YouTube MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server implementation utilizing the YouTube Data API. It allows AI language models to interact with YouTube content through a standardized interface.

Key Features

Video Information

• Retrieve detailed video information (title, description, duration, statistics)
• Search for videos by keywords
• Get related videos based on a specific video
• Calculate and analyze video engagement ratios

Transcript/Caption Management

• Retrieve video captions with multi-language support
• Specify language preferences for transcripts
• Access time-stamped captions for precise content reference

Channel Analysis

• View detailed channel statistics (subscribers, views, video count)
• Get top-performing videos from a channel
• Analyze channel growth and engagement metrics

Trend Analysis

• View trending videos by region and category
• Compare performance metrics across multiple videos
• Discover popular content in specific categories

Available Tools

The server provides the following MCP tools:

Installation

Automatic Installation via Smithery

Automatically install YouTube MCP Server for Claude Desktop via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @icraft2170/youtube-data-mcp-server --client claude

Manual Installation

# Install from npm
npm install youtube-data-mcp-server

# Or clone repository
git clone https://github.com/icraft2170/youtube-data-mcp-server.git
cd youtube-data-mcp-server
npm install

Environment Configuration

Set the following environment variables:

• YOUTUBE_API_KEY: YouTube Data API key (required)
• YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_LANG: Default caption language (optional, default: ‘ko’)

MCP Client Configuration

Add the following to your Claude Desktop configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "youtube-data-mcp-server"],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY_HERE",
        "YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_LANG": "ko"
      }
    }
  }
}

YouTube API Setup

1. Access Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select an existing one
3. Enable YouTube Data API v3
4. Create API credentials (API key)
5. Use the generated API key in your environment configuration

Development

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Run in development mode
npm run dev

# Build
npm run build

Network Configuration

The server exposes the following ports for communication:

• HTTP: 3000
• gRPC: 3001

System Requirements

• Node.js 18.0.0 or higher

Security Considerations

• Always keep your API key secure and never commit it to version control systems
• Manage your API key through environment variables or configuration files
• Set usage limits for your API key to prevent unauthorized use

License

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