Jing-yilin/youtube-mcp-server

YouTube MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for YouTube, enabling AI language models to interact with YouTube content through a standardized interface. Updated to support MCP SDK 1.23.

Features

Video Information

• Get video details (title, description, duration, etc.)
• List channel videos
• Get video statistics (views, likes, comments)
• Search videos across YouTube

Transcript Management

• Retrieve video transcripts
• Support for multiple languages
• Get timestamped captions
• Search within transcripts

Channel Management

• Get channel details
• List channel playlists
• Get channel statistics
• Search within channel content

Playlist Management

• List playlist items
• Get playlist details
• Search playlists

Installation

Quick Setup for Claude Desktop

1. Install the package:

npm install -g @yilin-jing/youtube-mcp-server

2. Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "youtube-mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "your_youtube_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternative: Using NPX (No Installation Required)

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@yilin-jing/youtube-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "your_youtube_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

• YOUTUBE_API_KEY: Your YouTube Data API key (required)
• YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_LANG: Default language for transcripts (optional, defaults to 'en')

YouTube API Setup

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select an existing one
3. Enable the YouTube Data API v3
4. Create API credentials (API key)
5. Copy the API key for configuration

Available Tools

Examples

Managing Videos

// Get video details
const video = await youtube.videos_getVideo({
  videoId: "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
});

// Search videos
const searchResults = await youtube.videos_searchVideos({
  query: "TypeScript tutorial",
  maxResults: 10
});

Managing Transcripts

// Get video transcript
const transcript = await youtube.transcripts_getTranscript({
  videoId: "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  language: "en"
});

Managing Channels

// Get channel details
const channel = await youtube.channels_getChannel({
  channelId: "UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw"
});

// List channel videos
const videos = await youtube.channels_listVideos({
  channelId: "UC_x5XG1OV2P6uZZ5FSM9Ttw",
  maxResults: 50
});

Managing Playlists

// Get playlist items
const playlistItems = await youtube.playlists_getPlaylistItems({
  playlistId: "PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf",
  maxResults: 50
});

// Get playlist details
const playlist = await youtube.playlists_getPlaylist({
  playlistId: "PLrAXtmErZgOeiKm4sgNOknGvNjby9efdf"
});

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install
# or
bun install

# Build
npm run build

# Run tests
bun test

# Start server
npm start

Testing

This project includes 50 comprehensive tests covering all services:

# Run tests with bun
YOUTUBE_API_KEY="your_api_key" bun test

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Credits

Originally forked from ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server, updated with MCP SDK 1.23 support and comprehensive test coverage.