`yt_video_transcript`

Pack: youtube · Connect: https://pipeworx.io/mcp (see Connect below for a single-pack URL)

No MCP client? Call it directly: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/yt_video_transcript for the schema, then POST the same URL with its arguments for the data.

Get the transcript (captions) of a YouTube video: timestamped segments plus the joined text, the caption language, and whether the track is auto-generated. No API key needed. Use it to summarize, quote or search what is said in a video. Long videos are paged: pass the returned next_start_seconds as start_seconds to continue. A video with no captions returns a captions_unavailable error, never an empty transcript.

Parameters

Name	Type	Required	Description
`video_id`	string	yes	YouTube video ID (e.g. “dQw4w9WgXcQ”) or a full youtube.com / youtu.be URL
`lang`	string	no	Caption language code (e.g. “en”, “fr”, “pt-BR”). “en” also matches “en-US”. Default: the video’s default caption track. If the video has no track in this language the error lists the ones it has.
`start_seconds`	number	no	Skip segments that start before this many seconds (for paging through long videos). Default 0.
`max_chars`	number	no	Stop after this many characters of transcript text (default ${TRANSCRIPT_MAX_CHARS_DEFAULT}, max ${TRANSCRIPT_MAX_CHARS_CAP}).

Example call

Arguments

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
}

curl

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/youtube/mcp \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"yt_video_transcript","arguments":{"video_id":"dQw4w9WgXcQ"}}}'

TypeScript (@pipeworx/sdk)

import { Pipeworx } from '@pipeworx/sdk';
const pipeworx = new Pipeworx();

const result = await pipeworx.call('yt_video_transcript', {
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ"
});

More examples

{
  "video_id": "https://youtu.be/lMpwZ23hlxI",
  "max_chars": 2000
}

{
  "video_id": "dQw4w9WgXcQ",
  "lang": "de"
}

Connect

Add this to your MCP client config — every tool in the catalog, including this one — or use one-click install buttons:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Connect to just the youtube pack

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/youtube/mcp"
    }
  }
}

See Getting Started for client-specific install steps.

yt_video_transcript