i automated a youtube channel. here's the full pipeline

Vault of Frights is a YouTube Shorts channel that uploads a new horror video every day. i don't write the scripts. i don't record narration. i don't edit video. it all runs automatically.

here's how.

the pipeline (9 modules)

topic seed
  → script generation (Groq LLM)
  → narration (edge-tts)
  → audio processing
  → background video selection
  → subtitle generation
  → video assembly (moviepy)
  → thumbnail generation
  → YouTube upload (Data API)

each module is independent. if narration fails, video assembly doesn't run. if the upload fails, the video stays in queue. everything has a fallback.

script generation

i use Groq (Llama 3) for script generation. the prompt is tuned for horror shorts: tight structure, punchy ending, under 60 seconds of narration. the model is fast and cheap enough to generate 5 variations and pick the best one.

def generate_script(topic: str) -> str:
    prompt = f"""
    Write a horror story for a YouTube Short about: {topic}
    Requirements:
    - Under 200 words
    - First-person narrator
    - Twist or unsettling ending
    - No jump scares, psychological dread only
    """
    response = groq_client.chat.completions.create(...)
    return response.choices[0].message.content

narration with edge-tts

edge-tts is Microsoft's TTS engine, free, surprisingly good. i use a voice with slight breathiness for horror atmosphere. the output is an MP3 that moviepy assembles with the video.

the series engine

one thing i added later: a series engine. instead of standalone stories, some videos are multi-part. the engine tracks story state across episodes (character names, established lore, open threads) and feeds them to the script generator.

retention on series videos is noticeably better.

what's not automated

• topic seeding (i still pick themes manually, ~monthly)
• channel art and thumbnails (placeholder for now)
• responding to comments (not doing that)

does it work?

6+ videos live as of launch (2026-05-24). targeting YouTube Partner Program approval by month 4-6. the math on YPP is 1k subscribers + 10M views. the views are the hard part, not the subs.

will update when there's more data.

code is on GitHub: boyzwhocried/vault-of-frights