SocialKit YouTube Pipeline

Runs the end-to-end YouTube video workflow (research, script, visuals, assembly, metadata, upload) and stops at three mandatory human approval checkpoints. Use when the user wants to make, produce or publish a YouTube video or Short from an idea, topic or source material, or asks where a video project stands.

YouTube pipeline

Orchestrates the youtube-* skills. Each step below names the skill to follow. Script paths are relative to the directory of the skill that owns them. Apply socialkit-social-core to all content.

The three checkpoints are mandatory. YouTube's inauthentic content policy removes monetization from channels that publish mass-produced or repetitive content without meaningful human input, so a person must review the script, the packaging and the final upload. See policy notes.

Steps

1. Brief. Ask for topic, audience, target length (Short or long-form), language, and whether any realistic AI-generated voice, people or footage will be used.
2. Project folder. Pick a short slug and run node scripts/state.mjs --init --dir yt-<slug> --slug <slug>. All later files go in yt-<slug>/.
3. Research (optional). Follow socialkit-youtube-research. Output: research.md.
4. Script. Follow socialkit-youtube-script. Output: script.md.
5. Checkpoint 1: script. Stop. Show the script. Ask the user to run, in their own terminal: node scripts/state.mjs --dir yt-<slug> --approve script. Then run node scripts/state.mjs --dir yt-<slug> --verify script. Continue only when it exits 0.
6. Visuals. Follow socialkit-youtube-visuals. Output: shot-list.json; the user supplies or approves every asset.
7. Assembly. Follow socialkit-youtube-assemble. Output: output/video.mp4.
8. Metadata. Follow socialkit-youtube-metadata. Output: metadata.json and a thumbnail.
9. Checkpoint 2: metadata. Stop. Show title, description, tags and thumbnail. Ask the user to run node scripts/state.mjs --dir yt-<slug> --approve metadata, then verify.
10. Upload plan. Follow socialkit-youtube-upload to write upload-plan.json (private by default; schedule and synthetic-media flags as the user decides).
11. Checkpoint 3: upload. Stop. Ask the user to watch output/video.mp4 and run node scripts/state.mjs --dir yt-<slug> --approve upload, then verify.
12. Upload. Follow socialkit-youtube-upload. Report the video URL, privacy and any warnings.

Check progress at any time with node scripts/state.mjs --dir yt-<slug> --status.

Rules

• Never run --approve yourself, never edit state.json, never fake terminal input.
• Any edit to an approved file invalidates that approval. Re-request it; do not revert files to make verification pass without telling the user.
• Do not batch-produce videos. One project, one set of approvals.

Output contract

At the end, report: project folder, checkpoint status, video URL, Studio URL, privacy status, scheduled time, synthetic-media disclosure, and warnings, as a short list.

Failure handling

• APPROVAL_NEEDS_TERMINAL: the approve command was run without a terminal. Ask the user to run it themselves.
• Verification fails: say which file changed and ask whether to re-approve.
• Any step's script exits non-zero: show its error and hint, fix inputs if the cause is clear, otherwise ask the user. Do not skip the step.