YouTube Transcripts

YouTube Transcript Agent

Turn any YouTube video, playlist, or channel into agent-ready transcript context.

This package provides:

• ytx, a CLI for transcripts, channel jobs, playlist jobs, polling, and ZIP downloads
• a local stdio MCP server for coding agents and desktop assistants
• docs for using the hosted /mcp endpoint and Developer API

Install

Run without installing:

npx youtube-transcript-agent --help

Or install globally:

npm install -g youtube-transcript-agent
ytx --help

Authentication

The CLI reads auth in this order:

1. YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY
2. local config created by ytx auth set-key

Set an API key:

npx youtube-transcript-agent auth set-key <api_key>

Or use environment variables:

export YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY=<api_key>

PowerShell:

$env:YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY="<api_key>"

CLI Usage

Get account credits:

npx youtube-transcript-agent credits

Fetch one transcript:

npx youtube-transcript-agent transcript FOp280ZAxhg --timestamps

Download channel transcripts:

npx youtube-transcript-agent channel download "@mkbhd" --max 25 --wait --output channel.zip

Download playlist transcripts:

npx youtube-transcript-agent playlist download <playlist_url_or_id> --max 25 --wait --output playlist.zip

Poll a job:

npx youtube-transcript-agent jobs status <job_id>

Download a completed job:

npx youtube-transcript-agent jobs download <job_id> --output transcripts.zip

Local MCP

Start the local stdio MCP server:

npx youtube-transcript-agent mcp

This command waits for JSON-RPC messages on stdin. Agent clients should launch it with:

Command: npx
Args: youtube-transcript-agent mcp
Env:
  YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_KEY=<api_key>

Available MCP tools:

• get_transcript
• get_channel_info
• list_channel_videos
• start_channel_job
• start_playlist_job
• get_job_status
• get_download_url

Manual smoke test:

echo '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}' | npx youtube-transcript-agent mcp

Hosted MCP

If your API server is deployed with hosted MCP enabled:

Endpoint: https://api.youtubetranscripts.fbetteo.com/mcp
Auth: Authorization: Bearer <api_key>

List tools:

curl -X POST "https://api.youtubetranscripts.fbetteo.com/mcp" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data-raw '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list","params":{}}'

Call a tool:

curl -X POST "https://api.youtubetranscripts.fbetteo.com/mcp" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <api_key>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data-raw '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"get_transcript","arguments":{"video_url":"FOp280ZAxhg"}}}'

Agent Skill

The repo includes an installable skill template at:

agent-skill/skill.md

For distribution, publish that file as the root skill.md in a separate public skill repo.

Troubleshooting

Advanced API Host Override

Most users do not need to set an API URL. The package defaults to the hosted production API.

Only set a custom base URL for local development, staging, self-hosted deployments, or debugging:

export YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:8000

Or save it in local CLI config:

npx youtube-transcript-agent auth set-key <api_key> --base-url http://127.0.0.1:8000

Troubleshooting

If fetch failed appears and the API logs show nothing, the CLI is not reaching the API host. Check:

echo "$YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_BASE_URL"
echo "$API_BASE_URL"
cat ~/.youtube-transcript-agent/config.json 2>/dev/null

The CLI base URL priority is:

1. YOUTUBE_TRANSCRIPT_API_BASE_URL
2. API_BASE_URL
3. saved local config
4. package default

On Windows PowerShell, quote channel handles:

node cli/dist/cli.js channel download "@mkbhd" --max 2 --wait

PowerShell aliases curl to Invoke-WebRequest; use curl.exe or Invoke-RestMethod.