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

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