🎬 YT Shorts Autopilot

Automated YouTube Shorts upload pipeline.
FFmpeg post-processing · scheduled publishing · runs on Windows startup · works while your PC is off.

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What it does

Drop your .mp4 files into the queue/ folder, run the script once, and it handles everything else:

1. Processes each video with FFmpeg — adds your watermark, boosts audio, optionally mixes background music
2. Uploads to YouTube as scheduled private videos set to publish at your chosen times
3. Moves processed videos to done/ and logs every upload to CSV
4. Runs once per day — safe to add to Windows startup, it skips if it already ran today

YouTube publishes automatically at the scheduled times — your PC can be off.

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Features

• 📅 Scheduled uploads — 4 slots per day (7 AM · 9 AM · 7 PM · 9 PM Philippine Time by default)
• 🎨 FFmpeg processing — watermark overlay · volume boost · optional BGM mixing
• 📝 Per-video scripts — custom title & description from a matching .txt file
• 🔄 Rotating watermark — cycles through all 4 corners automatically
• 🔒 Slot-safe scheduling — never double-books the same time slot
• 📊 Upload log — full CSV history of every upload with scheduled times
• 🧙 Setup wizard — setup.py creates folders, checks dependencies, guides first run
• ⚡ Once-per-day guard — safe to add to Windows startup

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Requirements

Tool	Version	Notes
Python	3.10+	python.org
FFmpeg	Any recent	ffmpeg.org — must be in PATH
Google account	—	The YouTube channel you want to upload to

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Quick Start

Step 1 — Clone and run setup

git clone https://github.com/Ghraven/yt-shorts-autopilot
cd yt-shorts-autopilot
python setup.py

The wizard installs pip dependencies, creates all folders, and checks for FFmpeg.

Step 2 — Get YouTube OAuth credentials

1. Go to Google Cloud Console
2. Create a project → APIs & Services → Library → enable YouTube Data API v3
3. Credentials → + Create Credentials → OAuth client ID → Desktop app
4. Download the JSON → rename it client_secrets.json → place it in the project root

Step 3 — Add your assets

Folder	What to put here
queue/	Your .mp4 Short videos (oldest processes first)
LOGO/	Your channel logo / watermark (PNG recommended)
BGM/	Background music files — .mp3 / .wav / .m4a (optional)

Step 4 — (Optional) Generate script templates

python generate_scripts.py

Creates a .txt template in scripts/ for every video in queue/. Fill in custom titles and descriptions — or skip this and the defaults from config.py will be used.

Step 5 — Run

python daily_batch.py

First run opens a browser for YouTube login (one-time OAuth). After that, fully automatic.

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How It Works

PC boots → daily_batch.py runs
    │
    ├─ Already ran today? → Exit silently
    │
    ├─ Get next 4 videos from queue/
    │
    ├─ Calculate 4 upload time slots (no double-booking)
    │
    ├─ For each video:
    │    ├─ Read scripts/<name>.txt for custom title/description
    │    ├─ FFmpeg: watermark + audio boost + BGM mix
    │    ├─ Upload to YouTube as scheduled private video
    │    ├─ Log to upload_log.csv
    │    └─ Move original to done/
    │
    └─ Save today's date → YouTube auto-publishes at scheduled times

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Per-Video Scripts

Each video in queue/ can have a matching .txt in scripts/ with the same filename:

queue/my_clip.mp4
scripts/my_clip.txt   ← linked automatically

Format:

TITLE: Your Custom Video Title
---
Your description here.
Can be multiple lines.
Include hashtags, emojis, anything you want.

#Shorts #YourChannel

If no script file exists → defaults from config.py are used.

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Configuration (config.py)

All settings live in config.py — run setup.py to change them interactively, or edit directly:

VIDEOS_PER_RUN = 4                          # uploads per day
UPLOAD_TIMES   = [(7,0),(9,0),(19,0),(21,0)] # 7AM 9AM 7PM 9PM PHT
VOLUME_BOOST   = 1.3                         # +30% louder
MUSIC_VOLUME   = 0.12                        # 12% BGM mix
WATERMARK_MODE = "rotate"                    # rotate / random / fixed corner
LOGO_WIDTH     = 130                         # watermark width in pixels

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Auto-Run on Windows Startup

1. Open Task Scheduler → Create Basic Task
2. Trigger: When the computer starts
3. Action: Start a program
   • Program: C:\Path\To\python.exe
   • Arguments: daily_batch.py
   • Start in: C:\Path\To\yt-shorts-autopilot\
4. Done — uploads happen automatically every day

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Folder Structure

yt-shorts-autopilot/
├── queue/              Drop your .mp4 videos here
├── done/               Videos move here after upload
├── processed/          Temp FFmpeg output (auto-cleaned)
├── BGM/                Background music (optional)
├── LOGO/               Your watermark image
├── scripts/            Per-video title + description .txt files
├── config.py           All settings
├── daily_batch.py      Main script — run this (or add to startup)
├── generate_scripts.py Creates .txt templates for queued videos
├── setup.py            First-run wizard
└── requirements.txt

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Troubleshooting

FFmpeg not found — Download from gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds and add the bin/ folder to Windows PATH.

client_secrets.json not found — Complete the OAuth setup above. File must be in the project root.

quota exceeded — YouTube's 10,000-unit daily quota resets at midnight Pacific. Each upload costs ~1,600 units, so 4 uploads = ~6,400 units — well within limits under normal use.

token.json expired — Delete token.json and re-run. It will prompt a fresh login.

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AI Assistance Transparency

I use AI-assisted development tools, including Codex and Claude, while building and maintaining this project. All code, design decisions, testing, commits, and releases are reviewed and shipped by me as the repository owner; AI tools are not listed as project contributors.

License

MIT — see LICENSE

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Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md.

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for release history.