Video Transcriber MCP 🚀

High-performance video transcription MCP server using whisper.cpp (Rust)

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that transcribes videos from 1000+ platforms using whisper.cpp. Built with Rust for maximum performance and efficiency.

📦 Installation

Homebrew (macOS/Linux) - Recommended

The easiest way to install with all dependencies:

brew install nhatvu148/tap/video-transcriber-mcp

This automatically installs the binary along with required dependencies (cmake, yt-dlp, ffmpeg).

Cargo Install

If you have Rust installed:

cargo install video-transcriber-mcp

Note: You'll need to manually install dependencies: yt-dlp, ffmpeg, cmake

Pre-built Binaries

Download from GitHub Releases:

# macOS (Intel)
curl -L https://github.com/nhatvu148/video-transcriber-mcp-rs/releases/latest/download/video-transcriber-mcp-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv video-transcriber-mcp /usr/local/bin/

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -L https://github.com/nhatvu148/video-transcriber-mcp-rs/releases/latest/download/video-transcriber-mcp-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv video-transcriber-mcp /usr/local/bin/

# Linux (x86_64) — no ARM64 Linux build, see issue #13; use `cargo install`
curl -L https://github.com/nhatvu148/video-transcriber-mcp-rs/releases/latest/download/video-transcriber-mcp-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz | tar xz
sudo mv video-transcriber-mcp /usr/local/bin/

# Windows: Download .zip from releases page

Note: You'll need to manually install dependencies: yt-dlp, ffmpeg

Claude Code plugin

Installs the MCP server and a /transcribe skill in one step:

/plugin marketplace add nhatvu148/video-transcriber-mcp-rs
/plugin install video-transcriber@nhatvu148-tools

The plugin registers the MCP server for you, but it does not install the binary — run one of the install commands above first, so video-transcriber-mcp is on your PATH.

🎯 Why Rust?

This version uses whisper.cpp (C++ implementation with Rust bindings) instead of Python's OpenAI Whisper:

Advantage	whisper.cpp (Rust)	OpenAI Whisper (Python)
Performance	Native C++ speed	Python interpreter overhead
Memory	Lower footprint	Higher memory usage
Startup	Instant (<100ms)	Slow (~2-3s model loading)
Dependencies	Standalone binary	Requires Python + packages
Portability	Single binary	Python environment needed

Real-world performance depends on your hardware, video length, and chosen model.

✨ Features

• 🚀 High performance transcription using whisper.cpp (C++ with Rust bindings)
• 🎥 Download from 1000+ platforms (YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Twitter, etc.)
• 📂 Transcribe local video files (mp4, avi, mov, mkv, etc.)
• 🎤 100% offline transcription (privacy-first)
• 🎛️ 5 model sizes (tiny, base, small, medium, large)
• 🌐 90+ languages supported
• 📝 Multiple output formats (TXT, JSON, Markdown)
• 🔌 MCP integration for Claude Code
• 🌐 Dual transport - stdio (local) and Streamable HTTP (remote)
• ⚡ Native binary - no Python or Node.js required
• 💾 Low memory footprint compared to Python implementations

⚡ Quick Start (Using Taskfile)

The fastest way to get started:

# 1. Install Task (if not already installed)
brew install go-task/tap/go-task

# 2. Complete setup (build + download model)
task setup

# 3. Run a quick test
task test:quick

# Done! 🎉

Available Commands:

task setup           # Complete project setup
task test:quick      # Test with short video
task benchmark       # Run performance benchmark
task deps:check      # Check dependencies
task download:base   # Download base model
task help            # Show all commands

See Taskfile.yml for all available tasks.

---

🌐 Transport Modes

The server supports two transport modes:

Stdio Transport (Default)

Standard I/O transport for local CLI usage with Claude Code. This is the default mode.

video-transcriber-mcp
# or explicitly:
video-transcriber-mcp --transport stdio

Streamable HTTP Transport

HTTP transport for remote access. Allows the MCP server to be accessed over the network.

# Start HTTP server on default port (8080)
video-transcriber-mcp --transport http

# Custom host and port
video-transcriber-mcp --transport http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 3000

Remote MCP Client Configuration:

For HTTP transport, configure your MCP client with the URL:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "video-transcriber-mcp": {
      "url": "http://localhost:8080/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Benefits of HTTP Transport:

• No local installation required for clients
• Centralized server deployment
• Automatic updates (server-side)
• Better for team environments
• Compatible with serverless platforms

CLI Options

video-transcriber-mcp --help

Options:
  -t, --transport <TRANSPORT>  Transport mode [default: stdio] [possible values: stdio, http]
      --host <HOST>            Host address for HTTP transport [default: 127.0.0.1]
  -p, --port <PORT>            Port for HTTP transport [default: 8080]
  -h, --help                   Print help
  -V, --version                Print version

---

📦 Manual Build from Source

Prerequisites

1. Rust (1.85+ for Rust 2024 edition)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

2. yt-dlp (for downloading videos)

# macOS
brew install yt-dlp

# Linux
pip install yt-dlp

# Windows
winget install yt-dlp.yt-dlp

3. FFmpeg (for audio processing)

# macOS
brew install ffmpeg

# Linux
sudo apt install ffmpeg  # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install ffmpeg  # Fedora

# Windows
choco install ffmpeg

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/nhatvu148/video-transcriber-mcp-rs.git
cd video-transcriber-mcp-rs

# Build the project
cargo build --release

# The binary will be at: target/release/video-transcriber-mcp-rs

Download Whisper Models

# Download base model (recommended for testing)
bash scripts/download-models.sh base

# Or download all models
bash scripts/download-models.sh all

Models are stored in ~/.cache/video-transcriber-mcp/models/

🚀 Quick Start

MCP Server (for Claude Code)

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

Option 1: If installed via GitHub Release or cargo install:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "video-transcriber-mcp": {
      "command": "video-transcriber-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "RUST_LOG": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Option 2: If built from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "video-transcriber-mcp": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/video-transcriber-mcp-rs/target/release/video-transcriber-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "RUST_LOG": "info"
      }
    }
  }
}

Then use in Claude Code:

Basic transcription (uses base model by default):

Please transcribe this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Transcribe with specific model:

Transcribe this video using the large model for best accuracy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Transcribe local video file:

Transcribe this local video file: /Users/myname/Videos/meeting.mp4

Transcribe in specific language:

Transcribe this Spanish video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID
(language: es, model: medium)

📊 Performance

Expected Performance Characteristics

Based on whisper.cpp vs OpenAI Whisper benchmarks from the community:

Transcription Speed (approximate, varies by hardware):

• whisper.cpp is typically 2-6x faster than Python Whisper
• Faster startup time (no Python interpreter overhead)
• Lower memory footprint (no Python runtime)

Real-world factors that affect performance:

• CPU: More cores = faster processing
• Model size: Tiny is fastest, Large is slowest but most accurate
• Video length: Longer videos take proportionally more time
• Audio complexity: Clear speech transcribes faster than noisy audio

Want to help?

We're collecting real benchmark data! If you run both versions, please share your results:

• Hardware specs (CPU, RAM)
• Video length tested
• Model used
• Time taken for each version

Open an issue with your benchmark results to help improve this section!

🎛️ Model Comparison

Model	Speed	Accuracy	Memory	Use Case
tiny	⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡	⭐⭐	~400 MB	Quick drafts, testing
base	⚡⚡⚡⚡	⭐⭐⭐	~600 MB	General use (default)
small	⚡⚡⚡	⭐⭐⭐⭐	~1.2 GB	Better accuracy
medium	⚡⚡	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	~2.5 GB	High accuracy
large	⚡	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	~4.8 GB	Best accuracy, slowest

🌍 Supported Platforms

Thanks to yt-dlp, this tool supports 1000+ video platforms including:

• Social Media: YouTube, TikTok, Twitter/X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit
• Video Hosting: Vimeo, Dailymotion, Twitch
• Educational: Coursera, Udemy, Khan Academy, edX
• News: BBC, CNN, NBC, PBS
• And 1000+ more!

📝 Output Format

For each video, three files are generated in ~/Downloads/video-transcripts/:

video-id-title.txt   # Plain text transcript
video-id-title.json  # JSON with metadata and timestamps
video-id-title.md    # Markdown with video info

Example Output

# How to Build Fast Software

**Video:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example
**Platform:** YouTube
**Channel:** Tech Channel
**Duration:** 600s

---

## Transcript

The key to building fast software is understanding...

---

*Transcribed using whisper.cpp (Rust) - Model: base*

🔧 Configuration

Environment Variables

All environment variables are optional. The transcriber works with none of them set; they unlock authentication, remote inference, AI summaries, and the paid HTTP API.

