yt-mcp-server

MCP server with various utility functions for dealing with YouTube data. This server provides tools for working with YouTube URLs, video IDs, and thumbnails.

<img src="sample-usage.png" />

📖 Resources

• Model Context Protocol

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12 or higher
• UV package manager

Setup

1. Install UV

If you haven't installed UV yet, you can install it using:

brew install uv
# alternatively curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

2. Installation Methods

Method 1: Install from GitHub (Recommended)

This is the simplest way to install and run the server:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/kdr/yt-mcp-server.git server

Method 2: Local Development Setup

If you want to modify the code locally:

git clone https://github.com/kdr/yt-mcp-server.git
cd yt-mcp-server
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Unix/macOS
# or
.venv\Scripts\activate  # On Windows
uv pip install -e .

3. Configure MCP Client

Add the following configuration to your MCP client settings:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "yt-mcp-server": {
            "command": "uvx",
            "args": [
                "--from",
                "git+https://github.com/kdr/yt-mcp-server.git",
                "server"
            ]
        }
    }
}

For local development (Method 2), use this configuration instead:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "yt-mcp-server": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/PARENT/FOLDER/yt-mcp-server/yt_mcp_server",
                "run",
                "main.py"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Available Tools

The following tools are available to the LLM:

• get_watch_url: Returns the YouTube watch URL for a given video ID, optionally starting at a specific time

  • Parameters:
    • video_id: The YouTube video ID
    • start_time: (Optional) The start time in seconds

• get_thumbnail_url: Returns the thumbnail URL for a given YouTube video ID

  • Parameters:
    • video_id: The YouTube video ID

• get_normalized_url: Normalizes various YouTube URL formats to the canonical watch URL and extracts the video ID

  • Parameters:
    • url: The YouTube URL to normalize