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How to use YouTube with VS Code

You want YouTube inside VS Code so it can research videos on a topic, find the best explainer videos, verify a video before sharing it, and build a focused video shortlist — without you copy-pasting between tabs. Here is the whole setup, once.

Create your YouTube gateway

The gateway is the thing VS Code connects to, and it is where you decide which YouTube tools an agent may use. You create it once and every client reuses it.

  1. Create an Arcade account

    Sign up and open the dashboard. The free tier is enough to follow this through.

  2. Create an MCP Gateway and select your YouTube tools

    In the dashboard, create a gateway and pick the YouTube tools you want to expose. The gateway is what your client connects to, and it is where tool access is decided.

  3. Copy your gateway URL

    Every client below needs it.

    https://api.arcade.dev/mcp/<YOUR-GATEWAY-SLUG>

Create a YouTube gateway Opens the gateway builder in your Arcade dashboard.

Connect the gateway to VS Code

  1. Add the server

    VS Code 1.107.0 or higher. Command Palette → MCP: Add Server… → choose HTTP, paste your gateway URL, and name it something like mcp-arcade.

  2. Start it and authenticate

    Click Start next to the server in mcp.json or under Extensions → MCP Servers - Installed, then approve the Arcade sign-in and consent screens.

  3. Try it out

    Open the chat pane, switch to Agent mode, and ask it to use one of your YouTube tools.

Full VS Code guide in the docs steps verified 2026-08-13

Try these YouTube prompts

VS Code can now act on your YouTube account. Click a prompt to copy it.

Keep the agent limited to searching for videos and reading video details with a shared API key. Pair it with Contextual Access policies so the agent can inspect videos without access to other services or actions.

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