Skip the install. Get this working in under 2 minutes.
Start a free trial on cloud.anythingmcp.com, add the YouTube Data API in one click, then point your AI client (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot or Cursor) at the generated MCP endpoint. No Docker, no git clone, zero engineering experience required.
Summary
Read YouTube data — videos, channels, playlists, search, comments — and (with OAuth) manage your own uploads. 9 tools, API key + optional OAuth Bearer.
Try asking
Example prompts for YouTube Data API
Click any prompt to copy it. Paste into Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Gemini, Copilot or OpenClaw to run it against this connector.
Claude is AI and can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → YouTube Data API, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no
git clone, no local server.
YouTube Data API
Read YouTube data — videos, channels, playlists, search, comments — and (with OAuth) manage your own uploads. 9 tools, API key + optional OAuth Bearer.
Setup
Setup:
- Create / pick a Google Cloud project at https://console.cloud.google.com.
- APIs & Services → Library → enable YouTube Data API v3.
- Credentials → Create credentials → API key. (For write operations, also do OAuth2 client + get a Bearer token with
youtube.upload/youtubescopes — out of scope here.) - Set
YOUTUBE_API_KEYto the API key.
Authentication: query-string ?key=.... Read operations don't need OAuth.
…(continued in the in-app connector instructions)
Prerequisites: YOUTUBE_API_KEY
Install the connector locally
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d
Open http://localhost:3000/connectors/store, pick YouTube Data API and paste in the env vars listed under Prerequisites.
Available tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
youtube_search | Search videos / channels / playlists |
youtube_get_videos | Fetch video details by ID(s) |
youtube_get_videos_chart | Get videos from a chart (currently only 'mostPopular') |
youtube_get_channels | Fetch channel details by ID, handle (@username), forUsername (legacy), or 'mine' (requires OAuth) |
youtube_list_playlists | List playlists, filtered by channelId or 'mine' (OAuth) |
youtube_list_playlist_items | List items in a playlist (videos in playlist) |
youtube_list_video_comments | List top-level comments on a video |
youtube_list_categories | List video categories for a region |
youtube_get_captions | List caption tracks available for a video |
Next steps
Was this guide helpful?
