publish-youtube

name	publish-youtube
description	Upload a video to YouTube via Studio and fill metadata. Video-only.

Common rules: docs/OPERATING_RULES.md. YouTube-specific quirks only.

Input

• title: ≤ 100 chars.
• description: full description (first 150 chars are the SERP snippet).
• tags: list of strings (no # prefix — YT tags are bare).
• local_video_path: absolute path.
• format: long (regular) | short (≤ 60s vertical — YT auto-detects from aspect ratio + duration, but caller declares for sanity).
• visibility: public | unlisted | private (default public).

Output

{ "post_url": "https://youtu.be/...", "platform": "youtube" }

For Shorts the URL form is https://youtube.com/shorts/<id> — return whichever Studio gave us.

Steps

1. browser_navigate → https://studio.youtube.com/.
2. Click "Create" → "Upload videos".
3. browser_file_upload with the video. Wait for the upload progress bar to start.
4. Fill metadata while uploading (Studio allows this in parallel):
   • Title: paste title.
   • Description: paste description.
   • Thumbnail: leave auto unless extra.thumbnail_path is provided (then upload it).
   • Playlist: skip unless extra.playlist_id.
   • Audience: tick "No, it's not made for kids" (the standard non-kids choice). Channel verification banner blocks "made for kids" — handle as below.
   • Show more → Tags: paste comma-separated tags.
5. Click "Next" through "Video elements" (skip cards / end screens unless extra.cards).
6. Click "Next" through "Checks" — wait for the spinner to finish.
7. Set visibility per input.
8. Click "Publish" / "Save".
9. Wait for the "Video published" / "Video saved" dialog.
10. Read the share URL from that dialog (Studio displays the short link youtu.be/... directly).

Quirks

• Channel-verification gate: if the channel has not been verified for >15-min videos, the upload UI will silently truncate. Surfaces as a banner — return { "error": "channel verification required", "step_failed": "channel_verify" }.
• Copyright / Content ID auto-scan can take 1-5 minutes. Studio still lets you publish; the scan continues in the background. Do not wait for it.
• The "Made for kids" toggle is required — do not skip step 4's audience field, or Publish stays grayed out.

URL extraction

The "Video published" dialog shows the short URL — read it from the displayed text or the copy-link button's data-clipboard-text attribute. If the dialog auto-closes before reading, navigate to https://studio.youtube.com/channel/<id>/videos and read the first row's "Video link" hover-link.

If both fail → { "post_url": null, "error": "url_extraction_failed" }.

Dry-run

• Stop after step 7 (visibility set). Do not click Publish.
• Click "Cancel" / "Save as draft" to exit the wizard. YT keeps the upload as a private draft — the run is not "leaving residue" unexpectedly.
• browser_close.
• Return { "status": "dry_run_ok", "draft_residue": "yes — private draft saved in Studio" } (call this out so dry-run cleanup is honest).

Delete (called by delete-youtube)

Deletion in YT Studio is "move to trash"; the video stays for 30 days before final removal. The round-trip "verified-gone" check accepts a "Video unavailable" page rather than a hard 404.