yt-dlp-mcp

An MCP server implementation that integrates with yt-dlp, providing video and audio content download capabilities from YouTube and other platforms for LLMs.

Features

• Video Download: Save videos to your specified folder with quality control
• Audio Download: Extract and save audio in various formats (mp3, m4a, ogg, opus)
• Video Information: Get metadata about videos without downloading
• Privacy-Focused: Direct download without tracking
• MCP Integration: Works with Claude Desktop and other MCP-compatible LLMs
• Flexible Output: Customizable output paths and file formats

Installation

Prerequisites

Install yt-dlp based on your operating system:

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp

# Linux
pip install yt-dlp

With Claude Desktop

1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration file:

   • macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add the MCP server configuration:

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

3. Save the file and restart Claude Desktop

Tool Documentation

• get_video_info

  • Get video metadata without downloading (title, duration, uploader, available formats)
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video

• download_video

  • Download video or extract audio to specified location with quality control
  • Inputs:
    • url (string, required): URL of the video
    • quality_preference (string, optional): Video quality preference
    • video_container_preference (string, optional): Preferred video format
    • audio_container_preference (string, optional): Preferred audio format (mp3, m4a, ogg, opus)
    • output_path (string, optional): Custom output path with filename template
    • extract_audio_only (boolean, optional): Extract audio only. Defaults to false

Usage Examples

Ask your LLM to:

"Get information about this video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download this YouTube video: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Extract audio from this video in mp3 format: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Download video with custom quality settings: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."
"Save this video to a specific folder: https://youtube.com/watch?v=..."

Manual Start

If needed, start the server manually:

npx @gtvar/yt-dlp-mcp

Environment Variables

• YTDLP_PATH - Path to yt-dlp executable (default: 'yt-dlp')
• YTDL_OUTPUT_DIR - Default output directory (default: '/tmp')
• FFMPEG_PATH - Path to ffmpeg executable (optional)

Requirements

• Node.js 20+
• yt-dlp in system PATH
• MCP-compatible LLM service (Claude Desktop, etc.)
• Optional: ffmpeg for additional format support

License

MIT

Author

gtvar