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

Go to Google Cloud Console
Create/select a project (e.g., "YouTube Research")
Enable the API:
- Menu → "APIs & Services" → "Library"
- Search: "YouTube Data API v3"
- Click "Enable"
Create credentials:
- "APIs & Services" → "Credentials"
- "Create Credentials" → "API Key"
- Copy the key
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:

Go to channel page
View page source
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

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
```
)

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YouTube Research & Transcription

Features

Setup

1. Install dependencies

2. Get YouTube API Key

3. Configure API Key

4. Setup MCP Server

Usage

Search Videos

Get Channel Info

List Recent Videos from Channel

Get Video Details

Get Transcript (Primary)

Get Transcript (Fallback with yt-dlp)

Common Workflows

1. Find Latest Episode from a Podcast

2. Get Transcript for Research

Step 3: If empty, fallback to yt-dlp

3. Search for Topics

Channel IDs Reference

API Quota Limits

Troubleshooting

MCP Server Not Working

Test

Empty Transcripts

yt-dlp Not Found

Security Note

Examples

Research Podcast for LinkedIn Post Ideas

2. Get video details

3. Get transcript

If transcript empty, use yt-dlp

4. Analyze transcript for interesting topics

(read /tmp/Z-FRe5AKmCU.en.vtt and extract key themes)

Find Videos About a Trending Topic

Pick relevant ones, get transcripts

Analyze sentiment and technical claims

Notes

Quick Start

Manual Installation

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