YouTube Summarizer MCP Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that fetches YouTube video transcripts and exposes them to AI agents as tools, resources, and prompts.

Works with any MCP client — OpenWork, Claude Desktop, or any custom MCP host.

Features

Tools (callable by agents)

Resources (readable by agents)

Prompt

• summarize_video(video_url, format_style) — generates a prompt template that asks the LLM to summarize a video. The LLM can read the transcript resource and return a summary in the requested format (default: bullet points).

Related MCP server: ytmcp

Usage

Run directly

uv run --directory /path/to/yt-summarizer python3 summarizer.py

Or with the fastmcp CLI:

uv run --directory /path/to/yt-summarizer fastmcp run summarizer.py

Connect from Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yt-summarizer": {
      "command": "/path/to/uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/yt-summarizer",
        "python3",
        "summarizer.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Connect from OpenWork

Add to opencode.jsonc:

{
  "mcp": {
    "youtube-summarizer": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["uv", "run", "--directory", "/path/to/yt-summarizer", "python3", "summarizer.py"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Example

An agent can fetch and summarize a video in one interaction:

1. Agent reads youtube://transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ/stats — sees "1250 words, 5 min duration"

2. Agent calls get_youtube_transcript("https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ") — gets the full text

3. Agent calls search_transcript("https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "important topic") — finds relevant parts with timestamps

4. Agent uses the summarize_video prompt template to format the final summary

Supported URL formats

• https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID

• https://youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID

• https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID

• https://youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

• fastmcp — MCP server framework

• youtube-transcript-api — fetches YouTube transcripts

Project structure

yt-summarizer/
├── summarizer.py          # Main MCP server
├── yt-summarizer.py       # Original minimal version
├── yt-summarizer1.py      # Older version with logging
├── pyproject.toml         # Dependencies
├── plan.txt               # Dev notes
└── README.md