Crank takes a topic and generates a complete YouTube Short, including video and metadata, ready for upload. Designed for fast, efficient content creation with full control over the output.

• Python 3.x (Tested with Python 3.13)
• uv (Python package manager)
• ffmpeg and ffprobe installed and available in your system PATH (required for video processing)

Crank uses a .env file to load sensitive keys and config values. Make sure to create a .env file in the root directory containing your API keys, for example:

GEMINI_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

The other credentials are stored as JSON files inside the root directory:

• secrets.json — OAuth 2.0 client credentials JSON used for YouTube API upload authentication

Crank is fully configurable. You can adjust prompts, upload behavior, and other settings using your preferred method.

Change the following directly in the file:

• NAME: The channel name
• PROMPT: Topic or idea to base the generated video on
• UPLOAD: true or false to enable/disable uploads
• DELAY: Number of hours between uploads: 0 for instant upload, or any positive number to schedule the video that many hours later (defaults to 2.5)
• GEMINI_API_KEY: Optional channel-specific API key (overrides .env if set)
• WHISPER_MODEL: Preferred whisper model (tiny, base, small, medium, large-v1, large-v2, large-v3; defaults to small)
• OAUTH_PATH: Path to OAuth credentials (defaults to secrets.json)
• FONT: Defines text font (defaults to Comic Sans MS)

• GET_CONTENT: Guidelines for generating the transcript
• GET_TITLE: Guidelines for generating the title
• GET_SEARCH_TERM: YouTube search term used for background video scraping
• GET_DESCRIPTION: Guidelines for generating the description
• GET_CATEGORY_ID: Guidelines for generating Category ID for the video

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ecnivs/crank.git
cd crank

2. Install uv

pip install uv

3. Install dependencies using uv

uv sync

4. Install ffmpeg

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install ffmpeg

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S ffmpeg

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install ffmpeg

# Windows (using Chocolatey)
choco install ffmpeg

5. Install spaCy language model

uv run python -m spacy download en_core_web_md

Run the tool with the default configuration

uv run main.py

Or provide your custom config file with --path

uv run main.py --path path/to/your_config.yml

If you find Crank helpful and want to support its development, donations are welcome! Your support helps keep the project active and enables new features.

For information about running tests, see TESTING.md.

For information about creating custom background video plugins, see PLUGIN_GUIDE.md.

Feel free to:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Submit a pull request