mcp_ytb_server (Video Pipeline MCP)

A Go-based MCP (stdio) server that provides a video processing pipeline: download (yt-dlp), trim/merge/encode (ffmpeg), subtitles (yt-dlp / whisper), effects, and export.

Repo: https://github.com/j4flmao/mcp_ytb_server

Requirements

• yt-dlp (required)
• ffmpeg + ffprobe (required)
• whisper / whisper.cpp (optional; only needed if you use Whisper subtitle generation tools)

Installation

Option 1: Run via npx (recommended; no Go required)

This repo includes an npm wrapper in npm/ so end users only need Node.js + npx.

Claude Desktop config (Windows example):

• Config file path: %APPDATA%\\Claude\\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-ytb-server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@mcp_ytb/mcp_ytb_server"]
    }
  }
}

Optional configuration (manual):

• In Claude Desktop, you can add an env object under mcp-ytb-server to set defaults (for example output dir, default quality, cookies).
• In prompts, you can also override per call (for example “save to D:\Videos” or “use cookies file …”).

For npx publishing, place binaries at:

• npm/bin/windows-amd64/video-mcp.exe
• npm/bin/linux-amd64/video-mcp
• npm/bin/darwin-amd64/video-mcp
• npm/bin/darwin-arm64/video-mcp

Option 2: Use a prebuilt binary (advanced)

• Download the correct binary for your OS from GitHub Releases and place it in a stable path.

Option 3: Build from source (advanced; requires Go)

cd D:\mcp_ytb_server
go test ./...
go build -o .\video-mcp.exe .

Claude Desktop Configuration

Config file (Windows):

• %APPDATA%\\Claude\\claude_desktop_config.json

Example config using the .exe binary (optional):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-ytb-server": {
      "command": "D:\\\\mcp_ytb_server\\\\video-mcp.exe",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop (fully quit and reopen) after updating the config.

Environment Variables

• VIDEO_MCP_OUTPUT_DIR: default output directory (optional)
• VIDEO_MCP_TEMP_DIR: temp directory (optional)
• VIDEO_MCP_YTDLP_PATH: path to yt-dlp (default: yt-dlp)
• VIDEO_MCP_FFMPEG_PATH: path to ffmpeg (default: ffmpeg)
• VIDEO_MCP_FFPROBE_PATH: path to ffprobe (default: ffprobe)
• VIDEO_MCP_QUALITY: default download quality (default: best)
• VIDEO_MCP_COOKIE_BROWSER: browser for yt-dlp browser-cookie extraction (e.g. chrome, firefox, none)
• VIDEO_MCP_COOKIE_FILE: path to cookies.txt (Netscape format); takes priority over browser cookies

Cookies (YouTube login / age-gate)

There are two options:

• Set VIDEO_MCP_COOKIE_FILE so all requests use cookies.txt by default (optional).
• In your prompt, explicitly specify the cookie file path; the download_video tool supports cookie_file (optional, per call).

Prompt Samples

See PROMPTS.md for copy/paste prompts to test.

Main Tools

• download_video: download video/audio from a URL (yt-dlp)
• get_video_info: fetch metadata from a URL
• download_subtitles, list_subtitles: subtitles via yt-dlp
• trim_video, cut_and_keep, merge_clips, split_video
• mute_audio, replace_audio, normalize_audio
• add_fade, add_watermark, blur_region, zoom_effect, color_grade
• export_video, generate_thumbnail, get_file_info

Quick Troubleshooting

• Windows Media Player can't play the file: you may be hitting codec issues (AV1/VP9/HEVC). Use export_video to re-encode to MP4 H.264/AAC.
• Login/age-gated video: configure cookies (see Cookies section).
• Claude doesn't see updated tools: fully quit Claude Desktop (system tray) and reopen.