youtube-music-mcp

An MCP server for managing YouTube Music playlists via Claude. Add and remove songs, create playlists, and ask Claude to suggest music — all through conversation. Changes sync to YouTube Music and show up on your phone, CarPlay, or wherever you listen.

What it does

Exposes 9 tools to Claude:

Tool	Description
list_playlists	List all your YouTube Music playlists
get_playlist_items	Get all songs in a playlist
create_playlist	Create a new playlist
update_playlist	Rename or update a playlist's description
delete_playlist	Delete a playlist
search_songs	Search YouTube for songs — returns up to 5 results to confirm before adding
add_song_to_playlist	Add a confirmed song by video ID
remove_song_from_playlist	Remove a song from a playlist
refresh_playlists	Force a full sync from YouTube (useful after changes made on another device)

All playlist operations accept "liked" as a shorthand for your Liked Music playlist.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• A Google Cloud project with the YouTube Data API v3 enabled
• OAuth 2.0 credentials (Desktop app type)

Setting up Google credentials

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project (or select an existing one)
3. Enable the YouTube Data API v3 under APIs & Services > Library
4. Go to APIs & Services > Credentials and click Create Credentials > OAuth client ID
5. Choose Desktop app as the application type
6. Note the Client ID and Client Secret

Setup

git clone https://github.com/dustinbarnes/youtube-music-mcp
cd youtube-music-mcp
npm install
npm run build

Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-music": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/youtube-music-mcp/dist/main.js"],
      "env": {
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id",
        "GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add youtube-music \
  --env GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID=your-client-id \
  --env GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET=your-client-secret \
  -- node /path/to/youtube-music-mcp/dist/main.js

First run

The first time the server starts, it will open your browser to complete Google sign-in. After you approve access, tokens are saved to ~/.config/youtube-music-mcp/credentials.json and reused automatically.

Never commit credentials.json or cache.db to version control. Both are in .gitignore but worth knowing about.

Usage examples

Once connected, talk to Claude naturally:

• "What playlists do I have?"
• "Add something chill and acoustic to my Evening playlist"
• "Search for Phoebe Bridgers Garden Song"
• "Create a new playlist called Road Trip and make it private"
• "Remove the second song from my Workout playlist"
• "Sync my playlists — I added some songs on my phone"

Claude uses search_songs to find candidates and presents them to you before adding anything. You confirm the right version before it goes into the playlist.

Local data

The server keeps a SQLite cache at ~/.config/youtube-music-mcp/cache.db to reduce YouTube API quota usage (default: 10,000 units/day). Playlist contents update automatically when you make changes through Claude. Search results are cached for one hour. Use refresh_playlists to pull in changes made from other devices or apps.

Development

npm test          # run unit tests
npm run typecheck # type check without building
npm run build     # compile to dist/

Contributing

Pull requests welcome. All contributions require review. Please include tests for new behavior and clear commit messages.

License

MIT