A private automation tool for one person’s own YouTube channels.
yt-autopilot plans, writes, renders and uploads videos to YouTube channels that its operator owns, and reads the performance of those videos back to decide what to make next.
This is not a service, and it has no users other than its operator. There is no sign-up, no hosted dashboard and no way for anyone else to connect a YouTube account to it. This website exists so that the application’s purpose, its use of the YouTube API, and its handling of data are stated publicly — as Google requires of an application that requests access to YouTube accounts.
What it does
The application runs as a background process on a computer belonging to its operator. On a schedule, it:
- observes which topics are drawing attention in a few chosen subject areas, using publicly available YouTube data;
- proposes original video topics of its own, and writes a narration script for the ones it keeps;
- produces the video — synthetic narration, generated or abstract visuals, captions — without filming anything and without reusing anyone else’s footage;
- runs quality and originality checks, and discards work that fails them;
- uploads the finished video to one of the operator’s own YouTube channels; and
- reads back how that video performed, so the next round of decisions is informed by evidence rather than guesswork.
A human owner sets the strategy, holds the budget and decides how much the system is allowed to do unattended. Nothing is published automatically unless that owner has explicitly raised the channel to a level of autonomy that permits it.
What it asks of a YouTube account
When the operator connects one of their channels, Google asks them to approve three permissions. Each is requested because a specific part of the application cannot work without it:
| Permission | What it allows | Why the application needs it |
|---|---|---|
youtube.upload |
Upload videos to the connected channel. | This is the whole point of the tool. There is no narrower permission that can upload a video. |
youtube.readonly |
Read the connected channel and its videos. | To confirm an upload really arrived, to read back its privacy status, and to verify that a video is being uploaded to the channel the operator intended rather than a different account. |
yt-analytics.readonly |
Read the connected channel’s YouTube Analytics. | To learn which of its own videos worked, which did not, and why — the feedback the system needs to improve its own output. |
It does not ask for revenue or monetisation data, does not ask to manage comments or subscribers, does not ask to delete anything, and does not ask for access to any Google service other than YouTube.
Where it runs, and where the data goes
There is no cloud back end. The application runs on the operator’s own machine and stores its working data in a local database file on that machine. Credentials for a connected YouTube account are encrypted before they are written to disk. Nothing that identifies a YouTube account, and no statistics obtained with a YouTube account’s authorisation, is sent to any third party.
The Privacy Policy sets out exactly what is stored, for how long, and how to revoke access and have it deleted. The Terms of Service set out the terms on which the application is operated.
Contact
Questions about this application, its use of YouTube data, or a request to delete data held about a connected account: pljone88@gmail.com.