Auto YouTube Shorts Pipeline: Topic to Published Video
March 30, 2026
Category:
Practical Open Source Projects
YouTube Shorts Pipeline v2.1.0: From Topic to Published Video in Minutes
The Ultimate Automation for Short-Form Content Creators
youtube-shorts-pipeline is a battle-tested Python tool that takes a single topic and produces a complete YouTube Short – fully automated, from research to upload. With 500+ GitHub stars and recent v2.1.0 release, it's production-ready for scaling your Shorts channel.
What's New in v2.1.0
- Burned-in captions with word-by-word highlighting (Whisper timestamps + ASS subtitles)
- Royalty-free background music with automatic voice ducking
- Trending topic engine: Reddit, RSS, Google Trends, Twitter, TikTok
- AI thumbnails: Gemini Imagen + Pillow text overlay
- Resume capability: Skip completed stages, perfect for long-running jobs
- 78 comprehensive tests + structured logging + exponential backoff retries
Complete Pipeline Breakdown
| Stage | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Draft | DuckDuckGo research → Claude script → b-roll prompts → metadata → thumbnail prompt |
| Produce | Gemini Imagen b-roll → ElevenLabs voiceover → Whisper captions → music + ducking → ffmpeg assembly |
| Upload | YouTube API upload with SRT captions + AI thumbnail |
Quick Start (5 Minutes)
# Install
pip install -r requirements.txt
# First run (wizard launches)
python -m pipeline run --news "AI news" --dry-run
# Full pipeline with trending topic
python -m pipeline run --discover --auto-pick
# Setup YouTube OAuth
python scripts/setup_youtube_oauth.py
Cost Breakdown: $0.11 Per Video
- Claude Sonnet: ~$0.02
- Gemini Imagen (3 b-roll + thumbnail): ~$0.04
- ElevenLabs (60-90s): ~$0.05
Anti-hallucination: Claude only uses live DuckDuckGo research facts.
Advanced Features
# Discover 20 trending topics
python -m pipeline topics --limit 20
# Hindi voiceover
python -m pipeline run --news "topic" --lang hi
# Resume from draft
python -m pipeline produce --draft ~/.youtube-shorts-pipeline/drafts/<id>.json
Production-Grade Security
✅ 0600 permissions on config files ✅ No credentials in logs/URLs ✅ Minimum YouTube OAuth scopes ✅ Prompt injection mitigation ✅ Dependency pinning ✅ Private uploads by default
Why This Beats Manual Creation
- 10x faster: Minutes vs hours
- Consistent quality: AI-optimized scripts + visuals
- Scalable: Run 10+ videos daily
- Trend-aware: Auto-discovers viral topics
Perfect for: News channels, tech updates, educational Shorts, viral trend reactors.
Get started: GitHub Repo – MIT License, actively maintained.
Original Article:
View Original