YouTube MCP

YouTube MCP lets an MCP client read YouTube video metadata, caption transcripts, comments, and search results. It needs no YouTube API key or account.

Supports both stdio (local) and Streamable HTTP (VPS/remote) transports.

Features

Tool	Description
search_youtube	Search videos with filters for upload date and popularity
get_video_info	Video metadata: title, channel, description, duration, views, likes, upload date, tags
get_video_comments	Comment threads with author info, likes, and the replies YouTube includes
get_video_transcript	Transcripts (manual + auto-generated captions) with timestamps
get_transcript_languages	Lists available manual and auto-generated caption languages

Requirements

• Node.js 22 or newer. CI checks Node 22.21.0 and Node 24.

No YouTube API key required. This server uses youtubei.js (YouTube's InnerTube API) for video info, comments, and search, and youtube-transcript-plus for transcripts. Neither needs an API key or authentication.

Quick start

Your MCP client can run the published package without a clone:

npx -y @granitebps/youtube-mcp

The server uses stdio. Keep stdout reserved for MCP traffic.

Run from a cloned repository

To develop the server or use a clone directly:

git clone https://github.com/granitebps/youtube-mcp.git
cd youtube-mcp
npm ci
npm run build

Point your MCP client at the compiled entry point:

node /absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js

Run npm run build after each source change. Do not use src or npm run dev as the client's stdio command; build output on stdout can corrupt MCP messages.

Client configuration

Each example starts with the npm package, followed by the local equivalent. Replace /absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp with your clone's path. Settings from Configuration can be added as environment variables.

Claude

Add the npm package to Claude Code:

claude mcp add youtube -- npx -y @granitebps/youtube-mcp

For a local build:

claude mcp add youtube -- node /absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js

Claude Code uses local scope by default. Add --scope user before youtube to make the server available across projects.

Claude Desktop reads the same server from claude_desktop_config.json (on macOS, ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json). Restart the app after editing the file.

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

For a local build, replace command and args with:

{
  "command": "node",
  "args": ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"]
}

Codex

Add the npm package to ~/.codex/config.toml, or to .codex/config.toml in a trusted project:

[mcp_servers.youtube]
command = "npx"
args = ["-y", "@granitebps/youtube-mcp"]

For a local build:

[mcp_servers.youtube]
command = "node"
args = ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"]

Restart Codex after editing the file.

OpenCode

Add the npm package to opencode.json or opencode.jsonc:

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "mcp": {
    "youtube": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["npx", "-y", "@granitebps/youtube-mcp"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

For a local build, replace the command array with:

{
  "command": ["node", "/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"]
}

Cursor

Add the npm package to .cursor/mcp.json in a project, or to ~/.cursor/mcp.json for global use:

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

For a local build, replace command and args with:

{
  "command": "node",
  "args": ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"]
}

GitHub Copilot (VS Code)

Add to your VS Code settings.json:

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

---

VPS deployment (Streamable HTTP)

For remote deployment, the server runs as a persistent HTTP service using the Streamable HTTP transport (the current MCP standard, replacing the deprecated SSE transport).

1. Deploy to your VPS

# On your VPS
git clone https://github.com/granitebps/youtube-mcp.git
cd youtube-mcp
npm ci
npm run build

# Create .env (optional, for HTTP mode)
cp .env.example .env
# Uncomment TRANSPORT=http, PORT, HOST as needed

2. Run with HTTP transport

# Using --http flag
node dist/index.js --http

# Or using environment variable
TRANSPORT=http PORT=3000 node dist/index.js

# Or using npm script
npm run start:http

The server will listen on http://0.0.0.0:3000/mcp.

