YouTube Summarizer Server

An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that fetches YouTube video transcripts and exposes them to AI agents as tools, resources, and prompts.

Works with any MCP client — OpenWork, Claude Desktop, or any custom MCP host.

Features

Tools (callable by agents)

Tool	Description
get_youtube_transcript(video_url)	Full plain-text transcript
search_transcript(video_url, keyword)	Case-insensitive search, returns matching lines with timestamps
get_timestamped_transcript(video_url)	Every line prefixed with [MM:SS] — ideal for citing moments

Resources (readable by agents)

URI	Description
youtube://transcript/{video_id}	Full plain text
youtube://transcript/{video_id}/segments	Timestamped segments
youtube://transcript/{video_id}/stats	Word count, duration, estimated reading time

Prompt

• summarize_video(video_url, format_style) — generates a prompt template that asks the LLM to summarize a video. The LLM can read the transcript resource and return a summary in the requested format (default: bullet points).

Usage

Run directly

uv run --directory /path/to/yt-summarizer python3 summarizer.py

Or with the fastmcp CLI:

uv run --directory /path/to/yt-summarizer fastmcp run summarizer.py

Connect from Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yt-summarizer": {
      "command": "/path/to/uv",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--directory",
        "/path/to/yt-summarizer",
        "python3",
        "summarizer.py"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Connect from OpenWork

Add to opencode.jsonc:

{
  "mcp": {
    "youtube-summarizer": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["uv", "run", "--directory", "/path/to/yt-summarizer", "python3", "summarizer.py"],
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Example

An agent can fetch and summarize a video in one interaction:

1. Agent reads youtube://transcript/dQw4w9WgXcQ/stats — sees "1250 words, 5 min duration"
2. Agent calls get_youtube_transcript("https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ") — gets the full text
3. Agent calls search_transcript("https://youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ", "important topic") — finds relevant parts with timestamps
4. Agent uses the summarize_video prompt template to format the final summary

Supported URL formats

• https://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
• https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID
• https://youtube.com/shorts/VIDEO_ID
• https://youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID
• https://youtube.com/v/VIDEO_ID

Requirements

• Python 3.10+
• fastmcp — MCP server framework
• youtube-transcript-api — fetches YouTube transcripts

Project structure

yt-summarizer/
├── summarizer.py          # Main MCP server
├── yt-summarizer.py       # Original minimal version
├── yt-summarizer1.py      # Older version with logging
├── pyproject.toml         # Dependencies
├── plan.txt               # Dev notes
└── README.md