YouTube Downloader MCP server for AI agents

The MCP server is a customizable Model Context Protocol server built with the mcp-framework, allowing you to create and run specialized tools that can extend Claude's capabilities. This implementation provides a YouTube-focused server that you can configure and use with Claude Desktop or access via npx.

Installation

To get started with yt-mcp-server, follow these steps:

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build the project
npm run build

Configuration

Setting Up with Claude Desktop

The MCP server can be configured to work with Claude Desktop by adding the appropriate configuration to your Claude Desktop config file.

For Local Development

Add this configuration to your Claude Desktop config file:

MacOS:

~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows:

%APPDATA%/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Configuration to add:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yt-mcp-server": {
      "command": "node",
      "args":["/absolute/path/to/yt-mcp-server/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

For Published Version

After the server has been published to npm, you can use this configuration instead:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yt-mcp-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["yt-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Using Custom Tools

Example Tool

The server comes with an example tool that demonstrates the basic structure:

import { MCPTool } from "mcp-framework";
import { z } from "zod";

interface MyToolInput {
  message: string;
}

class MyTool extends MCPTool<MyToolInput> {
  name = "my_tool";
  description = "Describes what your tool does";

  schema = {
    message: {
      type: z.string(),
      description: "Description of this input parameter",
    },
  };

  async execute(input: MyToolInput) {
    // Your tool logic here
    return `Processed: ${input.message}`;
  }
}

export default MyTool;

Adding New Tools

You can add new tools using the MCP CLI:

# Add a new tool
mcp add tool my-tool

# Example tools you might create:
mcp add tool data-processor
mcp add tool api-client
mcp add tool file-handler

Testing Your Server

After making changes to your tools:

Run the build command to compile your changes:
```
npm run build
```
The server will automatically load your tools on startup
If testing locally, you can use npm link to create a global link:
```
npm link
yt-mcp-server  # Test your CLI locally
```

You can now interact with your custom tools through Claude Desktop, which will use the MCP server to extend Claude's capabilities with your custom functionality.

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 "yt-mcp-server" '{"command":"npx","args":["yt-mcp-server"]}'

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": {
        "yt-mcp-server": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "yt-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

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": {
        "yt-mcp-server": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "yt-mcp-server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect