tldw-mcp — Too Long; Didn't Watch

An MCP server that turns any YouTube video into a clean Markdown transcript (plus metadata), ready for an AI to summarize and discuss. No more sitting through a 1-hour video to find out if it was worth it — fetch the transcript, let your AI summarize it, then chat about it.

Built with FastMCP (Python), served over Streamable HTTP, and exposed remotely through a Cloudflare Tunnel so you can use it from ChatGPT, Claude, your phone, or anywhere.

Tools

• lang — preferred caption language (en, fr, …). If omitted: manual subs first, then the video's original language, then English.

• include_timestamps — prefix each line with [mm:ss].

No video is ever downloaded — only the caption track (official subtitles preferred, auto-generated as fallback) via yt-dlp.

Related MCP server: YouTube Insights MCP Server

How it works

client (ChatGPT / Claude / phone)
   │  HTTPS  https://<host>/<secret-path>/mcp
   ▼
Cloudflare Tunnel  ──►  127.0.0.1:8765 (uvicorn)
                          server.py (FastMCP)
                            └─ yt-dlp ──(proxy)──► YouTube captions

Auth = a secret URL path. The MCP endpoint is mounted at an unguessable path (MCP_PATH); any other path returns 404. Simple, and works with clients that can't send custom headers. The server binds only to 127.0.0.1 — it is never exposed directly.

Local run

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
MCP_PATH=/mcp PORT=8765 .venv/bin/python server.py

Configuration (env vars)

Datacenter IPs are blocked by YouTube ("Sign in to confirm you're not a bot"). When deploying on a VPS/cloud server, set YTDLP_PROXY to a residential proxy or it won't work.

Deploy on a server (systemd + Cloudflare Tunnel)

1. Copy server.py + requirements.txt to the server (e.g. /root/youtube-mcp/), create the venv, install deps.

2. Make sure yt-dlp is installed (/usr/local/bin/yt-dlp).

3. Install the systemd service (generates a random secret path, restarts on crash/reboot):

   export YTDLP_PROXY='http://user:pass@host:port'   # if your server IP is blocked
   bash deploy-setup.sh

4. Install cloudflared and connect a tunnel whose public hostname points to http://localhost:8765 (HTTP, not HTTPS):

   cloudflared service install <YOUR_TUNNEL_TOKEN>

5. Your MCP URL is https://<your-hostname>/<secret-path>/mcp (the secret path is printed by deploy-setup.sh and stored in .mcp_path).

Connect a client

• Claude Code: claude mcp add --transport http tldw https://<host>/<secret>/mcp

• ChatGPT (Plus/Pro): Settings → Connectors → developer mode → Add MCP server → paste the URL (auth: None).

• Claude Desktop: Settings → Connectors → add a custom connector with the URL.

Test

MCP_URL="https://<host>/<secret>/mcp" bash test-public.sh

License

MIT