YouTube Transcript MCP server

This MCP server enables you to retrieve transcripts from YouTube videos through a simple interface, providing access to video captions and subtitles. It supports multiple video URL formats and language-specific transcript retrieval.

Installation Options

Install via Smithery

To install the YouTube Transcript Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

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

Install via MCP-Get

You can also install using the mcp-get tool:

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

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 that allows you to extract transcripts from YouTube videos.

Available Tool

get_transcript

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

Usage Examples

Get transcript by video URL

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

Get transcript by video ID

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

Using in Claude Desktop App

To extract YouTube subtitles in Claude Desktop App, simply provide a message like:

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

Error Handling

The server handles various error scenarios gracefully:

• Invalid video URLs or IDs
• Unavailable transcripts
• Language availability issues
• Network errors

When an error occurs, the server provides detailed error messages to help with troubleshooting.

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

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect