server falls back automatically when the requested language code is not available for a video. Use standard BCP-47 language codes (e.g., 'es' for Spanish, 'fr' for French, 'ja' for Japanese). Check YouTube's subtitle menu on the video page to see which languages are available.
npx downloads the package on every startup, causing slow loads
Install the package globally to cache it: 'npm install -g @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript'. Then update your config to use 'mcp-server-youtube-transcript' as the command with an empty args array.
Frequently Asked Questions about YouTube Transcript
What is YouTube Transcript?
YouTube Transcript is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that model context protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from youtube videos. this server provides direct access to video captions and subtitles through a simple interface. It connects AI assistants to external tools and data sources through a standardized interface.
How do I install YouTube Transcript?
Install via npm with the command: npx -y @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript. Then add the server configuration to your AI client's JSON config file (e.g., claude_desktop_config.json or .cursor/mcp.json).
Which AI clients work with YouTube Transcript?
YouTube Transcript works with all major MCP-compatible AI clients including Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code (GitHub Copilot), Windsurf, and Cline.
Is YouTube Transcript free to use?
Yes, YouTube Transcript is open source and available under the MIT License license. You can use it freely in both personal and commercial projects.
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