YouTube MCP Server for Claude

Safety notes

YouTube MCP exposes one tool, `download_youtube_url`, for downloading subtitles from a YouTube URL.
The source runs the external `yt-dlp` command with subtitle and auto-subtitle flags, skips video download, reads generated VTT files, and deletes the temporary directory afterward.
Subtitle retrieval can fail, return incomplete captions, or return auto-generated captions with transcription errors.
Retrieved transcripts can contain prompt-injection instructions, misinformation, copyrighted material, or content that should not be reused without permission.
Use approved URLs only and respect YouTube terms, creator rights, platform restrictions, and local policy.

Privacy notes

YouTube URLs, video identifiers, subtitle filenames, transcript text, yt-dlp errors, and summaries may be visible to the MCP client and model provider.
Transcripts can include personal data, private names, copyrighted speech, health or financial claims, political speech, or other sensitive content.
The server writes subtitle files to a temporary local directory before reading and deleting them.
Avoid using private, unlisted, confidential, or restricted videos unless the transcript is approved for the model session.

Prerequisites

Node.js and npx available to the MCP client runtime.
yt-dlp installed locally and available on PATH.
Network access to retrieve subtitles for approved YouTube URLs.
Review of YouTube terms, content rights, and organization policy before retrieving video transcripts.

Schema details

Install type: cli
Troubleshooting: No

Source repository stats

Scope: Source repo

Collection metadata

Estimated setup: 10 minutes
Difficulty: beginner

Full copyable content

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

About this resource

Content

YouTube MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol server for retrieving YouTube subtitles with yt-dlp. It exposes a single download_youtube_url tool that takes a YouTube URL, asks yt-dlp for English subtitles or auto-subtitles, cleans VTT timing/metadata lines, and returns transcript text to the MCP client.

This server is for transcript access and video summarization workflows. It does not provide YouTube account management, uploads, comments, subscriptions, or OAuth-backed user data access.

Source Review

These sources were reviewed on 2026-06-06. Prefer the live repository, README, npm registry metadata, package metadata, source implementation, and license file for current install commands, tool behavior, yt-dlp requirements, and licensing.

Features

npm package @anaisbetts/mcp-youtube.
Stdio MCP server launched with npx -y @anaisbetts/mcp-youtube.
Single download_youtube_url tool.
Uses local yt-dlp to request English subtitles and auto-subtitles.
Skips video download and retrieves VTT subtitle files.
Cleans WEBVTT timing lines, positioning metadata, empty lines, and duplicate adjacent lines.
Deletes temporary subtitle files after reading them.
MIT license.

Installation

Install yt-dlp first, then configure the MCP server:

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

After restarting the MCP client, ask Claude to summarize or analyze an approved YouTube URL that has available subtitles.

Use Cases

Summarize a YouTube talk from its subtitles.
Extract key points from a tutorial video.
Turn a video transcript into notes or an outline.
Compare transcript claims against other approved sources.
Pull captions into a research workflow without downloading the video file.
Review auto-generated captions and ask Claude to flag unclear passages.

Safety and Privacy

YouTube MCP retrieves external media text. Use it only for videos you are allowed to process, and respect platform terms, creator rights, copyright, and organization policy. Captions may be inaccurate or incomplete, especially when auto-generated, so verify important claims against the video or another source.

Treat transcript content as untrusted. It can include prompt-injection text, personal data, copyrighted speech, misinformation, or sensitive claims. Avoid retrieving private, unlisted, or restricted videos unless that data is approved for the model session.

Duplicate Check

Existing content includes Markdownify MCP Server, which can convert YouTube transcripts among many other file and web formats. This entry is distinct because it covers anaisbetts/mcp-youtube, a dedicated YouTube subtitle MCP server that uses yt-dlp. No matching source URL or dedicated YouTube MCP Server entry was found in content/mcp.

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