Capslane MCP server

Capslane YouTube transcript MCP server

Retrieve timestamped transcripts from public YouTube videos in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other MCP clients. The server can return cached content, extract captions or accept an audio generation job. It does not summarize videos itself.

Install the transcript skill

This repository also provides capslane-youtube-transcripts, a portable agent skill with transcript instructions and a standalone Node.js 22 HTTP helper. Install it in a project with the Skills CLI:

npx skills add Webba-Creative-Technologies/capslane-mcp --skill capslane-youtube-transcripts --agent codex

Replace codex with claude-code or cursor for those clients. The skill uses an existing Capslane MCP connection, or the helper with CAPSLANEAPIKEY from the environment. It does not configure credentials. See the installation guide and complete skill folder. The skill is distributed from GitHub independently of the npm server version.

Before connecting

Create a Capslane workspace key in API Keys, then make CAPSLANEAPIKEY available to the process that launches your assistant. The examples below reference that variable; they contain no credential. Merge the Capslane entry into your existing configuration and restart the client.

Create a key in API Keys. Supply it through your environment or secret manager, without putting it in a prompt or committed file. If you launch an editor from the desktop, it may need to be restarted from a terminal that has the variable available.

The remote endpoint is https://capslane.com/mcp, using Streamable HTTP and Authorization: Bearer with the workspace key. Dashboard sign-in does not authenticate MCP. The endpoint uses POST; opening it in a browser returns 405.

Claude Code

Install the plugin

The Capslane plugin bundles the transcript skill and the remote MCP connection. Make CAPSLANEAPIKEY available in your terminal environment first, then run:

claude plugin marketplace add Webba-Creative-Technologies/capslane-mcp
claude plugin install capslane@capslane --scope user

The user scope makes the plugin available across your projects. Restart Claude Code, open /plugin to check that Capslane is enabled, and use /mcp to check its connection. Review any permission request from your client. Invoke the skill directly with:

/capslane:capslane-youtube-transcripts Retrieve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ with native captions and timestamp citations.

Once enabled, Claude can load the skill for relevant tasks. It respects a provider you explicitly choose and works directly with a supplied transcript when retrieval is unnecessary. Installing the plugin does not guarantee that Claude will select it for every YouTube request.

This repository hosts the Capslane marketplace. It is not a listing in Anthropic's official marketplace. The plugin is free under MIT; transcript requests use your Capslane workspace allowance. Its version is tracked in .claude-plugin/plugin.json independently of the npm MCP server version.

Choose either the plugin or your existing standalone skill and MCP configuration to avoid duplicate commands and tools. The remote connection needs no local Node.js runtime. The bundled HTTP fallback needs Node.js 22 or later and reads the same environment variable.

To update, refresh the marketplace and the plugin, then restart Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace update capslane
claude plugin update capslane@capslane

To remove the user installation:

claude plugin uninstall capslane@capslane --scope user

Shortened. The full README is on GitHub.