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TranscriptFetch MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol server that gives any MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, and others) access to the TranscriptFetch API: fetch YouTube transcripts, search videos, and enumerate channels and playlists.

Runs locally over stdio and calls the TranscriptFetch API with your key. Prefer a hosted, remote server? Point your client at https://transcriptfetch.com/mcp instead (OAuth or API key).

Tools

Tool	What it does
get_transcript	Full transcript for a single video (ID or URL)
search_videos	Search YouTube by keyword
list_channel_videos	List a channel's videos (handle, ID, or URL)
list_playlist_videos	List a playlist's videos (ID or URL)

Each successful fetch costs 1 credit. Get a key (100 free credits) at the dashboard.

Install

No install needed. Run it on demand with npx:

TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY=tf_live_... npx transcriptfetch-mcp

Or install globally:

npm install -g transcriptfetch-mcp

Requires Node 18+.

Run from source

Until the package is on npm, you can run it straight from the repo:

git clone https://github.com/TranscriptFetch/mcp-server
cd mcp-server && npm install && npm run build

Then set your client's command to node with the built entrypoint (see the config below, using "command": "node" and "args": ["/absolute/path/to/mcp-server/dist/index.js"]).

Client configuration

Claude Desktop

Add this to claude_desktop_config.json (Settings then Developer then Edit Config):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "transcriptfetch": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "transcriptfetch-mcp"],
      "env": { "TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY": "tf_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add the same block under mcpServers in your Cursor MCP settings.

Restart the client, and the four tools appear.

Example

Once connected, ask your assistant naturally:

Get the transcript for https://youtu.be/aircAruvnKk and summarize the key points.

Search YouTube for "how transformers work" and list the top 5 videos.

List the latest videos from @lexfridman and pull the transcript of the newest one.

The assistant picks the matching tool and works from the returned transcript or video list.

Configuration

Env var	Required	Default
TRANSCRIPTFETCH_API_KEY	yes	none
TRANSCRIPTFETCH_BASE_URL	no	https://transcriptfetch.com

Links

• API docs: https://transcriptfetch.com/docs
• MCP docs: https://transcriptfetch.com/docs/mcp
• Node SDK: https://github.com/TranscriptFetch/node-sdk
• Python SDK: https://github.com/TranscriptFetch/python-sdk

License

MIT