YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Overview

YouTube Transcript allows you to extract text transcripts from YouTube videos directly through a simple interface. This MCP server supports multiple video URL formats and language-specific transcript retrieval, making it easy to access video content in text form.

Installation

Using Smithery

The easiest way to install YouTube Transcript is via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript --client claude

Using mcp-get

You can also install using the mcp-get tool:

npx @michaellatman/mcp-get@latest install @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript

Manual Configuration

To manually configure YouTube Transcript with Claude Desktop or other MCP clients, add this server configuration to your settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript"]
    }
  }
}

Usage

Once installed, you can use the get_transcript tool to extract transcripts from YouTube videos. Here are some examples:

1. Get transcript by video URL:

get_transcript(url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID", lang: "en")

2. Get transcript by video ID:

get_transcript(url: "VIDEO_ID", lang: "ko")

3. In Claude Desktop, you can simply ask:

Extract subtitles from this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/ODaHJzOyVCQ

Parameters

• url (required): YouTube video URL or video ID
• lang (optional, default: "en"): Language code for transcript (e.g., 'ko', 'en')

Error Handling

The server implements robust error handling for common scenarios:

• Invalid video URLs or IDs
• Unavailable transcripts
• Language availability issues
• Network errors

Development

If you want to contribute or modify the server:

1. Prerequisites:

   • Node.js 18 or higher
   • npm or yarn

2. Setup:

   npm install
   npm run build
   

3. For development with auto-rebuild:

   npm run watch
   

4. Testing:

   npm test
   

5. Debugging with MCP Inspector:

   npm run inspector
   

License

This MCP server is licensed under the MIT License.