YouTube Transcripts MCP server

This MCP server helps you extract transcripts from YouTube videos through a simple interface. It supports multiple languages and various YouTube URL formats, making it easy to retrieve captions and subtitles.

Installation Options

Using Smithery

Install the YouTube Transcript Server for Claude Desktop automatically:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript --client claude

Using mcp-get

Install with the mcp-get command-line tool:

npx @michaellatman/mcp-get@latest install @kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript

Manual Configuration

To use with Claude Desktop, add this server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript"]
    }
  }
}

Usage

The server provides a single tool called get_transcript with the following parameters:

• url (string, required): YouTube video URL or video ID
• lang (string, optional, default: "en"): Language code for transcript (e.g., 'ko', 'en')

Example Usage

1. Get transcript by video URL:

await server.callTool("get_transcript", {
  url: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID",
  lang: "en"
});

2. Get transcript by video ID:

await server.callTool("get_transcript", {
  url: "VIDEO_ID",
  lang: "ko"
});

Using in Claude Desktop

To extract YouTube subtitles in the Claude Desktop app, simply type:

chat: https://youtu.be/ODaHJzOyVCQ?si=aXkJgso96Deri0aB Extract subtitles

Features

• Support for multiple video URL formats
• Language-specific transcript retrieval
• Detailed metadata in responses
• Robust error handling for common scenarios including:
  • Invalid video URLs or IDs
  • Unavailable transcripts
  • Language availability issues
  • Network errors

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.