YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Name: YouTube Transcript MCP Server
Author: herrwelle

@herrwelle

Repository

About YouTube Transcript MCP Server

No overview available yet

#youtube-transcript #mcp-server #transcript-extraction

Basic information

Config

Add this server to your MCP-compatible client using the configuration below.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcript-mcp-server-herrwelle": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "@modelcontextprotocol/inspector"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Tools

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos

Overview

What is YouTube Transcript MCP Server?

A high-performance, serverless implementation of a YouTube transcript extraction service using the Model Context Protocol (MCP), deployed on Cloudflare Workers. It enables AI assistants to retrieve transcripts from YouTube videos through a simple API.

How to use YouTube Transcript MCP Server?

Install by configuring Claude Desktop with a remote MCP server URL. Use the get_transcript tool with a YouTube URL or video ID and an optional language code (defaults to English). Run locally with wrangler dev after cloning the repository and installing dependencies. Deploy with wrangler deploy.

Key features of YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Serverless deployment on Cloudflare's global edge network
Supports multiple YouTube URL formats and direct video IDs
Language selection for transcripts (defaults to English)
Ultra-fast response times (typically 400-800ms)
Less than 300 lines of code for easy maintenance
SSE transport for streaming connections

Use cases of YouTube Transcript MCP Server

Extract transcripts from YouTube videos for AI summarization
Retrieve captions in different languages from video URLs
Enable AI assistants to process video content programmatically

FAQ from YouTube Transcript MCP Server

What dependencies does YouTube Transcript MCP Server require?

The README lists Node.js 18 or higher, Wrangler CLI (npm install -g wrangler), and dependencies installed via npm install. It uses @modelcontextprotocol/sdk and youtube-captions-scraper.

How do I test YouTube Transcript MCP Server locally?

Use wrangler dev to run locally, then test with the MCP Inspector by setting Transport Type to SSE and entering http://localhost:8787/sse as the URL. Connect and try the get_transcript tool.

What transport does YouTube Transcript MCP Server use?

It uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) for streaming connections, as indicated in the README under “SSE Transport” and in the configuration example for Claude Desktop.

What are the known limits of YouTube Transcript MCP Server?

The README does not explicitly state any limits, but the implementation relies on youtube-captions-scraper for transcript extraction and runs on Cloudflare Workers, which have standard Workers limits (not detailed in the README).

How does YouTube Transcript MCP Server authenticate or handle access?

The README does not describe authentication. The remote server is accessed via a public URL (e.g., https://your-deployed-worker.workers.dev/sse). No auth mechanisms are mentioned.