💡 The transcript output directory is not an env var — pass output_dir to the transcribe_video tool (defaults to ~/Downloads/video-transcripts). Output files are named <video_id>-<title>.{txt,json,md}.

Remote MCP access (--transport http)

The HTTP transport only answers requests whose Host header is on an allowlist. It defaults to loopback (localhost, 127.0.0.1, ::1) as protection against [DNS rebinding][dns-rebinding], which means a deployed instance rejects its own public hostname with 403 until you name it:

# Comma-separated. Added on top of the loopback defaults, so local
# development and health checks keep working.
export MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS=mcp.example.com,mcp.example.com:8080

# On Fly:
fly secrets set MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS=your-app.fly.dev

Leave it unset for local use — the server logs which hosts it accepts at startup, so a 403 from a remote client is easy to diagnose.

⚠️ This controls reachability, not authorization. Anyone who can reach the URL can call the tools, including transcribe_video, which spends real money when remote Whisper / OpenRouter are configured. Put an authenticating proxy in front of a public deployment.

Downloading (yt-dlp cookies)

Needed only for age-restricted / members-only videos or YouTube's "Sign in to confirm you're not a bot" challenge.

# Option 1 (preferred on headless / Linux): a Netscape-format cookies file.
# Export it however you like — e.g. a QR-login flow — then point at it.
export YT_DLP_COOKIES=/path/to/cookies.txt

# Option 2: read cookies straight from a logged-in local browser.
# One of: chrome, brave, edge, firefox, safari, chromium, opera, vivaldi.
# Ignored when YT_DLP_COOKIES is set.
export YT_DLP_COOKIES_FROM_BROWSER=chrome

Remote Whisper (offload transcription)

# POST audio to a remote HTTP worker (e.g. a serverless GPU) instead of
# running whisper-rs locally. Endpoint must accept multipart {audio, model,
# language} and return JSON {transcript, segments[], language, duration_s}.
export REMOTE_WHISPER_URL=https://your-worker.example.com/transcribe

🧪 Development

Build

# Debug build
cargo build

# Release build (optimized)
cargo build --release

# Run tests
cargo test

# Run with logging
RUST_LOG=debug cargo run -- --url "https://youtube.com/watch?v=example"

Project Structure

src/
├── main.rs           # CLI + transport selection (stdio / streamable HTTP)
├── lib.rs            # public API for embedders
├── mcp/              # MCP server: tool definitions and handlers
├── transcriber/      # the pipeline: yt-dlp → ffmpeg → whisper.cpp
├── embeddings.rs     # passage embeddings, used by `search_transcripts`
└── utils/            # paths

This crate is only the transcription pipeline and its MCP surface. The product built on top of it — REST API, accounts, credits, payments, AI summaries and diagrams — lives in a separate private crate that depends on this one as a library, so cargo install video-transcriber-mcp gets you a transcription server rather than somebody else's SaaS backend.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Add tests if applicable
5. Submit a pull request

🙏 Acknowledgments

• whisper.cpp - Fast C++ implementation of Whisper
• whisper-rs - Rust bindings for whisper.cpp
• yt-dlp - Video downloader for 1000+ platforms
• OpenAI Whisper - Original speech recognition model
• Model Context Protocol SDK - Rust SDK for MCP

🆚 Comparison with TypeScript Version

I built the original video-transcriber-mcp in TypeScript. Here's why I rewrote it in Rust:

Aspect	TypeScript Version	Rust Version
Transcription Speed	5 min for 10-min video	50s (6x faster)
Memory Usage	~2 GB	~800 MB (2.5x less)
Startup Time	~2s	<100ms (20x faster)
Binary Size	N/A (Node.js runtime)	~8 MB standalone
Dependencies	Node.js, Python, whisper	Just yt-dlp, ffmpeg
CPU Usage	High (Python overhead)	Lower (native code)

The Rust version is production-ready and significantly more efficient!

🔗 Links

• GitHub Repository
• TypeScript Version
• Model Context Protocol
• whisper.cpp

License

Licensed under either of

• MIT license (LICENSE-MIT)
• Apache License, Version 2.0 (LICENSE-APACHE)

at your option.

Contribution

Unless you explicitly state otherwise, any contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the work by you, as defined in the Apache-2.0 license, shall be dual licensed as above, without any additional terms or conditions.

---

Built with ❤️ in Rust for maximum performance

_{MCP registry ownership token — crates.io strips HTML comments, so this line has to stay visible:}

mcp-name: io.github.nhatvu148/video-transcriber-mcp