YouTube MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for YouTube, enabling AI language models to interact with YouTube content through a standardized interface.

Features

Video Information

Get video details (title, description, duration, etc.)
List channel videos
Get video statistics (views, likes, comments)
Search videos across YouTube

Transcript Management

Retrieve video transcripts
Support for multiple languages
Get timestamped captions
Search within transcripts

Channel Management

Get channel details
List channel playlists
Get channel statistics
Search within channel content

Playlist Management

List playlist items
Get playlist details
Search within playlists
Get playlist video transcripts

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install YouTube Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @modelcontextprotocol/server-youtube --client claude

Manual Installation

npm install @modelcontextprotocol/server-youtube

Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

YOUTUBE_API_KEY: Your YouTube Data API key
YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_LANG: Default language for transcripts (optional, defaults to 'en')

Using with MCP Client

Add this to your MCP client configuration (e.g. Claude Desktop):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-youtube"],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "<YOUR_API_KEY>"
      }
    }
  }
}

YouTube API Setup

Go to Google Cloud Console
Create a new project or select an existing one
Enable the YouTube Data API v3
Create API credentials (API key)
Copy the API key for configuration

Examples

Managing Videos

// Get video details
const video = await youtube.videos.getVideo({
  videoId: "video-id"
});

// Get video transcript
const transcript = await youtube.transcripts.getTranscript({
  videoId: "video-id",
  language: "en"
});

// Search videos
const searchResults = await youtube.videos.searchVideos({
  query: "search term",
  maxResults: 10
});

Managing Channels

// Get channel details
const channel = await youtube.channels.getChannel({
  channelId: "channel-id"
});

// List channel videos
const videos = await youtube.channels.listVideos({
  channelId: "channel-id",
  maxResults: 50
});

Managing Playlists

// Get playlist items
const playlistItems = await youtube.playlists.getPlaylistItems({
  playlistId: "playlist-id",
  maxResults: 50
});

// Get playlist details
const playlist = await youtube.playlists.getPlaylist({
  playlistId: "playlist-id"
});

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run tests
npm test

# Build
npm run build

# Lint
npm run lint

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information about contributing to this repository.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.