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YouTube MCP Server

Provides MCP endpoints for YouTube transcripts, search, and channel lists without requiring Google API keys.

Installation
Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "cactusaurelius-youtube-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@inlustris/youtube-mcp@latest"
      ]
    }
  }
}

You can run a dedicated MCP server for YouTube transcripts, search, and channel data without needing API keys. This server exposes endpoints to fetch video transcripts with timestamps, search YouTube videos and channels, and list videos from a channel, all integrated through the MCP framework.

How to use

You connect to the YouTube MCP server from your MCP client and start requesting data through the available tools. Use get_transcript to retrieve a video transcript with optional chunking, search_videos to find videos by terms, search_channels to locate channels, and get_channel_videos to list videos from a specific channel. You can tailor how transcripts are chunked with chunkSize, chunkBySilence, and silenceThreshold to suit your display or analysis needs.

How to install

Prerequisites: you need Node.js and npm installed on your system.

Install the MCP server package globally so you can run it from your MCP client setup.

npm install -g @inlustris/youtube-mcp

Configuration and usage notes

Configure your MCP client to include the YouTube MCP server. This enables your client to load and run the server via MCP commands. The following snippet shows the exact configuration to place in your MCP client config file.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@inlustris/youtube-mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Available capabilities (tools)

This server provides four core endpoints you can call from your MCP client:

  • get_transcript: Get video transcript from YouTube URL with optional chunking
  • search_videos: Search YouTube videos by query and sort options
  • search_channels: Search YouTube channels by query and sort options
  • get_channel_videos: Get videos from a channel by channelId and optional maxResults

Available tools

get_transcript

Fetch the transcript for a YouTube video and optionally split it into chunks based on size or silence. Supports chunkSize, chunkBySilence, and silenceThreshold.

search_videos

Search YouTube videos by a query with optional sorting options such as relevance, date, rating, viewCount, or title.

search_channels

Search YouTube channels by a query with optional sorting options including relevance, date, rating, viewCount, title, and videoCount.

get_channel_videos

Retrieve a list of videos from a specific YouTube channel by channelId with an optional maximum number of results.