Platform Guide

YouTube

YouTube usually needs more metadata than short-form networks. UniPost exposes those controls in `platform_options.youtube` while keeping the publish flow consistent with the rest of the platform set.

Overview

YouTube is a single-video publish surface. Use it for long-form videos or Shorts. The most important platform-specific controls are privacy status, Shorts mode, category, and tags. For local video files, the most reliable UniPost workflow is to upload into the media library first and then publish with `media_ids`.

Supported capabilities

Capability	Supported	Notes
Video posts	✓	Exactly 1 video
Shorts	✓	Use `platform_options.youtube.shorts`
Scheduling	✓	Use `scheduled_at`
Text-only posts	X	Video-first platform
Image posts	X	Not a native publish target
Analytics	✓	Supported

Requirements

Field	Required	Limits	Notes
media_urls or media_ids	Required	Exactly 1 video	Prefer `media_ids` when starting from a local file
caption	Optional	5,000 chars	Used as title/description body context
platform_options.youtube.privacy_status	Optional	private / public / unlisted	Default is often private
platform_options.youtube.shorts	Optional	boolean	Routes the upload toward Shorts behavior

Platform-specific options

Option	Values	Notes
platform_options.youtube.category_id	string	YouTube category ID
platform_options.youtube.tags	string[]	Tag list for snippet metadata

Example requests

The examples below are intentionally small and copyable. They show the request body only, assuming a standard POST /v1/social-posts call with Bearer auth.

Long-form video from a hosted URL

{
  "caption": "Quarterly product update",
  "account_ids": ["sa_youtube_1"],
  "media_urls": ["https://cdn.example.com/update.mp4"],
  "platform_options": {
    "youtube": {
      "privacy_status": "public",
      "category_id": "22",
      "tags": ["product", "quarterly", "update"]
    }
        }
}

Long-form video from UniPost media library

{
  "caption": "Quarterly product update",
  "account_ids": ["sa_youtube_1"],
  "media_ids": ["med_uploaded_video_1"],
  "platform_options": {
    "youtube": {
      "privacy_status": "public",
      "category_id": "22",
      "tags": ["product", "quarterly", "update"]
    }
  }
}

Shorts

{
  "caption": "30s feature demo",
  "account_ids": ["sa_youtube_1"],
  "media_urls": ["https://cdn.example.com/demo-vertical.mp4"],
  "platform_options": {
    "youtube": {
      "privacy_status": "public",
      "shorts": true
    }
  }
}

Common validation errors

Code	What it means
media_required	YouTube requires exactly one video
too_many_media	More than one media asset supplied
invalid_privacy_status	YouTube privacy value is not recognized

Once you know the correct request shape for this platform, move to the API reference for the full endpoint contract, response schema, and validation payload shape.