YouTube Summarize

1# youtube-summarize
2 
3MCP server that fetches YouTube video transcripts and optionally summarizes them.
4 
5![Demo — summarizing a YouTube video in Claude](assets/claude-usage-example.gif)
6 
7## Features
8 
9- **Fetch transcripts** in multiple formats (text, JSON, SRT, WebVTT, pretty-print)
10- **Summarize videos** — returns transcript with instructions for the LLM to produce a summary
11- **List available languages** for any video's transcripts
12- **Flexible URL parsing** — accepts full YouTube URLs (`youtube.com/watch?v=`, `youtu.be/`, `youtube.com/embed/`, `youtube.com/shorts/`) or bare video IDs
13- **Multi-language support** — request transcripts in specific languages with fallback priority
14 
15## Tools
16 
17### `get_transcript`
18 
19Fetch a YouTube video's transcript.
20 
21| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
22|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
23| `url` | string | *required* | YouTube video URL or video ID |
24| `languages` | string[] | `["en"]` | Preferred languages in priority order |
25| `format` | string | `"text"` | Output format: `text`, `json`, `pretty`, `webvtt`, `srt` |
26| `preserve_formatting` | boolean | `false` | Keep HTML formatting tags in the transcript |
27 
28### `summarize_transcript`
29 
30Fetch a transcript and return it with summarization instructions for the LLM client.
31 
32| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
33|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
34| `url` | string | *required* | YouTube video URL or video ID |
35| `prompt` | string | *(default prompt)* | Custom summarization instructions |
36| `languages` | string[] | `["en"]` | Preferred languages in priority order |
37 
38### `list_transcripts`
39 
40List available transcript languages for a video.
41 
42| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
43|-----------|------|---------|-------------|
44| `url` | string | *required* | YouTube video URL or video ID |
45 
46## Installation
47 
48### Quick start (recommended)
49 
50```bash
51uvx youtube-summarize
52```
53 
54### Claude Desktop
55 
56Add to your `claude_desktop_config.json`:
57 
58- macOS: `~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json`
59- Windows: `%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json`
60 
61```json
62{
63  "mcpServers": {
64    "youtube-summarize": {
65      "command": "uvx",
66      "args": ["youtube-summarize"]
67    }
68  }
69}
70```
71 
72### Claude Code
73 
74```bash
75claude mcp add youtube-summarize -- uvx youtube-summarize
76```
77 
78### Other MCP clients
79 
80Run the server over stdio:
81 
82```bash
83uvx youtube-summarize
84```
85 
86## Prerequisites
87 
88- Python 3.13+
89- [uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/) package manager
90 
91## Development
92 
93```bash
94# Install dependencies
95uv sync
96 
97# Launch the MCP inspector (web UI for testing tools)
98uv run mcp dev main.py
99```
100 
101## License
102 
103MIT
104 
105---
106 
107mcp-name: io.github.zlatkoc/youtube-summarize
108