3. Set up Nginx reverse proxy with TLS

server {
    listen 443 ssl;
    server_name mcp.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate     /etc/letsencrypt/live/mcp.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/mcp.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    location /mcp {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000/mcp;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;

        # Required for SSE streaming
        proxy_set_header Connection '';
        proxy_buffering off;
        proxy_cache off;
        chunked_transfer_encoding on;
    }
}

Get a free TLS certificate:

sudo apt install certbot python3-certbot-nginx
sudo certbot --nginx -d mcp.yourdomain.com

4. Keep it running with systemd

Create /etc/systemd/system/youtube-mcp.service:

[Unit]
Description=YouTube MCP Server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=your_user
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/youtube-mcp
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node dist/index.js --http
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
Environment=TRANSPORT=http
Environment=PORT=3000
Environment=HOST=127.0.0.1

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable youtube-mcp
sudo systemctl start youtube-mcp
sudo systemctl status youtube-mcp

5. Connect MCP clients to your VPS

GitHub Copilot (VS Code) — Remote

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": {
      "youtube": {
        "type": "http",
        "url": "https://mcp.yourdomain.com/mcp"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop — Remote

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "type": "streamable-http",
      "url": "https://mcp.yourdomain.com/mcp"
    }
  }
}

---

Usage Examples

Once connected, you can ask your AI agent things like:

• "Get info about this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"
• "Show me the top comments on video ID abc123"
• "Get the transcript of this video in English"
• "Summarize the transcript of https://youtu.be/xyz789"
• "Search for Node.js tutorials uploaded this week, sorted by views"
• "Find the most popular React videos from the last month"

Tool Response Format

All tools return:

• content: short human-readable text for chat-style MCP clients
• structuredContent: JSON-shaped data for agents that need reliable fields

The server is intentionally JSON-first, text-second. Agents should prefer structuredContent when they need to filter, transform, or chain tool results.

Example shape from get_video_info:

{
  "content": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "text": "📹 Example title\n\nChannel: Example channel\n..."
    }
  ],
  "structuredContent": {
    "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
    "title": "Example title",
    "description": "Example description",
    "channelName": "Example channel",
    "channelId": "UC123",
    "uploadedAt": "Sep 14, 2017",
    "duration": "3m 33s",
    "durationSeconds": 213,
    "viewCount": "123456",
    "likeCount": "7890",
    "commentCount": null,
    "tags": ["music", "pop"],
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://..."
  }
}

Values YouTube did not provide are null, never placeholders such as "0", "N/A" or "Unknown".

Errors

Failures return isError: true. The text starts with a code (❌ [ACCESS_BLOCKED] ...) and _meta["youtube-mcp/error"] carries the details:

{
  "isError": true,
  "content": [{ "type": "text", "text": "❌ [ACCESS_BLOCKED] YouTube requires sign-in to access video C7OQHIpDlvA: Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot" }],
  "_meta": {
    "youtube-mcp/error": {
      "code": "ACCESS_BLOCKED",
      "message": "...",
      "retryable": false,
      "upstream": { "playabilityStatus": "LOGIN_REQUIRED", "reason": "Sign in to confirm you’re not a bot", "accessKind": "login_required" }
    }
  }
}

The error is in _meta, not structuredContent, because MCP SDK clients validate any structuredContent against the tool's output schema, even on error results.

Code	Meaning
INVALID_INPUT	Not a YouTube URL or 11-character video ID, or an invalid language code
ACCESS_BLOCKED	YouTube refused this client: HTTP 429/403, CAPTCHA, consent page, sign-in or bot check. upstream.accessKind is rate_limited, forbidden, login_required or consent_required. Says nothing about whether the video exists or has captions
VIDEO_UNAVAILABLE	YouTube reports the video as ERROR, UNPLAYABLE, private or offline. upstream.reason is YouTube's own text
CAPTIONS_UNAVAILABLE / LANGUAGE_UNAVAILABLE	Used internally; transcript tools return these as available: false results, not errors
COMMENTS_UNAVAILABLE	Comments are disabled or YouTube returned no comments section
PARSE_ERROR	YouTube answered but the response could not be interpreted (layout change, wrong video ID returned)
LIMIT_EXCEEDED	A configured size limit was hit
TIMEOUT	A configured deadline expired; the underlying requests were aborted
CANCELLED	The MCP client cancelled the request, or the server is shutting down
UPSTREAM_ERROR	Other HTTP or network failure (retryable: true)

The server never retries on its own.

