YtMCP MCP Server

YtMCP - YouTube Model Context Protocol Server

YtMCP is a production-grade Model Context Protocol (MCP) server providing comprehensive, read-only access to YouTube data through 16 specialized tools. Designed for both local development (STDIO) and cloud deployment (HTTPS on Render), it combines multiple battle-tested libraries to deliver robust YouTube intelligence for LLM applications.

📋 Table of Contents

• Features
• Quick Start
  • Local Development (STDIO)
  • Production Deployment (Render)
• Tool Categories
• Architecture
• Configuration
  • MCP Clients
  • Environment Variables
• API Reference
• Development
• Deployment Guide
• Security & Compliance
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• License

✨ Features

🔍 **Category A: Core Discovery (5 Tools)**

• search_videos - Basic keyword search with customizable limits
• search_filtered - Advanced search with filters (upload date, duration, sort)
• get_trending_videos - Fetch current trending videos
• find_channels - Search for channels by name or topic
• find_playlists - Discover playlists by keyword

🎥 **Category B: Video Intelligence (5 Tools)**

• get_transcript - Extract time-synced transcripts/subtitles (CRITICAL for content analysis)
• get_video_metadata - Comprehensive video data (views, tags, description, likes, duration)
• get_video_chapters - Extract video chapters/key moments
• get_thumbnail - High-resolution thumbnail URLs (all qualities)
• get_comments - Fetch top comments (rate-limited for safety)

📊 **Category C: Channel & Playlist Forensics (5 Tools)**

• get_channel_videos - List channel videos with sorting (newest, oldest, popular)
• get_channel_shorts - List YouTube Shorts from a channel
• get_channel_streams - List live streams (past and present)
• get_playlist_items - Flatten playlist contents
• get_channel_about - Channel description and statistics

🛠️ **Category D: Utilities (1 Tool)**

• get_audio_stream_url - Get direct audio stream URLs

🚀 Quick Start

Local Development (STDIO)

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.13+
• UV package manager (recommended) or pip

Installation:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/utkarshchaudhary009/ytmcp.git
cd ytmcp

# Install with UV (recommended)
uv sync

# OR install with pip
pip install -e .

Run the server:

# Using UV
uv run ytmcp

# OR using pip
ytmcp

The server will start in STDIO mode, ready to accept MCP client connections.

Production Deployment (Render)

One-Click Deploy:

Manual Deployment:

1. Fork this repository

2. Create a new Web Service on Render:

   • Go to Render Dashboard
   • Click "New +" → "Web Service"
   • Connect your GitHub repository

3. Configure the service:

   Name: ytmcp
   Environment: Python 3
   Build Command: pip install -e .
   Start Command: ytmcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port $PORT
   

4. Set environment variables (optional):

   FASTMCP_LOG_LEVEL=INFO
   

5. Deploy - Render will automatically deploy your MCP server with HTTPS

Your server will be available at: https://ytmcp-<random>.onrender.com

🏗️ Architecture

ytmcp/
├── src/
│   └── ytmcp/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── server.py              # Main FastMCP server with health check
│       ├── middleware/
│       │   ├── __init__.py
│       │   └── rate_limiter.py    # Global rate limiting (0.75s delay)
│       └── tools/
│           ├── __init__.py
│           ├── search.py          # Category A: Search tools
│           ├── video.py           # Category B: Video intelligence
│           ├── channel.py         # Category C: Channel forensics
│           └── utils.py           # Category D: Utilities
├── examples/                      # MCP client configurations
├── research/                      # Library research & feasibility docs
├── render.yaml                    # Render deployment config
├── Procfile