YouTube Playlist MCP Server

MCP server for managing YouTube and YouTube Music playlists from Claude Desktop via the YouTube Data API v3.

Setup

1. Get YouTube API credentials

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console
2. Create a project and enable the YouTube Data API v3 (APIs & Services → Library)
3. Create OAuth client ID credentials (APIs & Services → Credentials → Desktop app)
4. Download the JSON and save it as client_secret.json in this project root
5. Configure the OAuth consent screen if prompted (add your Google account as a test user)

2. Install and authenticate

uv sync
uv run authenticate

3. Add to Claude Desktop

Add to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "youtube-playlists": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": [
        "--directory", "/absolute/path/to/youtube-playlist-mcp",
        "run", "youtube-playlist-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Config file location:

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

Restart Claude Desktop after editing.

Tools

Tool	Description	Quota
list_playlists	List your playlists	1
get_playlist	Playlist details + items	3
list_playlist_items	Videos in a playlist	1
create_playlist	Create a playlist	50
update_playlist	Update title/description/privacy	50
delete_playlist	Delete a playlist (requires confirm flag)	50
add_video_to_playlist	Add a video to a playlist	50
remove_video_from_playlist	Remove a video from a playlist	50
move_video_in_playlist	Reorder a video in a playlist	50
search_videos	Search YouTube	100

Quota

YouTube Data API default quota is 10,000 units/day. Reads are cheap (1-3 units), writes cost 50, search costs 100.