@konanx/youtube-mcp

MCP server for working with YouTube channels through YOUTUBE_API_KEY.

Features

• Get all videos published on a channel.
• Return views, likes, and comment counts for videos.
• Return the public transcript for a video when captions are available.
• Build an overview summary for a channel.
• Show top videos by views, likes, or comments.
• Search videos inside a channel by title, description, or tags.

Limitations

• Channel and video data are fetched through YouTube Data API v3.
• Transcripts are not available from YouTube Data API when using only an API key. This server uses a public captions flow, so transcripts are available only for videos with accessible public subtitles.
• Free-text channel lookup uses search.list, which is significantly more expensive in quota than passing a direct channelId or @handle.

Environment Variables

YOUTUBE_API_KEY=your_youtube_data_api_key

Installation

npm install
npm run build

Publishing To npm

The package is already prepared for scoped public publishing.

npm login
npm run pack:check
npm publish --access public

Already configured:

• bin points to dist/index.js
• files publishes only dist and README.md
• prepublishOnly rebuilds the project before publishing
• publishConfig.access is fixed to public

Before publishing, make sure the @konanx scope belongs to your npm account.

Running Locally

YOUTUBE_API_KEY=your_key npm start

MCP Client Setup

A ready-to-use example config is available in mcp.json.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@konanx/youtube-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you prefer installing the package globally first:

npm install -g @konanx/youtube-mcp

Then configure your MCP client like this:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "youtube-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

For local development before publishing, you can still run the built entrypoint directly:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": [
        "/Projects/KonanX/mcp/youtube/dist/index.js"
      ],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_API_KEY": "YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

MCP Tools

youtube_list_channel_videos

Input:

{
  "channel": "@GoogleDevelopers",
  "limit": 100
}

youtube_get_video_stats

Input:

{
  "videoIds": ["dQw4w9WgXcQ"]
}

youtube_get_video_transcript

Input:

{
  "videoId": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}

youtube_get_channel_overview

Input:

{
  "channel": "https://www.youtube.com/@GoogleDevelopers"
}

youtube_find_top_videos

Input:

{
  "channel": "@GoogleDevelopers",
  "sortBy": "views",
  "limit": 10
}

youtube_search_channel_videos

Input:

{
  "channel": "@GoogleDevelopers",
  "query": "gemini",
  "limit": 20
}