YouTube Watch Later MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that provides access to a custom YouTube playlist. The server exposes a simple tool to retrieve URLs of videos added to the specified playlist within a specified timeframe.

Features

• Get URLs of videos added to a custom playlist within a configurable number of days

• Simple interface that returns just the video URLs

• OAuth2 authentication for secure access to your YouTube data

Related MCP server: Youtube Uploader MCP

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install YouTube Watch Later for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install youtube-watchlater --client claude

Manual Installation

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/rados10/youtube-watchlater-mcp.git
cd youtube-watchlater

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the project:

npm run build

Setup

1. Create Google Cloud Project

1. Go to Google Cloud Console

2. Create a new project or select an existing one

3. Enable the YouTube Data API v3

4. Go to Credentials → Create Credentials → OAuth 2.0 Client ID

5. Set Application Type to "Web application"

6. Add "http://localhost:3000/oauth2callback" to Authorized redirect URIs

7. Copy your Client ID and Client Secret

2. Get Refresh Token

Run the provided script with your Google Cloud credentials:

OAUTH_CLIENT_ID="your_client_id" OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET="your_client_secret" node get-refresh-token.js

The script will:

• Open your default browser to the Google authorization page

• Ask you to sign in and authorize the application

• Display your refresh token in the terminal

3. Configure MCP Settings

Add the server configuration to your MCP settings file:

For VSCode (Claude Dev Extension): ~/Library/Application Support/Code/User/globalStorage/saoudrizwan.claude-dev/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json

For Claude Desktop App: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-watchlater": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/youtube-watchlater/build/index.js"],
      "env": {
        "OAUTH_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "OAUTH_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_client_secret",
        "OAUTH_REFRESH_TOKEN": "your_refresh_token"
      }
    }
  }
}

Usage

The server provides a single tool get_watch_later_urls that accepts an optional daysBack parameter:

// Get videos added in the last day (default)
{ "daysBack": 1 }

// Get videos added in the last week
{ "daysBack": 7 }

The server will return an array of YouTube URLs for the matching videos:

[
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=video1",
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=video2",
  ...
]

Token Refresh

The refresh token doesn't expire unless you explicitly revoke access. You only need to get a new one if you:

• Revoke the application's access in your Google Account settings

• Reset your Google account's security settings

• The token becomes invalid for any other reason

To get a new refresh token, simply run the get-refresh-token.js script again as described in the Setup section.

Development

The server is built with:

• TypeScript

• @modelcontextprotocol/sdk

• googleapis (YouTube Data API v3)

To modify the server:

1. Make your changes in src/index.ts

2. Run npm run build to compile

3. Restart the MCP server to apply changes