Recapfy MCP

An MCP server that exposes Recapfy's paid endpoints as tools — ask anything about a YouTube video and fetch a video's full transcript — straight from an MCP-capable agent like Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Cline. It runs locally — there's no hosted Recapfy MCP endpoint; you launch your own copy.

Each call is paid in USDC on Solana (dynamic price, scales with maxOutputTokens), settled automatically via the x402 protocol. You bring your own wallet; you pay only for what you call.

📦 npm: recapfy-mcp

Prerequisites

• Node.js ≥ 20.
• A Solana wallet funded with USDC on mainnet. You do not need SOL for fees — the API's facilitator sponsors the network fee.
• That wallet's secret key, base58-encoded (the 64-byte form that Phantom's "Export Private Key" gives you, or solana-keygen).

⚠️ The key signs real payments. Use a dedicated low-balance wallet, never share it, and never commit it.

Install

No clone or build needed. Add this to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop: claude_desktop_config.json) and restart the client:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "recapfy": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "recapfy-mcp@latest"],
      "env": {
        "SVM_PRIVATE_KEY": "<your base58 Solana secret key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Always use recapfy-mcp@latest. A bare npx -y recapfy-mcp reuses whatever is in npx's cache and never re-checks the registry, so you can stay pinned to an old build (and miss new tools) indefinitely. The @latest tag forces npx to resolve the newest published version on every launch.

Updating

New versions (including new tools/endpoints) are picked up automatically when two things happen, because of two independent caches:

1. npx package cache — using recapfy-mcp@latest (as above) makes npx fetch the newest published version each launch. Without @latest, npx serves the cached copy and you stay on an old build.
2. MCP client tool list — clients read the server's tool list once per session. New tools only appear after you fully restart the MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, …) so it relaunches the server and re-reads the tools.

So after a release: keep @latest and restart your client. If a brand-new tool still doesn't show up, force a clean fetch:

npx clear-npx-cache    # or: rm -rf "$(npm config get cache)/_npx"

then restart the client again.

Configuration

Variable	Required	Description
SVM_PRIVATE_KEY	yes	Base58-encoded Solana secret key. Pays per call. Keep it funded.
RECAPFY_API_BASE_URL	no	Override the API base URL (defaults to https://api.recapfy.ai). For local dev.
RECAPFY_ALLOW_INSECURE_TLS	no	Set to 1 to accept self-signed TLS (local dev over https only).

Tool: ask

Input	Type	Required	Description
videoUrl	string	yes	Absolute http(s) URL of the YouTube video.
prompt	string	yes	What to ask about the video.
maxOutputTokens	integer	no	Max tokens in the answer (default 1024). Drives the dynamic price.

Returns the agent's answer as text. Payment is settled before the answer returns. The per-call price is dynamic: the API quotes the USDC amount in the 402 challenge based on maxOutputTokens, and your wallet pays whatever is quoted — so keep maxOutputTokens sensible.

Tool: get_transcript

Input	Type	Required	Description
videoUrl	string	yes	Absolute http(s) URL of the YouTube video.

Returns the video's full transcript as timestamped segments, plus its title, channelName, and durationSeconds. The text content is a readable, timestamped transcript; the structured content carries the raw transcript array (each segment is { timestampInSeconds, text }). The per-call price is flat USDC, quoted in the 402 challenge and paid automatically.

How payment works

Built on the official Coinbase x402 v2 client packages (@x402/fetch, @x402/svm, @x402/core) plus @solana/kit for signing:

1. The tool POSTs to the matching endpoint under ${RECAPFY_API_BASE_URL} (/api/v1/agents/ask or /api/v1/agents/get-transcript).
2. The API replies 402 with requirements in the PAYMENT-REQUIRED header (exact SVM scheme, USDC, dynamic amount, and a facilitator feePayer that sponsors the network fee).
3. The wrapped fetch signs a gasless SPL-token transfer with your wallet and retries with the PAYMENT-SIGNATURE header.
4. The API verifies, settles, and returns the answer plus a PAYMENT-RESPONSE settlement header.

Verify it works

Inspect the tools without spending anything using the MCP Inspector (it only signs a payment when you actually invoke a tool, so any key is fine just to browse):

SVM_PRIVATE_KEY=<key> npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector npx -y recapfy-mcp@latest

Open the printed URL → Tools → ask / get_transcript. Invoking a tool with a funded wallet performs a real paid call; verify the spend on a Solana explorer.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause / fix
Missing required environment variable ...	SVM_PRIVATE_KEY not set.
SVM_PRIVATE_KEY is not valid base58	Needs base58 of the 64-byte secret key.
400 ... maxOutputTokens must be greater than 0	Pass a positive maxOutputTokens (the tool defaults to 1024).
400 ... prompt	prompt is required and non-empty.
New tool/endpoint missing after an update	Pin recapfy-mcp@latest, restart the client, then clear the npx cache (see Updating).
402 loop / "Failed to create payment payload"	Wallet has no USDC on mainnet, or wrong network. Fund it.
TLS error against a local API over https	Set RECAPFY_ALLOW_INSECURE_TLS=1 (localhost dev only).

License

MIT