yt-dlp-mcp is an MCP server implementation that integrates with yt-dlp, providing video and audio content download capabilities from various platforms (YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, etc.) for Large Language Models. It allows LLMs to download subtitles, videos, and audio files through the Model Context Protocol.
Install yt-dlp
based on your operating system:
# Windows
winget install yt-dlp
# macOS
brew install yt-dlp
# Linux
pip install yt-dlp
{
"mcpServers": {
"yt-dlp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp"
]
}
}
}
If needed, start the server manually:
npx @kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp
Lists all available subtitle languages and their formats for a video:
Input:
- url (string, required): URL of the video
Downloads video subtitles in any available format:
Inputs:
- url (string, required): URL of the video
- language (string, optional): Language code (e.g., 'en', 'zh-Hant', 'ja'). Defaults to 'en'
Downloads video to user's Downloads folder:
Inputs:
- url (string, required): URL of the video
- resolution (string, optional): Video resolution ('480p', '720p', '1080p', 'best'). Defaults to '720p'
Downloads audio in best available quality:
Input:
- url (string, required): URL of the video
Downloads and cleans video subtitles to produce a plain text transcript:
Inputs:
- url (string, required): URL of the video
- language (string, optional): Language code (e.g., 'en', 'zh-Hant', 'ja'). Defaults to 'en'
You can ask your LLM to perform the following actions:
yt-dlp
in system PATHTo add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:
claude mcp add-json "yt-dlp" '{"command":"npx","args":["-y","@kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp"]}'
See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.
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.
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": {
"yt-dlp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp"
]
}
}
}
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.
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.
To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:
1. Find your configuration file:
~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add this to your configuration file:
{
"mcpServers": {
"yt-dlp": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp"
]
}
}
}
3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect