youtube-summarize

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)
• 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