Publish to YouTube

reelson publish <slug> uploads the rendered video to channels listed under "channels" in reelson.config.json. reelson channels init adds starter ones.

reelson.config.json

"channels": {
    "youtube": { "type": "youtube", "privacy": "unlisted", "playlist": "PL…", "footer": "https://acme.test" },
    "shorts":  { "type": "youtube", "format": "portrait", "privacy": "public", "tags": ["acme"] }
}

• format picks the render: landscape (the default), portrait or square. Render it first.
• The title comes from video.json. The description is the subtitle plus the numbered steps, then the channel’s footer. To word them yourself, use video.json "publish": { "title", "description", "tags" }.
• The .srt captions go up too ("captions": false skips them), and the video is added to playlist.
• channelId (UC…) guards against signing in to the wrong channel.

Set up YouTube once

1. In a Google Cloud project, enable the YouTube Data API v3.

2. Set up the OAuth consent screen and add yourself as a test user.

3. Create an OAuth client of type Desktop app. Put its id and secret in the .env next to reelson.config.json:

   .env

   YOUTUBE_CLIENT_ID=….apps.googleusercontent.com
   YOUTUBE_CLIENT_SECRET=…

4. Sign in through the browser (pick the brand channel if the account has several):

   reelson channels login youtube
   reelson channels                 # who each channel is logged in as

Sign-ins are kept in ~/.config/reelson/credentials/, never in the project.

Two Google quirks

While the consent screen is in Testing, Google ends the sign-in after 7 days. Publish the app (Audience → Publish app) to stay signed in. For your own channels, this needs no verification, only an “unverified app” warning at sign-in. Until Google audits the Cloud project, YouTube keeps uploads private whatever privacy says.

Publish, replace, update

reelson publish <slug> --dry-run            # what would go up
reelson publish <slug> --to youtube,shorts  # or --all-channels; asks without either

What went where is kept in the demo’s published.json (commit it). Publishing again skips those channels unless you pass one of these:

Flag	Does
--replace	After a re-record: uploads the new render and makes the old video private (never deletes it). YouTube can’t swap the file behind a URL, so the id changes. Link through a URL of your own and point it at the new id.
--update	Fixes the words: rewrites the title, description, tags, captions and playlist. The URL, views and comments stay, and the video file and privacy are untouched.
--again	Uploads a second copy.