CLI & MCP - TranscribeTube

The tube CLI turns any YouTube URL (or media file) into a transcript — txt, srt, vtt, md or json — straight from your terminal. The same package ships an MCP server, so AI clients like Claude and Cursor can transcribe and read YouTube transcripts as a native tool.

You need a TranscribeTube account and an API key. Grab one from your API key page. Transcription consumes account credit, same as the web app.

Install

npm install -g @transcribetube/cli

pnpm add -g @transcribetube/cli

npx @transcribetube/cli transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait

This installs the tube binary.

Authenticate

Store your API key once:

tube login
# opens app.transcribetube.com/account/api-key, then paste your key

For CI or headless environments, pass it non-interactively or via the TUBE_API_KEY environment variable:

tube login --api-key "tt_live_xxx"

export TUBE_API_KEY="tt_live_xxx"
tube whoami

Verify with tube whoami (prints the account email and remaining credit).

Transcribe a YouTube video

The one-liner most people come for:

tube transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait

--wait blocks until processing finishes and prints the transcript. Without it, the command queues the job and returns the project id so you can poll later.

Choose an output format

txt (default), srt, vtt, md, and json are supported via -f/--format:

tube transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait -f srt > captions.srt

tube transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait -f vtt > captions.vtt

tube transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait -f md > transcript.md

tube transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait -f json > transcript.json

Common flags

Flag	Description
`-w, --wait`	Wait for completion and print the transcript
`-f, --format <fmt>`	`txt` \| `srt` \| `vtt` \| `md` \| `json` (default `txt`)
`-l, --lang <code>`	Language hint, e.g. `en`. Omit to auto-detect
`--webhook <url>`	POST to this URL when transcription completes
`--json`	Machine-readable JSON output for any command

Work with projects

Every transcription is a project. Fetch transcripts later, in any format:

tube project list                       # recent projects + status
tube project get <id>                   # project details
tube project watch <id>                 # poll until DONE or ERROR
tube project transcript <id> -f srt     # fetch a finished transcript

project transcript also takes --no-speakers and --no-timecodes to strip speaker labels or timecodes from the output.

MCP server (Claude, Cursor, Claude Code)

The package ships an MCP server over stdio. Point any MCP-capable client at tube mcp and it gains three tools:

Tool	What it does
`transcribe_youtube`	Transcribe a YouTube URL and return speaker-labeled, timecoded text
`get_transcript`	Fetch an existing project’s transcript by id, in any format
`list_projects`	List recent projects with their ids and status

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Add this to your MCP config (claude_desktop_config.json, or .mcp.json for Claude Code). The server reads your key from TUBE_API_KEY:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "transcribetube": {
      "command": "tube",
      "args": ["mcp"],
      "env": { "TUBE_API_KEY": "tt_live_xxx" }
    }
  }
}

Then just ask: “Transcribe this YouTube video and summarize the key points: <url>.” Claude calls transcribe_youtube, gets the text, and works with it directly — no copy-paste.

Cursor

Add the same block under mcpServers in Cursor’s MCP settings. The tools appear automatically in the agent’s tool list.

The MCP server transcribes synchronously and waits up to 10 minutes for long videos. For batch or unattended jobs, prefer the CLI with --webhook.

Scripting examples

# transcript.txt for every URL in urls.txt
while read url; do
  id=$(tube transcribe "$url" --json | jq -r '.id')
  echo "queued $id for $url"
done < urls.txt

tube transcribe "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --wait -f md \
  | your-llm "Summarize this transcript into 5 bullet points"

API early access

🔌 Need transcription as a hosted API for your agents? TranscribeTube is opening an MCP-native transcription API. Request early access →

Reference

Full REST API: API Documentation
Authentication & keys: Authentication
Project lifecycle (UPLOAD → TRANSCRIPTION → DONE): Lifecycle

​Install

​Authenticate

​Transcribe a YouTube video

​Choose an output format

​Common flags

​Work with projects

​MCP server (Claude, Cursor, Claude Code)

​Claude Desktop / Claude Code

​Cursor

​Scripting examples

​API early access

​Reference

Install

Authenticate

Transcribe a YouTube video

Choose an output format

Common flags

Work with projects

MCP server (Claude, Cursor, Claude Code)

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Cursor

Scripting examples

API early access

Reference