runsheet-mcp

The local MCP server for Runsheet, a YouTube scheduling app. It connects Claude, Cursor or any MCP client to your YouTube channel, and uploads videos from your own machine straight to YouTube.

npx -y runsheet-mcp

Published on npm as runsheet-mcp. No install step, no dependencies, Node 20 or newer.

What it does

• Uploads a video file from your disk to YouTube and schedules it. The file is streamed from your machine straight to Google. It never touches Runsheet's servers.

• Lists the video files in a folder, with size, duration, orientation and whether a thumbnail sits next to each one, so the model can see what there is to upload.

• Forwards every other Runsheet tool to the hosted server with the same key: reading your channel and running order, writing titles, descriptions, tags and chapters, thumbnails, and scheduling.

Why a local server as well as the hosted one

Runsheet also has a hosted MCP server at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/api/mcp. For reading your channel, writing copy and scheduling, that is the simpler option: nothing to run on your machine. Setup is at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/mcp.

This package exists for the one thing a hosted server cannot do. MCP carries JSON-RPC messages and has no file channel, and a remote server cannot read your disk, so uploading a video is impossible over a hosted endpoint. A process running on your own machine can do both.

Your video never touches Runsheet's servers

To upload, this server asks Runsheet to open a YouTube resumable upload session, then streams the file from your disk directly to Google. Runsheet sees the title, description, tags and a session URL. It never receives a byte of the video. That is the same path the upload in Runsheet's website takes.

Related MCP server: Youtube Uploader MCP

Setup

1. Make an API key

Sign in at https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in, open Settings, then API keys, and create a key.

• To upload, tick the Upload from this machine permission. Without it, uploads are refused.

• Tick any other permissions you want the forwarded tools to have. New keys are read only unless you tick more.

• The key starts with rsk_live_ and is shown once. Permissions are fixed when a key is made, so a leaked read-only key can never gain write access. To change permissions, make a new key.

2. Add the server to your client

The key goes in the RUNSHEET_API_KEY environment variable.

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env RUNSHEET_API_KEY=rsk_live_your_key_here --transport stdio runsheet -- npx -y runsheet-mcp

Cursor: add this to ~/.cursor/mcp.json (all projects) or .cursor/mcp.json (one project).

Claude Desktop: add this to claude_desktop_config.json, found through Settings, Developer, Edit Config. It lives at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/ on macOS and %APPDATA%\Claude\ on Windows. Restart Claude Desktop afterwards.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "runsheet": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "runsheet-mcp"],
      "env": { "RUNSHEET_API_KEY": "rsk_live_your_key_here" }
    }
  }
}

Any other MCP client that can launch a stdio server takes the same command, arguments and environment variable.

The tool list is fetched from Runsheet when the server starts, so a tool added to Runsheet appears here without a new version of this package.

Requirements

• Node 20 or newer.

• ffprobe is optional. It ships with ffmpeg. With it, Short versus long video is detected from the file's dimensions. Without it, pass kind yourself.

Tools

Local, only in this package:

A thumbnail is picked up automatically if an image sits next to the video with the same name, or is named thumbnail or thumbnail_16x9 (.png, .jpg, .jpeg or .webp, under 2MB).

Forwarded to the hosted server, subject to your key's permissions:

• Reading your channel, running order, library and playlists

• Character counting, line breaks and bold text

• Titles, hooks, descriptions, channel descriptions, tags and chapters

• Typeset thumbnails, and generated thumbnail artwork with its own permission

• Scheduling, retitling, retagging, playlist filing, and saving ideas to the Ideas list

Two things it will not do

It cannot publish anything immediately. An upload always goes up private. Either you give it a publish time at least fifteen minutes away and YouTube publishes it itself at that moment, or it stays a private draft. This is enforced on Runsheet's server, not by a prompt, because a model that publishes the wrong file to a real audience cannot take it back.

It cannot delete anything. There is no tool for it.

Upload limits

Until Runsheet's YouTube API compliance audit clears, uploads are capped at:

• 25 a day per Runsheet account, and

• 80 a day across all of Runsheet.

A large batch uploads up to the limit and then stops, with a message saying when the allowance returns. YouTube's quota resets at midnight Pacific time.

A channel connected with its own Google client, under Advanced on Runsheet's connect screen, spends its own YouTube allowance and is exempt from both limits.

Environment variables

RUNSHEET_URL exists for development against a local copy of Runsheet. You will not need it. Your key is sent to whatever address it names, so never point it at a server you do not trust.

Troubleshooting

"RUNSHEET_API_KEY is not set": the key is not reaching the process. Most clients need it under env in the server config rather than in your shell.

"This API key does not have the upload permission": make a new key with Upload from this machine ticked. Existing keys cannot be upgraded.

"That API key is not valid, or it has been revoked": the key was mistyped or deleted. Make a new one under Settings, API keys.

The client shows no tools: check your client's MCP logs. This server writes its diagnostics to stderr and never to stdout, because anything on stdout that is not a JSON-RPC message corrupts the stream.

npx is not found on Windows: some clients cannot launch npx directly. Use "command": "cmd" and "args": ["/c", "npx", "-y", "runsheet-mcp"].

Links

• Runsheet: https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in

• MCP setup guide: https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/mcp

• Issues: https://github.com/KalpeshMahida0212/runsheet-mcp/issues

License

MIT. See LICENSE.