YouTube MCP Server

YouTube MCP Server

The YouTube MCP Server bridges the gap between AI assistants and the YouTube platform by providing a ready‑made, protocol‑compliant interface for uploading videos directly from an MCP client such as Claude Desktop. Instead of having to write custom OAuth2 flows, handle multipart uploads, or manage quota limits, developers can issue high‑level commands that encapsulate all of those complexities. This dramatically lowers the barrier to integrating video publishing into AI‑driven workflows, whether for automated content generation, research data dissemination, or interactive storytelling.

At its core, the server exposes a small but powerful set of tools. The primary command accepts a file path, title, description, tags, category, privacy status, and COPPA flag. The server performs a resumable upload to YouTube’s Data API v3, ensuring large files are handled reliably and can be resumed if the connection drops. Complementary utilities such as , , and provide the necessary ancillary functions: monitoring daily quota usage, discovering valid category IDs for a region, and configuring OAuth2 credentials in a single step. These tools collectively give developers full control over the publishing process while abstracting away the intricacies of authentication and API limits.

Real‑world scenarios that benefit from this MCP include automated podcast publishing, where an AI assistant can generate a video summary and immediately upload it; educational platforms that produce lecture videos on demand; or content creators who wish to batch‑publish clips generated by a generative model. Because the server follows MCP conventions, it can be plugged into any workflow that supports tool invocation—be it a conversational AI, a data pipeline orchestrator, or a custom CLI wrapper. The ability to query quota and categories on demand also enables dynamic decision‑making, such as deferring uploads when the remaining quota is low or selecting an appropriate category based on content metadata.

What sets this server apart is its focus on security and developer ergonomics. OAuth2 tokens are stored locally in a protected , eliminating the need to expose secrets at runtime. The built‑in credential configuration tool guides users through the Google Cloud Console steps, reducing setup friction. Additionally, the server defaults to a private upload for safety and automatically handles resumable uploads, which is essential when working with large video files that are common in AI‑generated media. In short, the YouTube MCP Server offers a turnkey solution for integrating video publishing into AI workflows, saving developers time and reducing the risk of misconfigurations.