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YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Provides access to YouTube transcripts and video metadata via a Docker-driven MCP server with browser-based transcript extraction.

Installation

Add the following to your MCP client configuration file.

Configuration

View docs

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "jerroldneal-mcp-browser-youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "compose",
        "-f",
        "/path/to/mcp-browser-youtube-transcript/docker-compose.yml",
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "mcp-browser-youtube"
      ]
    }
  }
}

This MCP server runs a Docker-based solution that uses a headless browser to fetch YouTube transcripts directly from the video page UI. It provides fast, reliable transcript data by bypassing common API rate limits and allows you to access full transcripts, timed transcripts with deep links, and video metadata.

How to use

You can integrate this MCP server with your MCP client (for example, Claude Desktop or VS Code) to fetch YouTube transcripts on demand. Use the Docker-based runtime for remote execution or run locally during development. The server exposes functions to retrieve the full transcript, a timed transcript with timestamps and deep links, and video metadata.

How to install

Prerequisites you need before starting are Docker and Docker Compose for containerized usage, or Node.js and npm if you prefer local development.

# Prerequisites
# Docker and Docker Compose must be installed on your system

# Optional for local development
# Install dependencies for local development
npm install

# Run locally (development)
node index.js

Configuration and usage notes

The primary runtime is a Docker-based, stdio-style MCP server. You run the server via Docker Compose, which starts a single reusable browser instance to fetch transcripts from YouTube video pages.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-browser": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["compose", "-f", "/path/to/mcp-browser-youtube-transcript/docker-compose.yml", "run", "--rm", "-i", "mcp-browser-youtube"]
    }
  }
}

Additional features and endpoint capabilities

This MCP server exposes the following endpoints or tooling capabilities to your MCP clients:

- get_transcript: Fetches the full plain text transcript for a YouTube video. - get_timed_transcript: Fetches the transcript with timestamps and deep links for precise navigation. - get_video_info: Retrieves video metadata using the underlying YouTube tooling.

Available tools

get_transcript

Fetches the full plain text transcript for a video.

get_timed_transcript

Fetches the transcript with timestamps and deep links.

get_video_info

Fetches video metadata using the available video info approach.