youtube-summarize

youtube-summarize

MCP server that fetches YouTube video transcripts and optionally summarizes them.

!Demo — summarizing a YouTube video in Claude

Features

• Fetch transcripts in multiple formats (text, JSON, SRT, WebVTT, pretty-print)
• Video metadata — title, description, channel, upload date, duration, views, chapters (via yt-dlp)
• Optional timestamps in plain-text transcripts
• Summarize videos — returns transcript with the prompt clearly broken out for human review before the LLM acts on it
• List playlist videos — fast enumeration of any public playlist with optional sorting
• Search videos — clean ranked results with sort and filter options, without the ads, Shorts shelves, and personalized recommendations of the YouTube website
• List available languages for any video's transcripts
• Flexible URL parsing — accepts full YouTube URLs (youtube.com/watch?v=, youtu.be/, youtube.com/embed/, youtube.com/shorts/) or bare video IDs
• Multi-language support — request transcripts in specific languages with fallback priority

Tools

get_transcript

Fetch a YouTube video's transcript. By default the response is prefixed with a [METADATA] block (title, channel, published, duration, views, description); pass include_metadata=false for transcript-only output.

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | url | string | required | YouTube video URL or video ID | | languages | string[] | ["en"] | Preferred languages in priority order | | format | string | "text" | Output format: text, json, pretty, webvtt, srt | | preserve_formatting | boolean | false | Keep HTML formatting tags in the transcript | | include_timestamps | boolean | false | When true with format="text", prefix each line with [HH:MM:SS]. Ignored for other formats (they already include timestamps). | | include_metadata | boolean | true | Prepend a [METADATA] block before the transcript. Pass false for transcript-only output. |

summarize_transcript

Fetch a transcript and return it with summarization instructions. The response is structured into clearly-labeled sections ([INSTRUCTIONS], [PROMPT_SOURCE], [VIDEO], [METADATA], [TRANSCRIPT]) so a human can review the prompt before letting the LLM act on it.

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | url | string | required | YouTube video URL or video ID | | prompt | string | (default prompt) | Custom summarization instructions | | languages | string[] | ["en"] | Preferred languages in priority order | | include_timestamps | boolean | false | Prefix each transcript line with [HH:MM:SS]. | | include_metadata | boolean | true | Include a [VIDEO] block with title, channel, published, duration, views, and description. |

get_video_metadata

Fetch metadata (title, description, channel, upload date, duration, views, tags, chapters, etc.) for a YouTube video. Backed by yt-dlp.

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | url | string | required | YouTube video URL or video ID |

list_playlist_videos

List the videos in a YouTube playlist (title, ID, channel, duration, views, URL). Per-video metadata is intentionally lean so the call stays fast even for large playlists; call get_video_metadata with a specific video ID for full detail.

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | url | string | required | YouTube playlist URL (with ?list=...) or bare playlist ID | | limit | integer | 500 | Maximum videos to return | | sort_by | string | "index" | One of: index (playlist order), title, duration, views. upload_date is not supported. | | order | string | "asc" | asc or desc |

search_videos

Search YouTube for videos and return a clean ranked list (title, ID, channel, duration, views, URL) — only actual videos, with no ads, recommendation shelves, or personalization. Relevance ordering still comes from YouTube's backend. Pair with get_transcript or summarize_transcript on a result's ID or URL.

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | query | string | required | Search terms | | limit | integer | 10 | Maximum results to return | | sort_by | string | "relevance" | One of: relevance, date (newest first), views, rating | | uploaded | string | "any" | Filter by upload time: any, hour, today, week, month, year | | duration | string | "any" | Filter by length: any, short (<4 min), medium (4–20 min), long (>20 min) |

list_transcripts

List available transcript languages for a video.

| Parameter | Type | Default | Description | |-----------|------|---------|-------------| | url | string | required | YouTube video URL or video ID |

Installation

Quick start (recommended)

uvx youtube-summarize

Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-summarize": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["youtube-summarize"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add youtube-summarize -- uvx youtube-summarize

Other MCP clients

Run the server over stdio:

uvx youtube-summarize

Prerequisites

• Python 3.13+
• uv package manager

Development

# Install dependencies
uv sync

# Launch the MCP inspector (web UI for testing tools)
uv run mcp dev main.py

License

MIT

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mcp-name: io.github.zlatkoc/youtube-summarize