YouTube Transcript MCP server

This server enables Claude to fetch and analyze YouTube video transcripts through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). With this implementation, Claude can retrieve and process transcript content from YouTube videos when you provide a URL.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js installed on your system
• Claude Desktop application

Setup Process

1. Install the required dependencies and build the project:

npm install
npm run build

Configuring Claude Desktop

You need to modify Claude's configuration file to recognize this MCP server:

1. Locate and edit the Claude Desktop configuration file:

   • On macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the YouTube transcript MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ytrnscrpt-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ with the actual path to where you've installed the server on your system.

4. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect.

Usage

Basic Usage

Once configured, you can ask Claude to retrieve YouTube transcripts by simply asking:

Get me the transcript for [YouTube URL]

For example:

• "Get me the transcript for https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
• "Can you fetch and summarize the transcript from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123"

Working with Transcripts

After Claude retrieves the transcript, you can:

• Ask for summaries of the content
• Request analysis of specific parts of the video
• Ask questions about what was discussed in the video
• Compare content across multiple videos by providing several URLs

Claude will automatically use the MCP server to fetch the necessary transcript data when you provide a YouTube URL in your conversation.

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" '{"command":"node","args":["/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ytrnscrpt-mcp-server/dist/index.js"]}'

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": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ytrnscrpt-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
            "command": "node",
            "args": [
                "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/ytrnscrpt-mcp-server/dist/index.js"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect