mcptube 0.1.1

Convert any YouTube video into an AI-queryable MCP server

🎬 mcptube

Convert any YouTube video into an AI-queryable MCP server.

YouTube URL in → searchable library → ask your AI anything about any video.

mcptube extracts transcripts, metadata, and frames from YouTube videos, indexes them into a local vector database, and exposes everything as MCP tools — queryable by Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code Copilot, Cursor, Gemini, and any MCP-compatible client.

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✨ Features

• Semantic search across video transcripts (single video or entire library)
• Frame extraction at any timestamp or by natural language query
• Auto-classification with LLM-generated tags
• Illustrated reports — single-video or cross-video, markdown or HTML
• Video discovery — search YouTube by topic, filter and cluster results
• Cross-video synthesis — themes, agreements, and contradictions across videos
• Dual interface — full CLI + MCP server
• Passthrough LLM — MCP tools require zero API keys; the client LLM does the reasoning
• BYOK — CLI mode supports 100+ LLM providers via LiteLLM
• Smart video resolver — reference videos by ID, index, or title substring

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📋 Prerequisites

• Python 3.12+
• ffmpeg — required for frame extraction

  # macOS
  brew install ffmpeg
  
  # Ubuntu/Debian
  sudo apt install ffmpeg
  
  # Windows
  winget install ffmpeg
  

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🚀 Installation

pip install mcptube

From source (development)

git clone https://github.com/0xchamin/mcptube.git
cd mcptube
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

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⚡ Quick Start

CLI

# Add a video
mcptube add "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ"

# List your library
mcptube list

# Search across all videos
mcptube search "machine learning basics"

# Extract a frame
mcptube frame 1 120.5

# Start the MCP server
mcptube serve

MCP Server

# Streamable HTTP (default) — works with Claude Code, ChatGPT
mcptube serve

# stdio — works with VS Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor
mcptube serve --stdio

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🔧 CLI Commands

Command	Description
mcptube add <url>	Ingest a YouTube video
mcptube list	List all videos in the library
mcptube info <query>	Show video details (ID, index, or text)
mcptube remove <query>	Remove a video from the library
mcptube search <query>	Semantic search across transcripts
mcptube frame <video> <timestamp>	Extract a frame at a timestamp
mcptube frame-query <video> <text>	Search transcript + extract frame
mcptube classify <video>	Auto-classify with LLM tags (BYOK)
mcptube report <video>	Generate an illustrated report (BYOK)
mcptube report-query <query>	Cross-video report from search (BYOK)
mcptube discover <topic>	Search YouTube + cluster results (BYOK)
mcptube synthesize-cmd <topic> -v <id>	Cross-video synthesis (BYOK)
mcptube serve	Start MCP server (Streamable HTTP)
mcptube serve --stdio	Start MCP server (stdio)

Smart Video Resolver

Commands that take a <video> or <query> argument accept:

Input	Resolution
BpibZSMGtdY	Exact YouTube video ID
1	Index number from mcptube list
"prompting"	Substring match on title or channel

Search Options

# Search all videos
mcptube search "attention mechanism"

# Search within a specific video
mcptube search "attention" --video "prompting"

# Limit results
mcptube search "attention" --limit 5

Report Options

# Full report for a video
mcptube report "prompting" --format html --output report.html

# Focused report
mcptube report "prompting" --focus "reasoning strategies" --output focused.html

# Cross-video report from search
mcptube report-query "prompt engineering" --format html --output multi.html

# Cross-video synthesis
mcptube synthesize-cmd "prompting" -v BpibZSMGtdY -v UPGB-hsAoVY --output synthesis.html

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🤖 MCP Tools (13 tools)

All MCP tools use the passthrough pattern — no API key required on the server. The connected AI client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot) provides the LLM reasoning.

Tool	Description
add_video(url)	Ingest a YouTube video
remove_video(video_id)	Remove from library
list_videos()	List all videos with metadata
get_info(video_id)	Full video details with transcript
search(query, video_id?, limit)	Semantic search (single or all videos)
search_library(query, tags?, limit)	Cross-library search with tag filter
get_frame(video_id, timestamp)	Extract frame at timestamp
get_frame_by_query(video_id, query)	Search + extract frame
classify_video(video_id)	Return metadata for client classification
generate_report(video_id, query?)	Return data for client report generation
generate_report_from_query(query, tags?)	Cross-video report data
discover_videos(topic)	YouTube search results
synthesize(video_ids, topic)	Cross-video synthesis data

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🔌 MCP Client Configuration

Claude Code

# Streamable HTTP (recommended)
claude mcp add --transport http --scope global mcptube http://127.0.0.1:9093/mcp

Note: Use --scope global to make mcptube available in all projects. Without it, the server is scoped to the directory where you ran the command.

