Guide · Agent skill

How to use the YouTube Video Upload agent skill

Updated 2026-10-29 · written with AI from the project's own documentation and checked against our catalogue data

The youtube-upload skill teaches an AI agent to publish videos to YouTube by calling the sau command from the social-auto-upload tool. It is for people who already use or plan to use that tool and want an agent to handle the sign-in, upload, scheduling and visibility steps. By the end of this guide you will know what the skill needs, how to install it, how to phrase a request, and which checks to keep in place before anything goes public.

YouTube Video Uploaddreammis/social-auto-upload · MIT Download the skill

Quick start

1Get the sau tool working. Install the social-auto-upload tool so the sau command runs in your terminal, following that project's documentation.
2Download and unzip the skill. Download the youtube-upload ZIP from this page and unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ or a project's .claude/skills/ folder.
3Sign in to YouTube. Run sau youtube login --account creator and complete the Google login in the browser.
4Check the login. Run sau youtube check --account creator to confirm the saved session is active.
5Ask the agent for an upload. Describe the video file, title, description, tags and visibility in a plain request.
6Confirm the details. When the agent lists the account, video, title, visibility and immediate or scheduled intent, check each item before approving.
7Verify in YouTube Studio. Open YouTube Studio to confirm the video, its status and any scheduled date and time.

What is an agent skill and what does this one do?

An agent skill is a folder with a SKILL.md file that gives an AI agent instructions for one kind of task. This skill, youtube-upload, tells the agent how to use the social-auto-upload command-line tool (sau) with its sau youtube commands.

Once installed, the agent can sign in to a YouTube account through a browser Google login, check the login status, and upload a local video with a title, description, tags, thumbnail, playlist and visibility setting. If you give it a time, it can also schedule the publish. The skill is written to make the agent confirm the account, video and details before publishing.

Sign in to a YouTube account with sau youtube login (browser Google login, no QR code)
Check login status with sau youtube check
Upload a video with sau youtube upload-video, including title, description, tags, thumbnail and playlist
Set visibility to public, unlisted or private (default is public)
Schedule a publish time only when you give one explicitly

sau youtube login --account creator
sau youtube check --account creator
sau youtube upload-video --account creator --file videos/demo.mp4 --title "标题" --desc "简介" --tags tag1,tags2 --visibility public

Install the youtube-upload skill

Download the skill ZIP from this page and unzip it. Place the resulting youtube-upload folder in one of two locations: ~/.claude/skills/ to make it available to you across projects, or a project's .claude/skills/ folder to limit it to that project.

If you use the Claude apps instead, open Settings, go to Capabilities, then Skills, and upload the skill there.

The skill itself is only instructions. You also need the social-auto-upload tool with the sau command installed before the skill can do anything. The source does not describe how to install that tool, so follow its own project documentation.

Option A: unzip into ~/.claude/skills/
Option B: unzip into a project's .claude/skills/ folder
Option C: upload via Settings → Capabilities → Skills in the Claude apps
Confirm that the sau command runs in your terminal before you start

You need a YouTube or Google account with permission to upload, a local video file, and browser access for the Google login step. The --account value is a local session alias that names your saved login; it is not your Google address.

Run the login once per account. The sign-in happens in a browser window, so the agent will need you to complete the Google login yourself.

A YouTube/Google account with upload permission
A local video file (for example videos/demo.mp4)
Browser access for the Google login
Pick a short --account alias such as creator

sau youtube login --account creator

Ask the agent to upload, schedule or check

Use plain requests that name the video, the account and what you want. The skill triggers when you want to publish or schedule a video to YouTube, or check Google/YouTube login status.

Good requests include the file, the title and the visibility. If you want a scheduled post, include the exact date and time so the agent can pass it to --schedule in the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM.

"Upload videos/demo.mp4 to the creator YouTube account as unlisted, title 'Spring walkthrough'."
"Check whether the creator YouTube login is still active."
"Schedule videos/launch.mp4 for 2025-06-01 09:00 on the creator account, public."
"Add this video to my existing playlist and use thumbs/cover.jpg as the thumbnail."

Understand the options and limits

Titles can be up to 100 characters. --visibility accepts public, unlisted or private, and defaults to public. --thumbnail sets a cover image and --playlist adds the video to an existing playlist.

The --schedule option uses YouTube Studio's Schedule status. Check the date and time shown on the YouTube Studio page after scheduling, because a misread date can cause a post to go out at the wrong time.

Title: maximum 100 characters
--visibility: public, unlisted or private (default public)
--thumbnail: path to a cover image
--playlist: an existing playlist
--schedule: only when you give an explicit time, format "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM"

sau youtube upload-video --account creator --file videos/demo.mp4 --title "标题" --schedule "2025-06-01 09:00" --visibility public

Safety notes: scripts and network access

This skill runs scripts and uses the network: it calls the sau command, which performs browser sign-in and uploads to YouTube. Review what the sau tool does in its own documentation before you give an agent access to it.

The skill tells the agent to re-check the account, video, title, description, tags, visibility and whether the request is for immediate or scheduled publishing before it publishes. If an upload or publish times out, the agent should check the original video in YouTube Studio first rather than uploading again, which would risk a duplicate. A successful upload does not mean review is finished or that the video is playable yet.

Uploads default to public; set --visibility deliberately
Do not run unattended bulk publishing without review
On a timeout, check YouTube Studio before retrying
Uploading successfully does not mean the video is live or review is complete

Tips for reliable uploads

Keep the --account alias consistent across commands so the agent uses the right saved session. Use check before a large batch to confirm the login is still valid.

Start with unlisted or private uploads while you test your setup, then switch to public once you have confirmed the result in YouTube Studio.

Run sau youtube check before a batch
Test with --visibility unlisted or private first
Review the scheduled date and time in YouTube Studio
Keep titles under 100 characters

What people use it for

Publishing a finished tutorial to a creator's channel as unlisted for a review round before going public
Scheduling a product launch video for a specific date and time on a named account
Managing several YouTube accounts with separate --account aliases and a login check before each batch
Adding a new upload to an existing playlist with a custom thumbnail

Frequently asked questions

What is the youtube-upload skill?

It is an agent skill, a SKILL.md instruction file, that teaches an AI agent to use the sau youtube commands from the social-auto-upload tool. It covers login, login checks, uploads, visibility, thumbnails, playlists and scheduling.

Do I need social-auto-upload installed to use this skill?

Yes. The skill only wraps the sau commands and does not work on its own. You need the social-auto-upload tool with the sau command installed first.

Is the youtube-upload skill free?

The skill is released under the MIT licence, as listed on this page. The source does not describe pricing for the skill or for YouTube, so check those separately.

Where do I install the skill?

Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ for personal use or into a project's .claude/skills/ folder for one project. In the Claude apps you can upload it under Settings, Capabilities, Skills.

Why does the upload go public by default?

The sau upload-video command defaults to --visibility public. Pass --visibility unlisted or private when you want to limit who can see the video, and review the setting before each upload.

What should I do if an upload times out?

Check the original video in YouTube Studio before retrying. The skill advises against re-uploading blindly, which could create a duplicate.

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Our verdict

Use this skill if you already run social-auto-upload and publish to YouTube regularly, or manage several accounts and want an agent to follow consistent, checked steps. Pick something else if you have not set up the sau tool, or if you want unattended bulk publishing with no review, since uploads default to public and scheduled times can be misread.

Download the skill