Configuration

All settings are optional environment variables. Invalid values stop the server at startup with a message on stderr.

Variable	Default	Effect
YT_INIT_TIMEOUT_MS	15000	Deadline for creating the shared YouTube client
YT_REQUEST_TIMEOUT_MS	20000	Deadline for one tool call's upstream work, including waiting for client init
YT_TRANSCRIPT_MAX_BYTES	5000000	Maximum bytes read from each response fetched for captions
YT_TRANSCRIPT_MAX_SEGMENTS	50000	Maximum caption segments processed from one track
YT_TRANSCRIPT_PAGE_MAX_SEGMENTS	500	Maximum segments returned in one get_video_transcript response

When a deadline expires or the client cancels, the in-flight HTTP requests are aborted, not just abandoned.

Tool Details

search_youtube

• Input: query (search text), maxResults (1-50, default 10), sortBy (relevance | date | viewCount | rating), uploadDate (any | hour | today | week | month | year), videoDuration (any | short | medium | long)
• Returns: Human-readable summary in content plus structured JSON results in structuredContent
• Note: YouTube search only orders by relevance or popularity and only filters uploads from today up. sortBy: "date" keeps relevance order, sortBy: "rating" sorts by popularity, and uploadDate: "hour" is applied as today. Each case adds an entry to the optional warnings array (code, message)

get_video_info

• Input: video (YouTube URL or video ID)
• Returns: Human-readable summary in content plus structured JSON metadata in structuredContent, including durationSeconds. Metadata is returned even when YouTube refuses playback, as long as it provides the video details

get_video_comments

• Input: video (URL or ID), maxResults (1-20, default 20), sortBy (relevance or time), page (default 1)
• Returns: Human-readable summary in content plus structured JSON comment threads, pagination fields, and hasMore in structuredContent
• Note: replies contains only replies YouTube includes with the thread; replyCount is the full count. Fetching the rest would cost one request per thread

get_video_transcript

• Input: video (URL or ID), lang (optional language code; omitted means the first manual track, or the first auto-generated one if there is none), maxSegments (default 0: as many as YT_TRANSCRIPT_PAGE_MAX_SEGMENTS allows), startSegment (default 0)
• Returns: Human-readable transcript in content plus structured JSON segments, plain text, and pagination metadata in structuredContent. Continue with startSegment = nextStartSegment and the returned languageCode as lang while hasMore is true. isAutoGenerated tells whether the track is YouTube's automatic captions
• No captions: available: false with reason: "NO_CAPTIONS", or reason: "LANGUAGE_UNAVAILABLE" plus availableLanguages. Access problems are errors, never available: false
• Note: When a language has both manual and automatic tracks, the manual track is returned
• Note: Does NOT require an API key — works via YouTube's internal caption system. A transcript is caption text only; it is not an analysis of the video's picture

get_transcript_languages

• Input: video (YouTube URL or video ID)
• Returns: Human-readable language list in content plus structured JSON language metadata in structuredContent. available: false means the video is playable and has no caption tracks; access problems are errors

Development

npm test        # builds, then runs the offline test suite (no network access)
npm run check   # tests plus release metadata, package contents, and tarball install checks

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Release verification

The automated suite covers input parsing, configuration, error classification, cancellation, the compiled stdio entry point, release metadata, and installation from an npm tarball. It never calls YouTube. Live YouTube checks are manual and separate from CI.

Maintainers follow the release guide for the approved-tag npm, MCP Registry, and GitHub release process.

Rate Limits

This server uses YouTube's InnerTube API (the same API used by youtube.com). There are no official API quotas, but:

• Heavy automated usage may trigger CAPTCHAs or temporary blocks
• Use responsibly — add delays between bulk requests if needed
• All tools are free with no API key required

License

ISC. This project is unofficial and is not affiliated with YouTube or Google.