Download transcripts directly from YouTube videos.
Download transcripts directly from YouTube videos. Exposed over MCP by the youtube transcript mcp mcp server, that capability becomes something an assistant can invoke while it works, not something you go and do afterwards.
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.
Everything the assistant can do here goes through one of these:
get_transcript — Extract transcripts from YouTube videosInputs — - url (string, required): YouTube video URL, Shorts URL, or video IDTools — The Tools tool exposed by this serverPrerequisites — The Prerequisites tool exposed by this serverSetup — For development with auto-rebuild: bash npm run watchTesting — The Testing tool exposed by this serverDebugging — Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector for development:You will need 3 environment variables: TWELVELABS_API_KEY, OPENAI_API_KEY, VIDEO_ID. The server will not start without them, which is usually why the tools fail to appear on a first run. Keep credentials in your client's env block or a secrets manager rather than in a file you might commit.
@smithery/cli on npm is all you need. Most clients run it directly, so configuration is a few lines and a restart.
Plenty of developer tooling servers cover similar ground. The differences that matter in practice are scope of access and how much setup stands between you and a working tool call. YouTube Transcript MCP's toolset — get_transcript, Inputs, Tools and 4 more — is a fair guide to whether it matches your workflow.
SyncDev reviews every entry in this directory against the project's own documentation before publishing, and revisits them as servers change.
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| get_transcript | Extract transcripts from YouTube videos |
| Inputs | - url (string, required): YouTube video URL, Shorts URL, or video ID |
| Tools | The Tools tool exposed by this server. |
| Prerequisites | The Prerequisites tool exposed by this server. |
| Setup | For development with auto-rebuild: bash npm run watch |
| Testing | The Testing tool exposed by this server. |
| Debugging | Since MCP servers communicate over stdio, debugging can be challenging. We recommend using the MCP Inspector for development: |
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-transcript": {
"command": "npx",
"args": ["-y", "@kimtaeyoon83/mcp-server-youtube-transcript"]
}
}
}Configuration as documented by the project. Restart the client after saving.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| TWELVELABS_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| OPENAI_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
| VIDEO_ID | Configuration value read at startup. | Optional |
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