YouTube Transcripts MCP server

This MCP server retrieves transcripts from YouTube videos, allowing you to easily access video content in text form. It integrates with various AI assistants, enabling them to analyze and reference YouTube video content directly.

Features

Get Transcript Tool

The server provides a single tool:

• get_transcript: Fetches the transcript of a specified YouTube video
  • Parameters:
    • url (string, required): The full URL of the YouTube video
    • lang (string, optional): The desired language for the transcript (defaults to English)

Installation Options

For Goose CLI

Edit your Goose CLI configuration file located at ~/.config/goose/config.yaml and add the following:

extensions:
  youtube-transcript:
    name: Youtube Transcript
    cmd: uvx
    args: [--from, git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript, mcp-youtube-transcript]
    enabled: true
    type: stdio

For Goose Desktop

Add a new extension with these settings:

• Type: Standard IO
• ID: youtube-transcript
• Name: Youtube Transcript
• Description: Retrieve transcripts of YouTube videos
• Command: uvx --from git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript mcp-youtube-transcript

For Claude Desktop

Edit your claude_desktop_config.json file and add the following entry under mcpServers:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "--from",
        "git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript",
        "mcp-youtube-transcript"
      ]
    }
  }
}

After editing, restart Claude Desktop.

Installing via Smithery

To automatically install for Claude Desktop using Smithery:

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

Working with Proxy Servers

If YouTube access is restricted in your environment, you can configure proxy servers:

Webshare Proxy

Set up Webshare Residential Proxy using either:

• Environment variables:

  WEBSHARE_PROXY_USERNAME=your_username
  WEBSHARE_PROXY_PASSWORD=your_password
  

• Command line arguments:

  --webshare-proxy-username your_username --webshare-proxy-password your_password
  

Other Proxy Servers

Configure other proxy servers using either:

• Environment variables:

  HTTP_PROXY=your_proxy_url
  HTTPS_PROXY=your_proxy_url
  

• Command line arguments:

  --http-proxy your_proxy_url
  --https-proxy your_proxy_url
  

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":"uvx","args":["--from","git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript","mcp-youtube-transcript"]}'

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": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from",
                "git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript",
                "mcp-youtube-transcript"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from",
                "git+https://github.com/jkawamoto/mcp-youtube-transcript",
                "mcp-youtube-transcript"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect