@tekmidian/scribe

Scribe — YouTube transcript extraction for Claude

Scribe is an MCP server that extracts transcripts and captions from YouTube videos, giving Claude the ability to read, summarize, and analyze video content without watching it.

Scribe speaks directly to YouTube's Innertube API using an Android client context — no API keys, no third-party services, no credentials to manage. It bypasses EU/GDPR consent gates automatically, handles both manual and auto-generated captions, and outputs transcripts in plain text, SRT subtitle format, or structured JSON with millisecond-accurate timing data.

How It Works

Claude (AI client)
       |
       | MCP (stdio)
       v
  scribe-mcp server
       |
       |-- 1. Fetch youtube.com watch page (extract embedded JSON + cookies)
       |-- 2. POST /youtubei/v1/get_transcript (Android client context)
       |-- 3. Parse transcript segment list from API response
       |
       v
  Transcript returned to Claude
  (text / SRT / JSON with timing)

The server runs as a local process. Claude connects over stdio via the MCP protocol. No data leaves your machine except the requests to YouTube's own endpoints.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Claude Desktop or Claude Code
• Node.js 18+ or Bun 1.0+

Install with Claude Code

Tell Claude:

"Install the scribe MCP server from github.com/mnott/Scribe"

Claude will clone the repo, build it, and add it to your MCP config.

Or use the CLI directly:

claude mcp add scribe-mcp -- npx -y @tekmidian/scribe

Manual install (Claude Desktop)

Add the following to your claude_desktop_config.json:

macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scribe": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scribe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Or with Bun:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scribe": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["scribe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/mnott/Scribe
cd Scribe
bun install
bun run build

Then point your MCP config at the built binary:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scribe": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/Scribe/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Tools at a Glance

Tool	What it does
youtube_transcribe	Fetch the transcript for a YouTube video in text, SRT, or JSON format
youtube_list_languages	List every caption language available for a video

User Guide

Scribe gives Claude the ability to read YouTube videos as text. Just describe what you want in plain language.

Get a transcript

Transcribe this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Get the transcript of this talk: https://youtu.be/abc123xyz11

Can you read this video for me? https://youtube.com/shorts/def456uvw22

Change the language

Get me the German transcript of this lecture: [url]

I need the Spanish subtitles for this video: [url]

Transcribe this video in French

Discover available languages

What languages are available for this video? [url]

Does this talk have Japanese captions?

Choose an output format

Give me the SRT subtitles for this video: [url]

Return the transcript as JSON with timing data: [url]

Get the transcript with timestamps included: [url]

Ask Claude to analyze the content

Summarize this YouTube video: [url]

Extract the key points from this lecture: [url]

What are the main arguments made in this talk? [url]

Find every mention of "machine learning" in this video and the timestamp it appears: [url]

Translate the transcript of this video into English: [url]

MCP Tool Reference

youtube_transcribe

Fetches captions for a YouTube video and returns them in the requested format.

Supports youtube.com/watch, youtu.be, youtube.com/shorts, youtube.com/embed, and bare 11-character video IDs.

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	string	yes	—	YouTube video URL or bare video ID
language	string	no	en	BCP-47 language code (en, de, fr, ja, …)
format	string	no	text	Output format: text, srt, or json
timestamps	boolean	no	false	Prepend [MM:SS] timestamps to each line (text format only)

Output formats

• text — Clean continuous prose. Add timestamps: true for [MM:SS] prefixes on each segment.
• srt — Standard SubRip format, ready to use as a subtitle file.
• json — Array of objects with text, startMs, and durationMs fields for precise timing.

Response includes a metadata header:

Video ID: dQw4w9WgXcQ
Language: en (auto-generated)
Format: text

[transcript body follows]

youtube_list_languages

Lists every caption track available for a video, distinguishing manual captions from auto-generated ones.

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
url	string	yes	YouTube video URL or bare video ID

Example output:

Available languages for dQw4w9WgXcQ:

- en: English (manual)
- de: German (auto-generated)
- fr: French (auto-generated)
- ja: Japanese (auto-generated)

Configuration

Scribe has no configuration file. All behavior is controlled by parameters passed per-request. The server runs on stdio and exits when the client disconnects.

npx (Node.js):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scribe": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "scribe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

bunx (Bun):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scribe": {
      "command": "bunx",
      "args": ["scribe-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

Local build:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scribe": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/Scribe/dist/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Troubleshooting

"This video does not have captions available"

The video creator has disabled captions, and YouTube has not generated automatic captions for it. This is common for very new uploads (auto-captions can take hours), music videos, videos with no speech, or videos where the creator has explicitly disabled the feature. Nothing can be done — there are no captions to extract.

"Language not available — supported: en, de, fr"

The language code you requested does not have a caption track. Use youtube_list_languages first to see what is available, then retry with a supported code.

Geo-restricted content

If a video is only available in certain countries, Scribe may receive a VIDEO_NOT_AVAILABLE or similar playability error from YouTube. The server reports this clearly. There is no workaround — the restriction is enforced by YouTube's servers, not by Scribe.

Age-restricted content

Age-restricted videos require a logged-in session to view. Scribe does not support authenticated sessions. Age-restricted videos will fail with a playability status error. Transcript extraction is not possible for these videos without a cookie-based session, which Scribe intentionally does not implement.

Rate limiting / HTTP 429

If you transcribe many videos in rapid succession, YouTube may temporarily throttle requests. Wait a few minutes before retrying. Scribe does not implement retry logic or backoff — this is left to the caller.

Requirements

• Node.js 18 or later (for npx usage), or Bun 1.0 or later (for bunx usage)
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP-aware host)
• Internet access to reach youtube.com and www.youtube.com/youtubei/v1/

No API keys. No accounts. No external dependencies beyond the MCP SDK and Zod.

Coming soon

• Vimeo transcript extraction
• Direct audio/video file transcription
• Podcast RSS feed support
• SoundCloud track transcription

License

MIT

Author

Matthias Nott — github.com/mnott