YouTube Downloader MCP server

The yt-dlp-mcp server integrates with yt-dlp to provide video and audio content download capabilities for LLMs. It enables LLMs to download subtitles, videos, and audio from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok through MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration.

Installation

Prerequisites

First, install yt-dlp based on your operating system:

# Windows
winget install yt-dlp

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp

# Linux
pip install yt-dlp

Installation with Dive Desktop

1. Click "+ Add MCP Server" in Dive Desktop
2. Copy and paste this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yt-dlp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Click "Save" to install the MCP server

Manual Start

If needed, you can start the server manually:

npx @kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp

Features and Usage

Available Tools

List Subtitle Languages

Lists all available subtitle languages and their formats for a video.

Inputs:

• url (string, required): URL of the video

Download Video Subtitles

Downloads video subtitles in any available format. Supports both regular and auto-generated subtitles.

Inputs:

• url (string, required): URL of the video
• language (string, optional): Language code (e.g., 'en', 'zh-Hant', 'ja'). Defaults to 'en'

Download Video

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'

Download Audio

Downloads audio in best available quality (usually m4a/mp3 format) to user's Downloads folder.

Inputs:

• url (string, required): URL of the video

Usage Examples

You can ask your LLM to perform the following tasks:

"List available subtitles for this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download a video from facebook: https://facebook.com/..."
"Download Chinese subtitles from this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download this video in 1080p: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download audio from this YouTube video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."

System Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• yt-dlp in system PATH
• MCP-compatible LLM service

How to add this MCP server to 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 > MCP and click "Add new global MCP server".

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

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cursor-rules-mcp": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "-y",
                "cursor-rules-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 explictly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.