Transcriptor MCP

An MCP server (stdio + HTTP/SSE) that fetches video transcripts/subtitles via yt-dlp, with pagination for large responses. Supports YouTube, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Vimeo, Facebook, Bilibili, VK, Dailymotion. Whisper fallback — transcribes audio when subtitles are unavailable (local or OpenAI API). Works with Cursor and other MCP hosts.

GitHub · Issues · Docker Hub

Overview

The repository may be cloned or named locally (e.g. yt-captions-downloader); the npm package and Docker images are published under the name transcriptor-mcp.

This repository primarily ships an MCP server:

• stdio: for local usage (e.g., Cursor running a local command).
• HTTP/SSE: for remote usage (e.g., VPS + Tailscale).

It also includes an optional REST API (Fastify), but MCP is the primary focus.

Features

• Transcripts + raw subtitles: cleaned text or raw SRT/VTT.
• Language support: official subtitles with auto-generated fallback.
• Video metadata: extended info (title, channel, tags, thumbnails, etc.) and chapter markers.
• Pagination: safe for large transcripts.
• Whisper fallback: when subtitles are unavailable, transcribes video audio via Whisper (local self-hosted or OpenAI API).
• Docker-first: ready for local + remote deployment.
• Production-friendly HTTP: optional auth + allowlists (see CHANGELOG.md).
• Optional Redis cache: cache subtitles and metadata to reduce yt-dlp calls (see Caching).
• Prometheus: metrics for API and MCP, list of failed subtitle extractions (see Monitoring).

Example usage (screenshot)

Below is a real-world example of the same “summarize YouTube video” task without MCP vs with MCP:

MCP quick start (recommended)

Docker Hub (stdio)

• Image: artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp:latest

Run locally (stdio mode):

docker run --rm -i artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp:latest

Cursor MCP configuration (Docker)

Add to Cursor MCP settings (or create .cursor/mcp.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "transcriptor": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

Remote MCP over HTTP/SSE (VPS + Tailscale)

Run the HTTP/SSE MCP server on your VPS (default port 4200) using docker-compose:

cp docker-compose.example.yml docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d transcriptor-mcp

Claude Code (HTTP / streamable HTTP):

claude mcp add --transport http transcriptor http://<tailscale-host>:4200/mcp

Cursor (SSE):

• Add a new MCP server of type SSE with URL http://<tailscale-host>:4200/sse

If you set MCP_AUTH_TOKEN, add Authorization: Bearer <token> in the client headers.

For more MCP configuration examples, see docs/quick-start.mcp.md.

n8n MCP Client (streamable HTTP):

• Use the MCP Server URL http://<host>:4200/mcp (streamable HTTP transport).
• If n8n runs behind a reverse proxy that sets X-Forwarded-For, set N8N_PROXY_HOPS to the number of proxy hops (commonly 1) to avoid ERR_ERL_UNEXPECTED_X_FORWARDED_FOR.

MCP tools

• get_transcript: cleaned plain text subtitles (URL only; first chunk, default size)
• get_raw_subtitles: raw SRT/VTT (paginated)
• get_available_subtitles: list official vs auto language codes
• get_video_info: extended metadata (title, channel, tags, thumbnails, views, etc.)
• get_video_chapters: chapter markers with start/end time and title

MCP tool reference

All tools share the same base input:

• url (string, required) – Video URL from a supported platform or YouTube video ID. Supported: YouTube, Twitter/X, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Vimeo, Facebook, Bilibili, VK, Dailymotion.

get_raw_subtitles supports pagination; get_transcript returns the first chunk only (no pagination input). Pagination parameters for get_raw_subtitles:

• response_limit (number, optional) – max characters per response, default 50000, min 1000, max 200000.
• next_cursor (string, optional) – opaque offset returned from the previous page; pass it to fetch the next chunk.

Each tool returns:

• content – human-readable text (for MCP chat UIs).
• structuredContent – strongly typed JSON payload you can consume from automations or code.

get_transcript

Purpose: Fetch cleaned subtitles as plain text (no timestamps, HTML, or speaker metadata).

Input: Only url (video URL or ID). Type and language are auto-discovered; the tool returns the first chunk with default size (no pagination parameters).

Structured response:

• videoId – resolved YouTube ID.
• type, lang – effective subtitle type and language.
• text – current text chunk.
• is_truncated – true if more text is available.
• total_length – total length of the full transcript.
• start_offset, end_offset – character offsets of this chunk.
• next_cursor – present in response when truncated (omitted on the last page). Not accepted as input for this tool.

get_raw_subtitles

Purpose: Fetch raw subtitle file content (SRT or VTT) with pagination support.

Extra input fields:

• type – "official" or "auto", optional.
• lang – subtitle language code, optional.
• response_limit, next_cursor – pagination (optional).

Structured response:

• videoId, type, lang – same semantics as above.
• format – "srt" or "vtt" (auto-detected from content).
• content – raw subtitle text for this page.
• is_truncated, total_length, start_offset, end_offset, next_cursor – same pagination fields as get_transcript.

get_available_subtitles

Purpose: Inspect which languages are available for a video, split into official vs auto-generated tracks.

Input:

• url – YouTube URL or video ID.

Structured response:

• videoId – resolved YouTube ID.
• official – sorted list of language codes with official subtitles.
• auto – sorted list of language codes with auto-generated subtitles.

This is useful to first discover languages and then pick type/lang for get_raw_subtitles (or other tools).

get_video_info

Purpose: Fetch extended metadata about a video (based on yt-dlp JSON output).

Input:

• url – YouTube URL or video ID.

Structured response (key fields):

• videoId – resolved YouTube ID.
• title, description.
• uploader, uploaderId.
• channel, channelId, channelUrl.
• duration – in seconds.
• uploadDate – YYYYMMDD string if available.
• webpageUrl.
• viewCount, likeCount, commentCount.
• tags, categories.
• liveStatus, isLive, wasLive, availability.
• thumbnail – primary thumbnail URL.
• thumbnails – list of thumbnail variants { url, width?, height?, id? }.

See src/mcp-core.ts and src/youtube.ts for the full JSON schema used by the MCP SDK.

get_video_chapters

Purpose: Get chapter markers extracted by yt-dlp.

Input:

• url – YouTube URL or video ID.

Structured response:

• videoId – resolved YouTube ID.
• chapters – array of { startTime: number; endTime: number; title: string }.

If the video has no chapters, chapters is an empty array; if yt-dlp cannot fetch chapter data at all, the tool returns an MCP error instead of structured chapters.

Requirements

• Docker (recommended for production)
• Node.js >= 20.0.0 (for local development)
• yt-dlp (included in Docker image)

REST API (optional)

The repository also ships an HTTP API (Fastify).

Quick Docker usage

• Build the image:

  docker build -t transcriptor-mcp-api -f Dockerfile --target api .

• Run on the default port:

  docker run -p 3000:3000 transcriptor-mcp-api

For a more complete REST quick start (including docker-compose and local Node.js), see docs/quick-start.rest.md.

Swagger / OpenAPI

Once the REST API is running, interactive API docs are available at:

http://localhost:3000/docs

If you change PORT / HOST, adjust the URL accordingly, e.g. http://<HOST>:<PORT>/docs.

Troubleshooting: restricted / sign-in required videos

If yt-dlp is blocked by age gate, sign-in, or region restrictions, you will likely need an authenticated cookies.txt file and the COOKIES_FILE_PATH environment variable.

The root of this repository includes a sample cookies.example.txt showing the expected Netscape cookies format. For a full guide on:

• exporting real cookies
• wiring them into Docker / docker-compose / local Node.js
• and keeping them secure

see docs/cookies.md.

Run in background

docker run -d -p 3000:3000 --name transcriptor transcriptor-mcp-api

E2E smoke tests (REST API + MCP, Docker)

Before publishing Docker images, you can run a small e2e smoke test that:

• Starts a REST API container and checks Swagger + POST /subtitles with a stable YouTube video
• Optionally starts an MCP container and checks MCP stdio (initialize over stdin/stdout), streamable HTTP (POST /mcp with initialize), and SSE (GET /sse)

Run the smoke test (requires built images):

npm run build
docker build -t artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp-api:latest -f Dockerfile --target api .
docker build -t artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp:latest -f Dockerfile --target mcp .
npm run test:e2e:api

Environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
SMOKE_IMAGE_API	—	Full API image reference (overrides name/tag).
DOCKER_API_IMAGE / TAG	artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp-api, latest	API image name and tag.
SMOKE_API_URL / SMOKE_API_PORT	http://127.0.0.1:33000, 33000	API base URL and port.
SMOKE_VIDEO_URL	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ	Video used for /subtitles check.
SMOKE_SKIP_MCP	—	Set to 1 (or true/yes) to skip MCP checks.
SMOKE_MCP_IMAGE	—	Full MCP image reference (overrides name/tag).
DOCKER_MCP_IMAGE / TAG	artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp, latest	MCP image name and tag.
SMOKE_MCP_URL / SMOKE_MCP_PORT	http://127.0.0.1:4200, 4200	MCP base URL and port.
SMOKE_MCP_AUTH_TOKEN	—	If set, passed to MCP container as MCP_AUTH_TOKEN and sent as Bearer in MCP requests.

Example: skip MCP and use a custom video:

SMOKE_SKIP_MCP=1 SMOKE_VIDEO_URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOUR_ID" npm run test:e2e:api

View logs

docker logs -f transcriptor

Stop the container

docker stop transcriptor
docker rm transcriptor

API Documentation

For detailed REST API endpoint documentation (request/response schemas, examples, etc.), use the built-in Swagger UI at:

http://localhost:3000/docs

or see docs/quick-start.rest.md.

MCP Server (stdio)

This project also ships an MCP server over stdio. It reuses the same yt-dlp based extraction and can return full transcript text or raw subtitles. Cursor configuration examples are provided below, but it should work with any MCP host that supports stdio.

Pagination

Tools that return large text accept:

• response_limit (default 50000, min 1000, max 200000)
• next_cursor (string offset from a previous response)

If the response is truncated, the tool returns next_cursor so you can fetch the next chunk.

Local setup

npm install
npm run build
npm run start:mcp

HTTP setup (remote)

npm run build
MCP_PORT=4200 MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 npm run start:mcp:http

Cursor MCP configuration (local)

Create .cursor/mcp.json (or add to your global Cursor MCP settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "transcriptor": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["dist/mcp.js"]
    }
  }
}

Docker setup

Build and run the MCP server in a container (stdio mode):

docker build -f Dockerfile --target mcp -t transcriptor-mcp .
docker run --rm -i transcriptor-mcp

Build and run the MCP server in a container (HTTP mode):

docker build -f Dockerfile --target mcp -t transcriptor-mcp .
docker run -p 4200:4200 -e MCP_PORT=4200 -e MCP_HOST=0.0.0.0 transcriptor-mcp npm run start:mcp:http

Cursor MCP config for Docker:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "transcriptor": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "--rm", "-i", "artsamsonov/transcriptor-mcp:latest"]
    }
  }
}

How It Works

1. The API receives a YouTube URL and parameters (subtitle type and language) from the client
2. Extracts the video ID from the URL
3. Uses yt-dlp to download subtitles with the specified parameters:
   • Single yt-dlp command call with explicit type (--write-subs or --write-auto-subs) and language (--sub-lang)
4. Parses the subtitle file (SRT/VTT) and removes:
   • Timestamps
   • Subtitle numbers
   • HTML tags
   • Formatting
5. Returns clean plain text (for /subtitles) or raw content (for /subtitles/raw)

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js >= 20.0.0
• npm or yarn
• yt-dlp installed and available in PATH

Versioning

The app version is read from package.json at runtime (src/version.ts). When cutting a release, update the version field in package.json, then create a git tag (e.g. v0.4.7). Changelog entries under [Unreleased] should be moved to the new version before tagging.

Scripts

• npm run build - Build the TypeScript project
• npm start - Run the compiled application
• npm run dev - Run with hot reload using ts-node-dev
• npm run start:mcp - Run the MCP server (stdio)
• npm run start:mcp:http - Run the MCP server (HTTP/SSE)
• npm run dev:mcp - Run the MCP server with hot reload
• npm test - Run tests
• npm run test:watch - Run tests in watch mode
• npm run test:coverage - Run tests with coverage report
• npm run lint - Lint the code
• npm run lint:fix - Fix linting errors
• npm run type-check - Type check without building
• npm run format - Format code with Prettier
• npm run format:check - Check code formatting

Project Structure

├── src/
│   ├── index.ts          # Main application entry point
│   ├── mcp.ts            # MCP server entry point (stdio)
│   ├── mcp-core.ts       # MCP tools registration (shared)
│   ├── mcp-http.ts       # MCP server entry point (HTTP/SSE)
│   ├── validation.ts     # Request validation logic
│   └── youtube.ts        # YouTube subtitle downloading and parsing
├── dist/                 # Compiled JavaScript (generated)
├── Dockerfile            # Docker image (API and MCP via --target api/mcp)
├── logo.webp             # Project logo used in README
├── example-usage.webp    # Example usage screenshot used in README
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

Technologies

• TypeScript - Type-safe JavaScript
• Node.js - Runtime environment
• Fastify - Fast and low overhead web framework
• yt-dlp - YouTube content downloader
• Docker - Containerization
• Jest - Testing framework
• ESLint - Code linting
• Prettier - Code formatting

Security

Do not commit or log sensitive values. Use environment variables or a secret manager (e.g. vault, cloud secrets) for:

• WHISPER_API_KEY – required when using Whisper API; never log or expose in client responses.
• CACHE_REDIS_URL – Redis connection string when CACHE_MODE=redis; may contain credentials.
• MCP_AUTH_TOKEN – Bearer token for MCP HTTP; keep it secret.
• COOKIES_FILE_PATH – path to cookies; ensure the file is not committed and has restricted permissions.

See docs/cookies.md for safe handling of cookies.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

Please make sure your code passes all tests and linting checks before submitting.

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 samson-art

See LICENSE file for details.

Support

• Bug reports: GitHub Issues
• Feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Contact: GitHub Profile