What is Youtube Translate Mcp

youtube-translate-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server designed to access the YouTube Translate API, enabling users to obtain transcripts, translations, and summaries of YouTube videos.

Use cases

Use cases include generating subtitles for educational videos, translating video content for multilingual audiences, summarizing long video lectures, and searching for specific topics within video content.

How to use

To use youtube-translate-mcp, you can install it via Smithery or manually using Python. After installation, run the server with your YouTube API key, either using standard input/output or via Docker.

Key features

Key features include obtaining transcripts of YouTube videos, translating those transcripts into different languages, generating subtitles in SRT or VTT format, creating summaries of video content, and searching for specific content within videos.

Where to use

youtube-translate-mcp can be used in various fields such as education, content creation, and accessibility, where understanding and translating video content is essential.

YouTube Translate MCP

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for accessing the YouTube Translate API, allowing you to obtain transcripts, translations, and summaries of YouTube videos.

Features

• Get transcripts of YouTube videos
• Translate transcripts to different languages
• Generate subtitles in SRT or VTT format
• Create summaries of video content
• Search for specific content within videos

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install youtube-translate-mcp for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install @brianshin22/youtube-translate-mcp --client claude

Installing Manually

This package requires Python 3.12 or higher:

# Using uv (recommended)
uv pip install youtube-translate-mcp

# Using pip
pip install youtube-translate-mcp

Or install from source:

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/youtube-translate-mcp.git
cd youtube-translate-mcp

# Using uv (recommended)
uv pip install -e .

# Using pip
pip install -e .

Usage

To run the server:

# Using stdio transport (default)
YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY=your_api_key youtube-translate-mcp

# Using SSE transport
YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY=your_api_key youtube-translate-mcp --transport sse --port 8000

Docker

You can also run the server using Docker:

# Build the Docker image
docker build -t youtube-translate-mcp .

# Run with stdio transport
docker run -e YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY=your_api_key youtube-translate-mcp

# Run with SSE transport
docker run -p 8000:8000 -e YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY=your_api_key youtube-translate-mcp --transport sse

Environment Variables

• YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY: Required. Your API key for accessing the YouTube Translate API.

Deployment with Smithery

This package includes a smithery.yaml file for easy deployment with Smithery.

To deploy, set the YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY configuration parameter to your YouTube Translate API key.

Development

Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• Docker (optional)

Setup

# Create and activate a virtual environment using uv (recommended)
uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install dependencies using uv
uv pip install -e .

# Alternatively, with standard tools
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -e .

Testing with Claude Desktop

To test with Claude Desktop (macOS/Windows only), you’ll need to add your server to the Claude Desktop configuration file located at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json.

Method 1: Local Development

Use this method if you want to test your local development version:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-translate": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory",
        "/ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/youtube-translate-mcp",
        "run",
        "-m",
        "youtube_translate_mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Make sure to replace /ABSOLUTE/PATH/TO/youtube-translate-mcp with the actual path to your project directory.

Method 2: Docker-based Testing

If you prefer to test using Docker (recommended for more reproducible testing):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-translate": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "-e",
        "YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY",
        "youtube-translate-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "YOUTUBE_TRANSLATE_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual YouTube Translate API key.

For more information on using MCP servers with Claude Desktop, see the MCP documentation.

Debugging

• The normal MCP Inspector has a built in timeout for MCP tool calls, which is generally too short for these video processing calls (as of March 13, 2025). Better to use Claude Desktop and look at the MCP logs from Claude at ~/Library/Logs/Claude/mcp-server-{asfasf}.log.
• Can do tail -f {log-file}.log to follow as you interact with Claude.

License

MIT