What is Yt Dlp Mcp

yt-dlp-mcp is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that integrates with yt-dlp to provide video and audio content download capabilities for Large Language Models (LLMs). It allows users to download content from platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok.

Use cases

Use cases for yt-dlp-mcp include retrieving subtitles for videos, downloading educational content for offline use, extracting audio for podcasts, and enabling LLMs to access multimedia content for enhanced interactions.

How to use

To use yt-dlp-mcp, first install yt-dlp according to your operating system. Then, add the MCP server configuration in the Dive Desktop application. You can interact with the server by sending commands to download videos, audio, or subtitles from specified URLs.

Key features

Key features include downloading subtitles in SRT format, video and audio downloads with resolution control, privacy-focused direct downloads without tracking, and integration with MCP-compatible LLMs.

Where to use

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yt-dlp-mcp

An MCP server implementation that integrates with yt-dlp, providing video and audio content download capabilities (e.g. YouTube, Facebook, Tiktok, etc.) for LLMs.

Features

• Subtitles: Download subtitles in SRT format for LLMs to read
• Video Download: Save videos to your Downloads folder with resolution control
• Audio Download: Save audios to your Downloads folder
• Privacy-Focused: Direct download without tracking
• MCP Integration: Works with Dive and other MCP-compatible LLMs

Installation

Prerequisites

Install yt-dlp based on your operating system:

# Windows
winget install yt-dlp

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp

# Linux
pip install yt-dlp

With Dive Desktop

1. Click “+ Add MCP Server” in Dive Desktop
2. Copy and paste this configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "yt-dlp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

3. Click “Save” to install the MCP server

Tool Documentation

• list_subtitle_languages

  • List all available subtitle languages and their formats for a video (including auto-generated captions)
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video

• download_video_subtitles

  • Download video subtitles in any available format. Supports both regular and auto-generated subtitles
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video
    • language (string, optional): Language code (e.g., ‘en’, ‘zh-Hant’, ‘ja’). Defaults to ‘en’

• download_video

  • Download video to user’s Downloads folder
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video
    • resolution (string, optional): Video resolution (‘480p’, ‘720p’, ‘1080p’, ‘best’). Defaults to ‘720p’

• download_audio

  • Download audio in best available quality (usually m4a/mp3 format) to user’s Downloads folder
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video

• download_transcript

  • Download and clean video subtitles to produce a plain text transcript without timestamps or formatting
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video
    • language (string, optional): Language code (e.g., ‘en’, ‘zh-Hant’, ‘ja’). Defaults to ‘en’

Usage Examples

Ask your LLM to:

"List available subtitles for this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download a video from facebook: https://facebook.com/..."
"Download Chinese subtitles from this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download this video in 1080p: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download audio from this YouTube video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Get a clean transcript of this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download Spanish transcript from this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."

Manual Start

If needed, start the server manually:

npx @kevinwatt/yt-dlp-mcp

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• yt-dlp in system PATH
• MCP-compatible LLM service

Documentation

• API Reference
• Configuration
• Error Handling
• Contributing

License

MIT

Author

Dewei Yen