What MCP should I use for YouTube in Cursor?

Tubask gives you three tools, hosted OAuth, and no local Python. It fits paste-a-link research inside the agent.

How do I add MCP to Cursor?

Add Tubask's URL to `.cursor/mcp.json`, then open Settings → Tools & MCP → Connect. Sign in on first use.

Do I need a YouTube API key?

Pro and Plus include Tubask's API access. On the Free plan, you get a hosted trial first, then bring your own Google Cloud key.

What if the video has no captions?

Tubask reads YouTube captions. Auto-generated captions count. If the video has none, there's no transcript to fetch.

Why not a local YouTube MCP from GitHub?

Local servers need Python and 10–20 tools to maintain. Tubask takes a pasted config, OAuth once, and three tools.

Cursor MCP

Paste a YouTube link in Cursor

Add Tubask to `.cursor/mcp.json`. Your agent searches YouTube, summarizes links, and returns quotes with timestamps.

Setup docs →

3 summaries · 25 searches · about 5 minutes

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tubask": {
      "url": "https://tubask.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What breaks today

The link lands in chat — then nothing useful comes back.

Today

You paste a tutorial link. The agent says it can't access the video. You alt-tab to YouTube and copy caption fragments by hand.

With Tubask

Tubask adds search, summaries, and transcript lookup. You paste the link once and get the answer in the same thread.

Next: Tools

Three tools. One paste.

Summarize, search transcripts, query channels — without leaving chat.

youtube_query
Find videos, scan channels, and list playlists without leaving the agent.
summarize_video
Get the thesis, chapters with timestamps, and takeaways from one link.
get_transcript
Pull the exact words and timestamp from captions.

Next: Setup

Connect in about five minutes

Follow these steps, then paste a YouTube link to test.

01
Add Tubask to Cursor
Copy the JSON into `.cursor/mcp.json` or `~/.cursor/mcp.json`.
02
Connect
Open Settings → Tools & MCP → Connect. Sign in when OAuth opens.
03
Paste a link
Drop a YouTube URL and ask for a summary, channel scan, or quote.

Paste into

.cursor/mcp.json

Project folder, or `~/.cursor/mcp.json` for all projects.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "tubask": {
      "url": "https://tubask.app/mcp"
    }
  }
}

1.Copy the JSON below
2.Save the file, then Settings → Tools & MCP → Connect

Full setup guide →

Full setup docs →

Next: Prompts

Copy a prompt

Replace VIDEO_ID with a real link.

Summarize a tutorial

Summarize this video — thesis, chapters with timestamps, five takeaways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID

Find a quote

Find the exact quote where they mention pricing. Return the words and timestamp. https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID

Next: FAQ

Common questions

Start with one link.

3 summaries · 25 searches. No credit card — you'll know from the first reply.

About 5 minutes to connect Claude or Cursor