YouTube MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation for YouTube, enabling AI language models to interact with YouTube content through a standardized interface. This server uses YouTube.js (youtubei.js) to access YouTube's internal API, eliminating the need for API keys.

Features

Video Information

• Get video details (title, description, duration, etc.)
• Search videos across YouTube
• Get trending videos
• Get related videos for any video

Transcript Management

• Retrieve video transcripts
• Support for multiple languages
• Get timestamped captions
• Search within transcripts

Channel Management

• Get channel details
• List channel videos
• Get channel statistics

Playlist Management

• Get playlist details
• List playlist items
• Get playlist statistics

Installation

Quick Setup for Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop configuration (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y","git+https://github.com/acehoss/youtube-mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

That's it! No API keys or additional configuration required.

Local Development

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/acehoss/youtube-mcp-server.git
cd youtube-mcp-server

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Build the project:

npm run build

4. Run the server:

npm start

Usage Examples

The MCP server exposes the following tools:

Video Operations

• videos_getVideo - Get detailed information about a YouTube video
• videos_searchVideos - Search for videos on YouTube
• transcripts_getTranscript - Get the transcript of a video
• videos_getTrending - Get trending videos
• videos_getRelated - Get videos related to a specific video

Channel Operations

• channels_getChannel - Get channel information
• channels_listVideos - List videos from a channel

Playlist Operations

• playlists_getPlaylist - Get playlist information
• playlists_getPlaylistItems - Get videos in a playlist

Development

Running Tests

# Run all tests
npm test

# Run unit tests only
npm run test:unit

# Run integration tests only
npm run test:integration

# Run tests in watch mode
npm run test:watch

Building

npm run build

Development Mode

npm run dev

Architecture

This server uses YouTube.js (youtubei.js) to interact with YouTube's internal InnerTube API. This approach:

• Eliminates the need for API keys
• Provides access to features not available in the official API
• Offers better performance for transcript retrieval
• Reduces rate limiting concerns

Testing

The project includes comprehensive test coverage:

• Unit Tests: Mock YouTube.js responses to test service logic
• Integration Tests: Real API calls using known test data (e.g., Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up")

Integration tests require an internet connection and may take longer to run.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Built on YouTube.js by LuanRT
• Implements the Model Context Protocol specification
• Originally forked from youtube-mcp-server by Zubeid Hendricks