MCP Servers

YouTube video search · channels · playlists · comments
_{Scrape YouTube in your MCP clients — no official API key required}

Quick Start · Tools · Client Setup · Examples · FAQ · Report Bug

⚠️ Important Notices

[!IMPORTANT] This project does not use the official YouTube Data API v3. It parses public web pages (ytInitialData). If YouTube changes its page structure, some features may break. Personal, non-commercial use is recommended.

[!WARNING] Excessive requests may get blocked by YouTube. If that happens often, enable the Zyte proxy with the ZYTE_API_KEY environment variable.

✨ Features

| | | | :--- | :--- | | 🔍 Video search | Keyword search with sort, date, and duration filters | | 📺 Video details | Views, likes, duration, and more by ID or URL | | 📡 Channels | Look up channels by ID, @handle, or URL | | 📋 Playlists | Playlist metadata and video lists | | 💬 Comments | Top and recent comments on a video | | 🔌 stdio MCP | Works with Cursor, Claude, Codex, and other local clients | | 🔑 No API key | No Google Cloud API key required |

🚀 Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/iamkw0n/youtube-mcp.git
cd youtube-mcp
npm install
npm run build
npm start

Or run directly with tsx:

npx tsx src/index.ts

🛠 Tools

| Tool | Description | | :--- | :--- | | search_videos | Search videos by keyword | | get_video | Get video details by ID or URL | | get_videos | Batch-fetch multiple videos | | search_channels | Search channels by keyword | | get_channel | Get channel info by ID, @handle, or URL | | get_channel_videos | List recent videos from a channel | | get_playlist | Get playlist metadata | | get_playlist_items | List videos in a playlist | | get_video_comments | Fetch video comments | | api_status | Check scraping and proxy status |

💬 One-Click Install Prompt

Paste this into Cursor, Claude Code, or Codex to ask the agent to install the MCP server:

Clone iamkw0n/youtube-mcp from GitHub and set up the MCP server for me.

🔧 Client Setup

| Client | Config file | stdio | | :--- | :--- | :---: | | Cursor | .cursor/mcp.json | ✅ | | Claude Code | .mcp.json | ✅ | | Claude Desktop | claude_desktop_config.json | ✅ | | Codex | .codex/config.toml | ✅ | | ChatGPT | Connector URL | ❌ |

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp"
    }
  }
}

With Zyte proxy (optional):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp",
      "env": {
        "ZYTE_API_KEY": "${env:ZYTE_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to .mcp.json in your project root:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

CLI:

claude mcp add youtube-mcp -s project -- node /absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js

Claude Desktop

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"],
      "cwd": "/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp"
    }
  }
}

[!WARNING] Claude Desktop does not support ${workspaceFolder}. Use absolute paths.

OpenAI Codex

In .codex/config.toml or ~/.codex/config.toml:

[mcp_servers.youtube-mcp]
command = "node"
args = ["/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js"]
cwd = "/absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp"
enabled = true

CLI:

codex mcp add youtube-mcp -- node /absolute/path/to/youtube-mcp/dist/index.js

Verify in a Codex session with /mcp.

ChatGPT

[!IMPORTANT] ChatGPT connectors only support HTTPS MCP endpoints. This repo is a local stdio server and cannot be connected to ChatGPT directly.

💡 Examples

Search YouTube for TypeScript tutorial videos

Get details for this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Show me the 5 most recent videos from @GoogleDevelopers

What videos are in this playlist? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...

⚙️ How It Works

flowchart LR
    A[MCP Client] -->|stdio| B[youtube-mcp]
    B -->|fetch HTML| C[www.youtube.com]
    B -->|parse| D[ytInitialData]
    B -->|pagination| E[InnerTube continuation]

| Step | Description | | :--- | :--- | | Page fetch | Download public YouTube HTML pages | | Data extraction | Parse ytInitialData and ytInitialPlayerResponse JSON | | Pagination | Load more results via InnerTube continuation tokens |

📄 License

MIT © iamkw0n

_{Built with ❤️ by iamkw0n · Unofficial project, not affiliated with YouTube or Google}