Everything you need to know to get the most out of YouPush.
Watch the walkthrough
New to YouPush? This video walks through the whole workflow end to end.
Read this first: Set up your Channel Profile before doing anything else. YouPush uses your profile (voice rules, niche, audience, description footer) to generate metadata that sounds like you. Without it, results will be generic.
When you first launch YouPush, a setup wizard walks you through:
Connect YouTube — Click "Connect YouTube" and sign in through your browser. One click, no setup. This authorizes YouPush to upload on your behalf. (Prefer to use your own Google Cloud credentials instead? You can, it's optional, see the advanced credentials guide.)
AI API Keys — Enter your Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (Whisper) API keys. These are required: they power the AI metadata generation and audio transcription. See API Keys below.
Channel Profile — Enter your channel name and basic info. You can fill in details later, but do it before generating your first video's metadata.
Accept Terms — Review and accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
You can skip steps and come back to them, but skipping the channel profile will result in generic, low-quality metadata. Take five minutes to set it up properly.
2. Channel Profile (Do This First)
This is the most important step. YouPush feeds your channel profile to the AI every time it generates titles, descriptions, headlines, and Shorts suggestions. A detailed profile produces content that matches your voice and audience. A blank profile produces generic content that could be for anyone.
Go to Channel Profile in the sidebar. Fill in:
Channel Name — Your YouTube channel name.
Niche — What your channel is about (e.g., "acting advice for working actors").
Tone — How you speak (e.g., "direct, no-nonsense, conversational").
Target Audience — Who watches your videos (e.g., "beginner to intermediate actors, ages 25-45").
Voice Rules — Specific instructions for the AI. Examples: "Always write in first person," "Never use the word 'journey'," "Reference personal experience as a working actor." The more specific, the better.
Description Footer — Text appended to every video description (links, social handles, CTAs). This is added automatically.
Headline Labels — The badge text options for thumbnails and Shorts (e.g., "MYTH BUSTED," "WRONG," "STOP THIS").
Badge & Stamp — Configure the badge text, end stamp lines, and whether to show them on Shorts.
Brand Colors — Primary and secondary colors used in thumbnails.
Logo — Upload your channel logo for video overlay during upload and export.
End Card — Select a video file to append to the end of every uploaded video.
Click Save Profile when done. Changes take effect on the next generation.
3. API Keys
YouPush needs two API keys to function:
Anthropic API Key — Powers title, description, tag, headline, and Shorts generation using Claude. Get yours at console.anthropic.com.
Connecting YouTube needs no API keys: it's one click from the setup wizard (see First-Time Setup above). If you'd rather use your own Google Cloud credentials (optional, for advanced users or your own upload quota), follow the guide below.
Enter your keys in Settings (gear icon in sidebar). All keys are stored locally on your machine and never sent to YouPush servers.
AI API usage is billed directly by Anthropic and OpenAI at their standard rates. A typical video costs a few cents to process. YouTube API credentials are free.
4. Studio — The Main Workspace
Studio is where you do everything for a single video:
Import a video — Drag and drop a video file onto the drop zone, or click to browse. Supported formats: MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI.
Transcription starts automatically — The audio is extracted and sent to Whisper for transcription. A progress indicator shows the status.
Capture a frame — Use the video player to find a good thumbnail frame. Click "Capture Frame" to grab it. Use the +/- buttons for fine positioning.
Generate metadata — Once transcription is done, click "Generate Title + Description" to get AI-generated metadata based on your transcript and channel profile.
Edit everything — Title, description, and tags are all editable before upload. The AI gives you a starting point; you make it yours.
Your session is saved automatically. If you close the app and reopen the same video, your work is restored.
5. Thumbnails
After capturing a frame:
Click Suggest Headlines to generate 5 headline/subtitle options from your transcript.
Select a headline — all thumbnail styles update instantly.
Browse the styles and click Use on your favorite. The thumbnail is saved as a 1280x720 PNG and attached to your upload.
Customize which styles appear in Channel Profile > Thumbnail Templates. You can also upload a custom background image instead of using the captured frame.
6. Shorts
YouPush finds the most engaging moments in your video and turns them into vertical Shorts:
Set the count (how many Shorts to find) and duration range (min/max seconds).
Click Suggest Shorts. The AI identifies hook-worthy moments from your transcript.
Each Short shows a headline badge, captions, and a virality score (1-10).
Click Preview to see it. Use the +/- 1s trim controls to adjust.
Click Render All to produce the final video files.
Add rendered Shorts to the Queue for scheduled publishing.
Shorts use your channel profile's badge, end stamp, and brand colors. Configure these in Channel Profile.
7. Uploading to YouTube
The Upload section appears below Metadata in Studio:
Set Privacy (public, private, unlisted). Private requires a publish date.
Toggle End card, Captions, Badge, and Logo overlays.
Review the YouTube compliance notice.
Click Upload to YouTube.
YouPush renders the video with your selected branding (badge, logo, end card), then uploads it with the metadata and thumbnail you prepared. Captions are uploaded as a separate track on YouTube.
A progress bar shows the rendering and upload status. If your network disconnects, you'll see a clear error message — just reconnect and try again.
8. Exporting Video
The Export button (next to the video player) produces a fully branded video file saved to the same folder as your source video:
End card appended (if configured)
Badge and logo overlaid (toggleable with checkboxes)
Subtitles burned in (if "Subtitles" checkbox is on)
Watermark applied (free tier only)
The output file is named [your-video]_export.mp4.
Export and Upload are independent — exporting does not affect uploading, and vice versa.
9. Shorts Queue
The Queue manages scheduled Shorts uploads:
View pending, scheduled, live, and failed items.
Edit Schedule to set how many Shorts publish per day and at what times.
Remove or reorder items. Failed items show an error message and a Retry button.
The queue processes automatically — as long as the app is running, it uploads Shorts at the scheduled times. YouTube allows 6 API uploads per day.
10. History
Every video you process appears in History with:
Title, date, upload status, and YouTube link.
Expandable details showing transcript and Shorts generated from it.
Full-text search across all transcripts.
Re-mine for new Shorts — opens the video in Studio and automatically avoids previously used clips.
11. Analytics
The Analytics view shows your YouTube channel stats:
Subscriber count, total views, and video count.
Per-video performance (views, likes, comments) with sorting and filtering.
Shorts vs. long-form comparison.
Reply to comments directly from the app.
Data is fetched live from YouTube each time you open Analytics.
12. Multiple Channels
YouPush supports multiple YouTube channels, each with its own:
Voice rules, niche, tone, and audience.
Description footer and headline labels.
Brand colors, logo, badge, and end card.
Thumbnail style preferences.
YouTube OAuth connection.
Switch channels using the dropdown in the sidebar. Create new channels in Channel Profile. The free tier supports 1 channel; licensed users get unlimited channels.
Your internet dropped during an upload. Reconnect and try again. The video is not lost.
Upload quota exceeded
YouTube allows 6 API uploads per day. This resets at midnight Pacific Time. If you need more, space your uploads across days or use the scheduled queue.
Transcription takes a long time
Long videos (>30 minutes) are split into chunks for transcription. This is normal and may take several minutes depending on video length.
"Scoped command not found"
This indicates an app permissions issue. Update to the latest version of YouPush. If it persists, contact support.
Generic or low-quality metadata
Your channel profile is likely incomplete. Go to Channel Profile and fill in your niche, tone, target audience, and voice rules. The AI can only match your voice if you tell it what your voice sounds like.