Illyt

MCP Python License

"Download Stranger album by Yung Lean" — that's it. Say it to your AI assistant and the music appears on your disk, tagged and ready for iTunes.

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI assistants download music from YouTube with correct metadata, album art, and track numbering. Works with GitHub Copilot, Claude Desktop, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client.

Why?

Most YouTube-to-MP3 tools give you badly named files with no metadata. illyt-mcp does the full pipeline: searches YouTube, pulls metadata from iTunes/Deezer, embeds hi-res album art, and names files properly — all through natural language via your AI assistant.

Tools

Tool	What it does
download_song	Search by song title (+ optional artist), download with iTunes/Deezer metadata and album art
download_album	Search by album name, download all tracks with track numbers, metadata, and cover art
download_youtube	Download audio from a YouTube video or playlist URL

Quick Start

Requires Python 3.10+ and ffmpeg.

git clone https://github.com/frostymate/illyt-mcp.git
cd illyt-mcp
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

VS Code / GitHub Copilot

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "illyt-downloader": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "${workspaceFolder}/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["${workspaceFolder}/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "illyt-downloader": {
      "command": "/path/to/illyt-mcp/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/path/to/illyt-mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to MCP settings in Cursor preferences with the same command/args as above.

Usage Examples

Just ask your AI assistant in natural language:

• "Download Stranger album by Yung Lean"
• "Download Kyoto by Yung Lean in flac"
• "Download this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=..."
• "Get me the album Unknown Memory by Yung Lean in 320kbps"

Downloads are saved to ./downloads/ by default. Set the ILLYT_DOWNLOAD_ROOT environment variable to change the location.

Features

• Smart metadata — iTunes + Deezer lookup with artist verification to reject cover albums
• YouTube Music fallback — finds albums on YouTube when they're missing from iTunes/Deezer
• Album art — hi-res cover art downloaded, square-cropped, and embedded in every file
• Track ordering — filenames prefixed with track numbers (01 - Artist - Title.mp3)
• Multiple formats — mp3, m4a, flac, opus, and wav
• Skip duplicates — already-downloaded files are not re-downloaded
• Age-restricted support — works with YouTube cookies for restricted content

Configuration

Environment Variable	Default	Description
ILLYT_DOWNLOAD_ROOT	./downloads	Where downloaded files are saved
COOKIES_FILE	./cookies.txt	Path to YouTube cookies file for age-restricted videos

Related

• illyt — Full web app with Spotify integration, YouTube search UI, and download manager