Fetch YouTube transcripts + metadata by video, search, channel, or playlist as clean JSON.
TranscriptFetch MCP server exists for a simple reason — assistants are far more useful when they can act on TranscriptFetch directly instead of describing what you should do. Fetch YouTube transcripts + metadata by video, search, channel, or playlist as clean JSON.
Official, typed Python client for the TranscriptFetch API: fetch YouTube transcripts, channels, playlists, and search results as clean, structured data. Sync + async, fully type-hinted.
You will need one environment variable: TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY. 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.
transcriptfetch-sdk on PyPI 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. It is maintained by com.transcriptfetch; worth a glance at recent repository activity before you build anything load-bearing on it.
We check each listing at SyncDev against the project's documentation before it goes live — if something here drifts out of date, it is a bug worth reporting.
{
"mcpServers": {
"youtube-transcripts": {
"command": "uvx",
"args": ["transcriptfetch-sdk"],
"env": {
"TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY": "your-value"
}
}
}
}Add to claude_desktop_config.json, then restart Claude Desktop.
| Variable | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY | Credential the server authenticates with. | Yes |
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