YouTube Transcript MCP Server

This MCP server retrieves transcripts for given YouTube video URLs.

Tools

This MCP server provides the following tools:

get_transcript

Fetches the transcript of a specified YouTube video.

Parameters

• url (string): The full URL of the YouTube video. This field is required.
• lang (string, optional): The desired language for the transcript. Defaults to en if not specified.

Installation

Note

You'll need uv installed on your system to use uvx command.

For codename goose

Please refer to this tutorial for detailed installation instructions: YouTube Transcript Extension.

For Claude Desktop

To configure this server for Claude Desktop, edit the claude_desktop_config.json file with the following entry under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript",
        "mcp-youtube-transcript"
      ]
    }
  }
}

After editing, restart the application. For more information, see: For Claude Desktop Users - Model Context Protocol.

Installing via Smithery

The Smithery CLI enables the installation of MCP servers on various clients.

For instance, to install this server for Claude Desktop, execute the following command:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript --client claude

To view the list of clients supported by the Smithery CLI, use this command:

npx -y @smithery/cli list clients

Refer to the Smithery CLI documentation for additional details.

Using Proxy Servers

In environments where access to YouTube is restricted, you can use proxy servers.

When using Webshare, set the username and password for the Residential Proxy using either the environment variables WEBSHARE_PROXY_USERNAME and WEBSHARE_PROXY_PASSWORD, or the command line arguments --webshare-proxy-username and --webshare-proxy-password.

When using other proxy servers, set the proxy server URL using either the environment variables HTTP_PROXY or HTTPS_PROXY, or the command line arguments --http-proxy or --https-proxy.

For more details, please visit: Working around IP bans - YouTube Transcript API.

License

This application is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for more details.