Then start the server in a separate terminal:

mcptube serve

VS Code / Copilot Chat

Add to .vscode/mcp.json in your workspace:

{
  "servers": {
    "mcptube": {
      "command": "mcptube",
      "args": ["serve", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Note: If VS Code can't find mcptube, use the full path to the executable:

"command": "/path/to/your/.venv/bin/mcptube"

Or if installed globally via pip, the command should work as-is.

Claude Desktop

Add to claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcptube": {
      "command": "mcptube",
      "args": ["serve", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcptube": {
      "command": "mcptube",
      "args": ["serve", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

ChatGPT

Settings → Connectors → Add → http://localhost:9093/mcp

Gemini CLI

Add to settings.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcptube": {
      "command": "mcptube",
      "args": ["serve", "--stdio"]
    }
  }
}

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🔑 BYOK — Bring Your Own Key (CLI Mode)

CLI commands that use LLM features (classify, report, discover, synthesize) require an API key via environment variables:

# Anthropic (Claude)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."

# OpenAI
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."

# Google (Gemini)
export GOOGLE_API_KEY="AI..."

mcptube auto-detects which key is available. Set a default model:

export MCPTUBE_DEFAULT_MODEL="anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"

Security: Never pass API keys as CLI flags. Always use environment variables.

MCP mode does not need any API key — the connected AI client provides the LLM.

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⚙️ Configuration

All settings can be overridden via MCPTUBE_-prefixed environment variables:

Variable	Default	Description
MCPTUBE_DATA_DIR	~/.mcptube	Root directory for all data
MCPTUBE_HOST	127.0.0.1	Server bind host
MCPTUBE_PORT	9093	Server bind port
MCPTUBE_DEFAULT_MODEL	gpt-4o	Default LLM model for CLI

Server Options

mcptube serve                              # Streamable HTTP on 127.0.0.1:9093
mcptube serve --stdio                      # stdio transport
mcptube serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080   # Custom host/port
mcptube serve --reload                     # Dev mode with hot-reload

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🏗️ Architecture

CLI (Typer)  ←──────┐
                     ├── Service Layer (McpTubeService)
MCP Server (FastMCP) ←─┘        │
                           ┌────┴────┐
                     Repository    VectorStore
                     (SQLite)      (ChromaDB)
                           │
                     Ingestion Layer
                     ├── YouTubeExtractor (yt-dlp)
                     ├── FrameExtractor (yt-dlp + ffmpeg)
                     ├── LLMClient (LiteLLM — CLI only)
                     ├── ReportBuilder (CLI only)
                     └── VideoDiscovery (CLI only)

LLM Strategy

Mode	LLM	Cost
CLI	LiteLLM (BYOK)	User's API key
MCP	Client LLM (passthrough)	Free — client provides reasoning

Storage

Component	Per video (~40 min)	100 videos
SQLite (metadata + transcript)	~200-500 KB	~50 MB
ChromaDB (384-dim vectors)	~1.5-2 MB	~200 MB
Total		~250 MB

ChromaDB downloads the all-MiniLM-L6-v2 embedding model (~80 MB) on first use. This is a one-time download cached at ~/.cache/chroma/.

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🛠️ Tech Stack

• FastMCP 3.0 — MCP server framework (Streamable HTTP + stdio)
• yt-dlp — YouTube extraction (transcripts, metadata, search)
• ffmpeg — On-demand frame extraction
• ChromaDB — Local vector database with built-in embeddings
• LiteLLM — Unified LLM interface (100+ providers)
• Typer — CLI framework
• Pydantic — Data models and settings
• SQLite — Library metadata storage

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🧪 Development

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run tests
pytest

# Run with coverage
pytest --cov=mcptube --cov-report=html

# Lint
ruff check src/

# Format
ruff format src/

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📦 Project Structure

mcptube/
├── src/mcptube/
│   ├── __init__.py
│   ├── cli.py              # Typer CLI
│   ├── server.py           # FastMCP MCP server
│   ├── service.py          # Core business logic
│   ├── models.py           # Pydantic domain models
│   ├── config.py           # Settings (pydantic-settings)
│   ├── llm.py              # LiteLLM wrapper (BYOK)
│   ├── report.py           # ReportBuilder
│   ├── discovery.py        # VideoDiscovery
│   ├── ingestion/
│   │   ├── __init__.py
│   │   ├── youtube.py      # YouTubeExtractor
│   │   └── frames.py       # FrameExtractor
│   └── storage/
│       ├── __init__.py
│       ├── repository.py   # Abstract VideoRepository
│       ├── sqlite.py       # SQLiteVideoRepository
│       └── vectorstore.py  # VectorStore + ChromaVectorStore
├── tests/
├── pyproject.toml
└── README.md

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🗺️ Roadmap

• MVP — 13 MCP tools, CLI, semantic search, frames, reports
• MCP Apps — Interactive HTML UIs inline in chat
• Playlist / channel import
• Speaker diarization
• OCR on frames
• Auto-chaptering
• Multi-language transcripts
• SaaS tier (OAuth, pgvector, team libraries)

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📄 License

MIT

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