Install in Claude

Anthropic ships MCP support on every Claude surface, but the install path splits in two: the hosted apps (Claude.ai web, Claude Desktop, mobile) use OAuth via the Custom Connectors UI; Claude Code and the IDE extensions accept a Bearer API key directly.

Pick your surface

Install on Claude.ai web or Claude Desktop

Custom Connectors are account-level: install once on the web and the same server appears on Desktop and mobile automatically.

1. Sign in at claude.ai (or open Claude Desktop and click your profile icon).
2. Open Customize → Connectors.
3. Click +, then Add custom connector.
4. Fill in step 1 of the dialog:
   • Name: YouTube Transcripts (or whatever you want)
   • Remote MCP server URL: https://api.youtubevideotranscript.io/mcp
5. On step 2, Claude reads our discovery document and pre-fills the options. Use these:
   • Authentication: Always required. Every tool call on our server needs a signed-in account, so there is nothing to browse anonymously.
   • OAuth client: Use Anthropic’s hosted client metadata, the option labelled Recommended. Claude identifies itself with a document Anthropic hosts, our server reads and verifies it, and you never paste an ID or secret.
6. No client ID — register one automatically also works. It registers a fresh client on our server every time you connect, so prefer the hosted option unless you have a reason not to.
7. Click Add. Claude opens a popup that takes you to our consent screen.
8. Sign in with the Google account you use for YouTube Video Transcript, review the access description, and click Allow. You’re redirected back to Claude.
9. In chat, open + → Connectors and enable it for the conversation.

Install on Claude Code CLI

Claude Code accepts a custom Bearer header, so no OAuth dance. Just paste your API key. Get one from your API keys page.

claude mcp add --transport http \
  --scope user \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer yvt_live_YOUR_KEY" \
  youtube-transcripts https://api.youtubevideotranscript.io/mcp

Verify it landed:

claude mcp list
claude mcp get youtube-transcripts

Inside a Claude Code session, run /mcp to see connection status and the current tool list.

Sharing with your team via a project config

Drop this into .mcp.json at your project root so the whole team picks up the same connector when they run Claude Code in the repo. Use an env var so the secret stays out of git.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-transcripts": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://api.youtubevideotranscript.io/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${YVT_API_KEY}"
      }
    }
  }
}

Each developer sets YVT_API_KEY=yvt_live_... in their shell before launching Claude Code (or code . for VS Code). Configuration options are covered in Claude Code's MCP documentation.

VS Code, JetBrains, Cursor

The Anthropic Claude Code extension embeds the CLI and reads the same configuration files. Run the claude mcp add command above from the integrated terminal, or commit the .mcp.json block to your repo. The Claude panel recognizes it on the next open.

Try it

After install, paste this into any Claude conversation:

Use the YouTube Transcripts connector to fetch the transcript
of https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ and summarize it in 5 bullets.

Claude shows a tool-call approval card. Click Allow. The transcript gets fetched, your credit balance ticks down by 1, and Claude answers using the transcript content.

Gotchas

• OAuth-only on hosted apps. The Custom Connector UI on Claude.ai and Claude Desktop has no field for a custom Bearer header. If you want to use your yvt_live_ key directly, switch to Claude Code.
• HTTPS required. Custom connectors only accept publicly reachable HTTPS endpoints. Localhost is not supported.
• Per-conversation tool approval. By default Claude shows an approval prompt before each tool call. You can “Always allow for this conversation” if you trust it.
• Linux desktop. Claude Desktop is macOS and Windows only. Linux users connect via claude.ai web or Claude Code.