YouTube MCP Server — Setup Guide

A Python MCP server that lets Claude search YouTube for artists and manage playlists on your account.

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11 or newer
• A Google account with YouTube

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Step 1 — Get Google API credentials

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com
2. Create a new project (or select an existing one)
3. Navigate to APIs & Services → Library
4. Search for YouTube Data API v3 and click Enable
5. Go to APIs & Services → Credentials
6. Click + Create Credentials → OAuth client ID
7. Application type: Desktop app → give it a name → click Create
8. Click Download JSON — save the file as client_secret.json in this folder

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Step 2 — Install dependencies

Open a terminal in this folder and run:

pip install -r requirements.txt

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Step 3 — Configure Claude Desktop

Open your Claude Desktop config file:

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json

Add the following entry inside the "mcpServers" object (create the object if it doesn't exist):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-playlist-manager": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["/FULL/PATH/TO/THIS/FOLDER/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Replace /FULL/PATH/TO/THIS/FOLDER/ with the actual path where you saved these files.

Example on Mac:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-playlist-manager": {
      "command": "python3",
      "args": ["/Users/yourname/youtube_mcp/server.py"]
    }
  }
}

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Step 4 — First run (OAuth flow)

1. Restart Claude Desktop after saving the config
2. The first time you use a YouTube tool, a browser window will open asking you to sign in with Google and grant access
3. After approval, a token.json file is saved locally — you won't need to log in again

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Available Tools

Tool	Description
search_artists	Search for artist/musician channels by name + optional genre
search_videos	Search for music videos, optionally within a specific channel
create_playlist	Create a new playlist on your YouTube account
add_videos_to_playlist	Add videos (by ID) to an existing playlist
list_my_playlists	List all your YouTube playlists

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Example prompts to try in Claude

• "Search for jazz guitar artists on YouTube and create a playlist of their top videos"
• "Find lo-fi hip hop channels and make a private playlist called 'Focus Music'"
• "Search for videos by artist name 'Khruangbin' and add them to my existing playlist"
• "List all my YouTube playlists"

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Files in this folder

youtube_mcp/
├── server.py           ← The MCP server (main file)
├── requirements.txt    ← Python dependencies
├── client_secret.json  ← YOU ADD THIS (downloaded from Google Cloud)
├── token.json          ← Auto-created after first login
└── README.md           ← This file

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Troubleshooting

"client_secret.json not found" → Make sure you downloaded and renamed the file correctly and placed it in the same folder as server.py.

"Access blocked" in browser → Your OAuth app may be in "testing" mode. Go to Google Cloud Console → OAuth consent screen → Add your Google account as a test user.

Tool not appearing in Claude → Double-check the path in claude_desktop_config.json and restart Claude Desktop fully.