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.

Website: zubeidhendricks.github.io/youtube-mcp-server

Available Tools

The server currently exposes 10 MCP tools.

Tool Parameters

#### videos_getVideo

• videoId (string): The YouTube video ID.
• parts (string[], optional): Specific video resource parts to retrieve.

#### videos_searchVideos

• query (string): Search query.
• maxResults (number, optional): Maximum number of results to return.
• order (string, optional): Result ordering such as relevance or date.
• publishedAfter (string, optional): Only include videos published after this ISO 8601 date.
• publishedBefore (string, optional): Only include videos published before this ISO 8601 date.
• channelId (string, optional): Restrict results to a specific channel.
• uniqueChannels (boolean, optional): Return only one video per unique channel.
• channelMinSubscribers / channelMaxSubscribers (number, optional): Filter matched videos by the subscriber band of their channel.
• channelLastUploadAfter / channelLastUploadBefore (string, optional): Filter matched videos by the latest upload activity of their channel.
• creatorOnly (boolean, optional): Restrict results to channels heuristically classified as creators.
• sortBy (string, optional): Supports relevance, subscribers_asc, subscribers_desc, indie_priority, and recent_activity.

#### transcripts_getTranscript

• videoId (string): The YouTube video ID.
• language (string, optional): Transcript language code. Falls back to YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_LANG or en.

#### channels_getChannel

• channelId (string): The YouTube channel ID.

Responses now include:

• latestVideoPublishedAt
• normalizedMetadata
• includes country, defaultLanguage, joinedAt, customUrl, emailsFound, contactLinks, and creator-vs-brand heuristic fields

#### channels_getChannels

• channelIds (string[]): A list of YouTube channel IDs.
• includeLatestUpload (boolean, optional): Whether to include latestVideoPublishedAt. Defaults to true.

#### channels_searchChannels

• query (string): Channel search query or handle.
• maxResults (number, optional): Maximum number of channels to return.
• order (string, optional): Result ordering such as relevance.
• channelType (string, optional): Restrict the search to a channel type.
• minSubscribers / maxSubscribers (number, optional): Filter channels by subscriber band.
• lastUploadAfter / lastUploadBefore (string, optional): Filter channels by latest upload activity.
• creatorOnly (boolean, optional): Restrict results to channels heuristically classified as creators.
• sortBy (string, optional): Supports relevance, subscribers_asc, subscribers_desc, indie_priority, and recent_activity.

#### channels_findCreators

• query (string): Topic, game, or mention query to discover channels from matched videos.
• videoPublishedAfter / videoPublishedBefore (string, optional): Recency filters for the matched videos.
• channelMinSubscribers / channelMaxSubscribers (number, optional): Subscriber band filters for returned channels.
• channelLastUploadAfter / channelLastUploadBefore (string, optional): Latest-upload activity filters for returned channels.
• creatorOnly (boolean, optional): Restrict results to channels heuristically classified as creators.
• sortBy (string, optional): Supports relevance, subscribers_asc, subscribers_desc, indie_priority, and recent_activity.
• sampleVideosPerChannel (number, optional): How many matched videos to include per returned channel.

#### channels_listVideos

• channelId (string): The YouTube channel ID.
• maxResults (number, optional): Maximum number of videos to return.

#### playlists_getPlaylist

• playlistId (string): The YouTube playlist ID.

#### playlists_getPlaylistItems

• playlistId (string): The YouTube playlist ID.
• maxResults (number, optional): Maximum number of playlist items to return.

Installation

Quick Setup for Claude Desktop

1. Install the package:

npm install -g zubeid-youtube-mcp-server

1. 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": {
    "zubeid-youtube-mcp-server": {
      "command": "zubeid-youtube-mcp-server",
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "your_primary_youtube_api_key",
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY2": "your_secondary_youtube_api_key",
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY3": "your_tertiary_youtube_api_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternative: Using NPX (No Installation Required)

Add this to your Claude Desktop configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "zubeid-youtube-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "your_primary_youtube_api_key",
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY2": "your_secondary_youtube_api_key",
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY3": "your_tertiary_youtube_api_key"
      }
    }
  }
}

Installing via Smithery

To install YouTube MCP Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @ZubeidHendricks/youtube --client claude

Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

• YOUTUBE_API_KEY: Primary YouTube Data API key
• YOUTUBE_API_KEY2: Secondary fallback API key
• YOUTUBE_API_KEY3: Third fallback API key
• YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_LANG: Default language for transcripts (optional, defaults to 'en')

At least one of YOUTUBE_API_KEY, YOUTUBE_API_KEY2, or YOUTUBE_API_KEY3 must be set. When a request fails because a key has exhausted its quota, the server retries the same request with the next configured key.

Using with VS Code

For one-click installation, click one of the install buttons below:

Manual Installation