A Model Context Protocol server that enables retrieval of transcripts from YouTube videos. This server provides direct access to video captions and subtitles through a simple interface.

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

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

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

• Support for multiple video URL formats
• Language-specific transcript retrieval
• Detailed metadata in responses

To use with Claude Desktop, add this server configuration:

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

mcp-get A command-line tool for installing and managing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

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

awesome-mcp-servers A curated list of awesome Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

• Node.js 18 or higher
• npm or yarn

Install dependencies:

npm install

Build the server:

npm run build

For development with auto-rebuild:

npm run watch

npm test

Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector for development:

npm run inspector

The evals package loads an mcp client that then runs the index.ts file, so there is no need to rebuild between tests. You can load environment variables by prefixing the npx command. Full documentation can be found here.

OPENAI_API_KEY=your-key  npx mcp-eval src/evals/evals.ts src/index.ts

The server implements robust error handling for common scenarios:

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

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"
});

3. How to Extract YouTube Subtitles in Claude Desktop App

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

The server:

• Validates all input parameters
• Handles YouTube API errors gracefully
• Implements timeouts for transcript retrieval
• Provides detailed error messages for troubleshooting

This MCP server is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.