youtube-summarize
MCP server that fetches YouTube video transcripts and optionally summarizes them.
Features
- Fetch transcripts in multiple formats (text, JSON, SRT, WebVTT, pretty-print)
- Summarize videos — returns transcript with instructions for the LLM to produce a summary
- 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.
| 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 |
summarize_transcript
Fetch a transcript and return it with summarization instructions for the LLM client.
| 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 |
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
mcp-name: io.github.zlatkoc/youtube-summarize