hackerdogs/youtube-mcp repository overview

⁠

⁠Youtube MCP Server

MCP server wrapper for YouTube MCP Server⁠ — YouTube video search, metadata retrieval, and content interaction via an MCP-native server.

⁠What is YouTube MCP Server?

The YouTube MCP Server provides AI assistants with the ability to search for YouTube videos, retrieve video metadata (title, description, view count, duration, channel info), and interact with YouTube content programmatically through the YouTube Data API. It is useful for content research, trend analysis, and integrating YouTube data into AI-driven workflows. See ZubeidHendricks/youtube-mcp-server⁠ for full documentation. A YouTube Data API key may be required depending on the operations performed.

⁠Tools Reference

⁠Example Prompts

Here are example prompts you can use with Claude (or any MCP client) when this tool is connected:

• "Use the YouTube MCP server to search for the top 5 videos about 'prompt injection attacks'."
• "Get the metadata for this YouTube video URL — title, channel, view count, and duration."
• "Search YouTube for recent tutorials on Claude MCP and return the top results with descriptions."
• "Use the YouTube tool to find videos published this week about zero-day vulnerabilities."
• "Retrieve the video description and tags for this YouTube link so I can summarize the content."
• "Search YouTube for conference talks from DEF CON 2024 and list the titles and URLs."

⁠Deploy

⁠Docker Compose (recommended)

docker-compose up -d

⁠Docker Run (stdio mode)

docker run -i --rm hackerdogs/youtube-mcp:latest

⁠Docker Run (HTTP streamable mode)

docker run -d -p 8462:8462 \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
  -e MCP_PORT=8462 \
  hackerdogs/youtube-mcp:latest

⁠MCP Client Configuration

⁠Stdio mode (default)

Add to your Claude Desktop or Cursor MCP config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "MCP_TRANSPORT", "hackerdogs/youtube-mcp:latest"],
      "env": {
        "MCP_TRANSPORT": "stdio"
      }
    }
  }
}

⁠HTTP mode (streamable-http)

First, start the server using Docker Compose or docker run with HTTP mode (see Deploy⁠ above), then point your MCP client at the running server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-mcp": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8462/mcp"
    }
  }
}

⁠Environment Variables

⁠Installing in Hackerdogs

The fastest way to get started is through Hackerdogs⁠:

1. Log in to your Hackerdogs account.
2. Go to the Tools Catalog.
3. Search for the tool by name (e.g. "nuclei", "naabu", "julius").
4. Expand the tool card and click Install — you're ready to go.

1. Vendor API key required? Add your key in the config environment variable field before clicking Install. Your key will be encrypted at rest.
2. Enable / Disable the tool anytime from the Enabled Tools page.
3. Need to update a key or parameter? Go to My Tools → toggle Show Decrypted Values → edit → Save.

⁠Build

docker build -t hackerdogs/youtube-mcp:latest .

⁠Testing

⁠Automated tests

./test.sh

⁠Test directly with Docker

1. Start the server in HTTP mode:

docker run -d --rm --name youtube-mcp-test -p 8462:8462 \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT=streamable-http \
  hackerdogs/youtube-mcp:latest

2. Initialize the MCP session:

SESSION_ID=$(curl -s -D - -X POST http://localhost:8462/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"initialize","params":{"protocolVersion":"2024-11-05","capabilities":{},"clientInfo":{"name":"test","version":"0.1"}}}' \
  2>&1 | grep -i mcp-session-id | awk '{print $2}' | tr -d '\r\n')

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8462/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "mcp-session-id: $SESSION_ID" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"notifications/initialized"}'

3. Call a tool:

curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8462/mcp \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \
  -H "mcp-session-id: $SESSION_ID" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"run_youtube","arguments":{"arguments":"--help"}}}'

4. Clean up:

docker stop youtube-mcp-test

⁠Running the tool directly (bypassing MCP)

You can run the Youtube CLI in the same container by overriding the entrypoint without starting the MCP server.

Show help:

docker run -i --rm --entrypoint youtube hackerdogs/youtube-mcp:latest --help