YouTube MCP

What YouTube MCP does

YouTube MCP MCP server exposes YouTube research and account-data operations to MCP-compatible AI assistants. It can retrieve spoken transcripts, search for videos, channels, or playlists, and return metadata such as titles, descriptions, tags, durations, views, likes, and comment counts.

The server also covers channel and playlist inspection. Agents can look up channels by ID or @handle, list playlists and their items, inspect channel activity and page sections, and retrieve trending videos by region and optional category. Comment tools return top-level threads and replies, while caption tools identify available manual and auto-generated tracks.

Public-data access uses the YouTube Data API v3. OAuth extends the available account operations to personal subscriptions, channel members, and membership levels. The server includes a tool for revoking OAuth access and deleting stored Google credentials.

How it works

The package runs as a local stdio MCP server through npx, using the @mrsknetwork/ytmcp package. In guest mode, get_video_transcript uses yt-dlp and does not need an API key. This mode is appropriate when the main requirement is extracting a video's transcript.

Supplying GOOGLE_API_KEY enables the public YouTube Data API tools. Search supports ordering, publication date ranges, duration, definition, region, and pagination. Other API-backed tools support pagination where applicable, including trending videos, comments, replies, and subscriptions.

OAuth requires a Google OAuth 2.0 web application and the redirect URI http://localhost:31415/oauth2callback. On the first OAuth-enabled tool call, the assistant provides a login link for browser authorization. The session is then retained until access is revoked.

Setup and configuration

For a minimal configuration, add the package as an MCP command:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mrsknetwork/ytmcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

For public API access, enable YouTube Data API v3 in Google Cloud, create an API key, and pass it as GOOGLE_API_KEY in the MCP configuration or a .env file.

OAuth configuration uses GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID and GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET. The Google project must have YouTube Data API v3 enabled, and the OAuth consent screen must include the user as a test user when applicable. The client type should be a web application with the exact localhost callback listed above.

To build from source, clone the repository, run npm install, run npm run build, create .env from .env.example, and start node build/server/index.js.

Tools and capabilities

The YouTube MCP MCP server provides tools for:

• Extracting full transcripts with a requested language and a preference for manual or auto-generated captions.
• Searching content and filtering results by dates, duration, quality, order, and region.
• Reading video, channel, playlist, caption, category, language, and region information.
• Listing trending videos, channel activity, channel sections, playlists, and playlist entries.
• Fetching comment threads and replies, with keyword filtering for comments.
• Listing public or personal subscriptions, channel members, and membership tiers.
• Revoking OAuth access and removing stored credentials.

Limitations and notes

Transcript extraction is the only documented guest-mode capability; the other public-data tools require a Google API key. Membership and personal subscription operations require OAuth, and listing channel members additionally requires an active channel memberships program. The server works with public YouTube information unless the OAuth flow grants access to the specified account data.