YouTube Transcript Extractor MCP server

The YouTube MCP server extracts transcripts from YouTube videos, enabling you to easily get text content from video sources. It supports various URL formats and provides error handling for common issues.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18.0.0 or higher

Setup

1. Install the package using npm:

npm install mcp-youtube

2. Alternatively, you can clone the repository and install dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/mcp-youtube.git
cd mcp-youtube
npm install

Usage

Basic Usage

The server provides a tool to extract transcripts from YouTube videos. Here's how to use it:

import { MCPClient } from '@highlight-run/mcp/client';

// Initialize the client
const client = new MCPClient({ serverPath: 'path/to/mcp-youtube' });

// Get transcript from a YouTube video
const result = await client.runTool('get_youtube_transcript', {
  videoUrl: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'
});

console.log(result.content); // Array containing transcript text

Supported URL Formats

You can use any of these YouTube URL formats:

• Standard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• Shortened: https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• Embed: https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID

Error Handling

The server will return appropriate error messages in these cases:

• Missing video URL parameter
• Invalid URL format
• Video without available captions
• Connection issues with YouTube

Example error handling:

try {
  const result = await client.runTool('get_youtube_transcript', {
    videoUrl: 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ'
  });
  console.log(result.content);
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Error fetching transcript:', error.message);
}

Limitations

Be aware of these constraints when using the YouTube MCP server:

• Only works with videos that have captions enabled
• Currently returns only English transcripts
• Subject to YouTube's API rate limiting

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "youtube-transcript-extractor" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","highlight-youtube-mcp"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "youtube-transcript-extractor": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "highlight-youtube-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "youtube-transcript-extractor": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "highlight-youtube-mcp"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect