Auto Shorts for n8n

A raw clip becomes a captioned Short — after you approve it.

The kit takes a public clip URL from a hosted n8n form or a Google Sheet row, renders a 1080×1920 video with styled captions, drafts a title and #shorts tags, and waits. Nothing is posted until a person changes the row status to approved.

Start the setup See the walkthrough

About 30–45 minutes to set up
n8n 2.47.3, Cloud or self-hosted
Human approval before every post

Submit clip form/form/auto-shorts-submit

Google Sheet, queue tabstatus changes

After render and approvalZernio → YouTube

What happens to one clip

The form returns immediately. Rendering and posting are separate workflows, so a multi-minute render never holds the form open, and posting cannot run until a human has approved the row.

Submitted
A public HTTPS clip URL arrives from the hosted form or a row you type with status = queued.
Rendered
JSON2Video builds a custom 1080×1920 movie. The clip is resize: cover. Movie-level auto-subtitles transcribe the audio (default model: whisper).
Titled
OpenAI or OpenRouter drafts a title (max 100 characters), a description, and tags that always include shorts.
Held
The Sheet becomes awaiting_approval with a preview_url. Nothing is posted yet.
Approved
A person watches the preview, edits the metadata if needed, and sets status to approved.
Posted
Zernio sends the video to YouTube. A future scheduled_at becomes scheduledFor. Default visibility is private.
Logged
The YouTube URL and Zernio post id are written back. Failures go to the row’s error column and the error_log tab.
Detected as a Short
YouTube treats it as a Short when it is ≤ 3 minutes and vertical or square. There is no Shorts flag to send.

How the workflows fit together

Four inactive workflows: a form that only queues, a renderer, a poster that only runs on approved rows, and an error handler.

Entry

Submit Clip form/form/auto-shorts-submit

Sheet rowstatus = queued

Render

Ingest & Renderevery 5 minutes or manual

JSON2Video1080×1920 + subtitles

Hold

OpenAI or OpenRoutertitle, description, tags

awaiting_approvalpreview_url on the row

Post

Human sets approvedin the Google Sheet

Zernio → YouTubeprivate by default

Render or post failedThe row is marked failed, then Stop and Error, then the Error Handler appends a line to error_log. Preview older than 7 daysJSON2Video deletes the MP4, thumbnail, and caption file. Re-queue the clip to render again.

n8n Overview listing Auto Shorts – Post Approved, Ingest & Render, Submit Clip (Form), and Error Handler, all in the Personal project. — The four workflows after import, still inactive. Search for “Auto Shorts” on the Overview page.

What you get

Keys only

JSON2Video, OpenAI or OpenRouter, Zernio, and Google Sheets. Credentials are n8n credential references with placeholder names — no keys in the workflow JSON.

Approval is required

Only approved rows are sent to YouTube. A Telegram notice is optional and ships disabled. Approval is always a Sheet status change.

Safe first tests

Default YouTube visibility is private. Publish the workflows only after a private test post succeeds.

Official API fields

Movie and post bodies use documented JSON2Video and Zernio fields only. Subtitle settings is a closed list — invented CSS keys fail the render.

Resume, don’t double-bill

POST /v2/movies is not idempotent. A rendering row with a saved project id is polled again instead of creating a second movie.

Cloud or self-hosted

All vendor calls are HTTP Request. The kit does not use Execute Command or FFmpeg on the n8n host.

What’s in the kit

Four workflows and this guide

Import the JSON files that came with the pack into your own n8n 2.47.3 instance. This website is the buyer setup guide and walkthrough. It is not a hosted editor.

Start the setup

JSON2Video’s free 600 credits are watermarked and non-commercial. Commercial posting needs a paid JSON2Video plan. Zernio’s published social pricing includes two accounts free, then a per-account monthly fee.

Auto Shorts – Submit Clip (Form)
Auto Shorts – Ingest & Render
Auto Shorts – Post Approved
Auto Shorts – Error Handler
Sample queue and error-log CSVs
This setup guide and walkthrough