youtube

YouTube Research & Transcription

Search YouTube, get video/channel info, and fetch transcripts using YouTube Data API v3.

Features

• 📹 Video details (title, description, stats, publish date)
• 📝 Transcripts with timestamps
• 📺 Channel info and recent videos
• 🔍 Search within YouTube
• 🎬 Playlist info

Setup

1. Install dependencies

MCP Server (primary method):

npm install -g zubeid-youtube-mcp-server

Fallback tool (if MCP fails):

# yt-dlp for transcript extraction
pip install yt-dlp

2. Get YouTube API Key

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create/select a project (e.g., "YouTube Research")
3. Enable the API:
   • Menu → "APIs & Services" → "Library"
   • Search: "YouTube Data API v3"
   • Click "Enable"
4. Create credentials:
   • "APIs & Services" → "Credentials"
   • "Create Credentials" → "API Key"
   • Copy the key
5. Optional - Restrict:
   • Click the created key
   • "API restrictions" → Select only "YouTube Data API v3"
   • Save

3. Configure API Key

Option A: Clawdbot config (recommended) Add to ~/.clawdbot/clawdbot.json:

{
  "skills": {
    "entries": {
      "youtube": {
        "apiKey": "AIzaSy..."
      }
    }
  }
}

Option B: Environment variable

export YOUTUBE_API_KEY="AIzaSy..."

4. Setup MCP Server

The skill will use mcporter to call the YouTube MCP server:

# Build from source (if installed package has issues)
cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server
cd youtube-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

Usage

Search Videos

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  search_videos query="ClawdBot AI" maxResults:5

Returns video IDs, titles, descriptions, channel info.

Get Channel Info

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_info channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA"

List Recent Videos from Channel

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:5

Get Video Details

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  videos_details videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

Get Transcript (Primary)

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  transcripts_getTranscript videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

Get Transcript (Fallback with yt-dlp)

If MCP transcript fails (empty or unavailable), use yt-dlp:

yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --sub-format vtt \
  --output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU"

Then read the .vtt file from /tmp/.

Or get transcript directly:

yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en --print "%(subtitles)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID" 2>&1 | grep -A1000 "WEBVTT"

Common Workflows

1. Find Latest Episode from a Podcast

Example: Lex Fridman Podcast

# Get channel ID (Lex Fridman: UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA)
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:1

Returns most recent video with title, ID, publish date.

2. Get Transcript for Research

# Step 1: Get video ID from search or channel listing
# Step 2: Try MCP transcript first
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  transcripts_getTranscript videoId="VIDEO_ID"

# Step 3: If empty, fallback to yt-dlp
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en \
  --output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

cat /tmp/VIDEO_ID.en.vtt

3. Search for Topics

mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  search_videos query="Laravel AI productivity 2025" maxResults:10

Filter results for relevant channels or dates.

Channel IDs Reference

Keep frequently used channels here for quick access:

• Lex Fridman Podcast: UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA
• Indie Hackers: (add when needed)
• Laravel: (add when needed)

To find a channel ID:

1. Go to channel page
2. View page source
3. Search for "channelId": or "externalId"

Or use search and extract from results.

API Quota Limits

YouTube Data API v3 has daily quotas:

• Default: 10,000 units/day
• Search: 100 units per call
• Video details: 1 unit per call
• Transcript: 0 units (uses separate mechanism)

Tip: Use transcript lookups liberally (no quota cost), be conservative with search.

Troubleshooting

MCP Server Not Working

Symptom: Connection closed or YOUTUBE_API_KEY environment variable is required

Fix: Build from source:

cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server
cd youtube-mcp-server
npm install
npm run build

# Test
YOUTUBE_API_KEY="your_key" node dist/cli.js

Empty Transcripts

Symptom: Transcript returned but content is empty

Cause: Video may not have captions, or MCP can't access them

Fix: Use yt-dlp fallback (see above)

yt-dlp Not Found

pip install --user yt-dlp
# or
pipx install yt-dlp

Security Note

The YouTube API key is safe to use with this MCP server:

• ✅ Key only used to authenticate with official YouTube Data API
• ✅ No third-party servers involved
• ✅ All network calls go to googleapis.com
• ✅ Code reviewed (no data exfiltration)

However:

• 🔒 Keep the key in Clawdbot config (not in code/scripts)
• 🔒 Restrict API key to YouTube Data API v3 only (in Google Cloud Console)
• 🔒 Don't commit the key to git repositories

Examples

Research Podcast for LinkedIn Post Ideas

# 1. Find latest Lex Fridman episode
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  channels_listVideos channelId="UCSHZKyawb77ixDdsGog4iWA" maxResults:1

# 2. Get video details
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  videos_details videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# 3. Get transcript
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  transcripts_getTranscript videoId="Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# If transcript empty, use yt-dlp
yt-dlp --skip-download --write-auto-sub --sub-lang en \
  --output "/tmp/%(id)s.%(ext)s" \
  "https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z-FRe5AKmCU"

# 4. Analyze transcript for interesting topics
# (read /tmp/Z-FRe5AKmCU.en.vtt and extract key themes)

Find Videos About a Trending Topic

# Search for recent videos
mcporter call --stdio "node /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js" \
  search_videos query="ClawdBot security concerns" maxResults:10

# Pick relevant ones, get transcripts
# Analyze sentiment and technical claims

Notes

• MCP server path: /tmp/youtube-mcp-server/dist/cli.js
• Always pass API key via environment: YOUTUBE_API_KEY="key" node ...
• Or set globally in shell/Clawdbot config
• Transcripts may be auto-generated (check accuracy for quotes)
• yt-dlp can also download audio if you need it (--extract-audio --audio-format mp3)