Archivarix Tube Search

What is Archivarix Tube Search?

Archivarix Tube Search is a search engine for archived YouTube videos, including deleted, removed, and region-blocked content. The MCP server wraps the public API so AI agents (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, VS Code, Cursor) can search 1.5+ billion videos indexed since 2005.

How to use Archivarix Tube Search?

Install with npx tube-search-mcp — works on macOS / Linux / Windows. Requires Node.js 18+ and a free API key from tube.archivarix.net (Profile → API Keys). Once configured, AI agents can invoke 9 tools and access 5 resources and 3 prompts.

Key features of Archivarix Tube Search

• Search 1.5+ billion archived YouTube videos since 2005
• Retrieve video metadata, captions, and AI-generated summaries
• Access full audio transcripts from surviving archived audio
• Discover channels across legacy username/handle/@-tag forms
• Reconstruct playable URLs to archived video files when available

Use cases of Archivarix Tube Search

• Finding a deleted YouTube video by title or description
• Retrieving original captions or subtitles from an archived video
• Generating AI summaries of archived video content on demand
• Browsing channel video history after channel removal
• Checking video status history and current API usage

FAQ from Archivarix Tube Search

What data sources are used?

Internet Archive Wayback Machine (CDX + HEAD-spread discovery), Common Crawl, YouTube Metadata 2019 dump, and live yt-dlp probes for surviving content.

What tools are available?

Nine tools: search_channel, search_videos, get_video, get_subtitles, get_summary, generate_summary, browse_summaries, get_video_status_history, and get_usage.

Is there a free tier?

Yes: a free tier covers anonymous and registered users. Paid tiers (Plus, MCP+API) unlock higher rate limits, on-demand AI summaries, and audio transcription.

What are the runtime requirements?

Node.js 18+ and a free API key from tube.archivarix.net.

Does it support resources and prompts?

Yes: 5 resources (tube://video/{id}, tube://channel/{id}, tube://subtitles/{id}, tube://summary/{id}, tube://tags) and 3 prompts (research_video, channel_overview, find_deleted).