# mcp-idea-capture

An MCP server that takes a video URL and gives you back a transcript plus a
short "here's the actual idea" summary. It's for the case where you see
something useful in a reel or a talk and don't want to sit and type it out.

It pulls the audio with yt-dlp, transcribes it with Groq's Whisper API, and
runs the transcript through an LLM (Gemini by default) to pull out the
point. yt-dlp supports a lot of sites, not just one. Nothing is saved until
you decide it's worth keeping.

## Tools

| tool | what it does |
|---|---|
| `capture_idea_from_video(url)` | download audio, transcribe, extract the idea. Returns everything; saves nothing. |
| `store_idea(title, idea_summary, source_url="")` | append an `### idea-NNN` entry to `IDEAS_FILE` (default `./ideas.md`) |

Private or login-gated videos come back with a plain message instead of a
crash.

## Setup

```bash
git clone https://github.com/<you>/mcp-idea-capture
cd mcp-idea-capture
python -m venv .venv && . .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

cp .env.example .env      # add your keys
python test_client.py     # lists the tools
python test_client.py "https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XXXX"   # runs the pipeline
```

Keys (put them in `.env` or the environment):

- `GROQ_API_KEY` - transcription. Free tier at console.groq.com, no card.
- `GEMINI_API_KEY` - idea extraction. Free tier at aistudio.google.com.
  `GOOGLE_API_KEY` works as an alias.

Optional: `IDEAS_FILE`, `WHISPER_MODEL` (default `whisper-large-v3`),
`GEMINI_MODEL` (default `gemini-3.5-flash`).

## Adding it to an MCP client

`~/.claude.json` or `claude_desktop_config.json`:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "idea-capture": {
      "command": "/abs/path/mcp-idea-capture/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/abs/path/mcp-idea-capture/server.py"]
    }
  }
}
```

## Notes

- Audio only. It never downloads or stores the video, just the audio, long
  enough to transcribe, then the temp folder is deleted.
- Groq caps uploads around 25 MB, so very long videos will be rejected. Clip
  them first.
- The idea-extraction prompt is short and opinionated on purpose (give the
  point, don't retell). Edit `_extract_idea` in `server.py` if you want a
  different style.

## License

MIT.