Post to YouTube from Claude Code

Claude Code drafts it. You approve it. PostDelegate posts it.YouTube: Video uploads with a title, visibility, thumbnail and tags.

How to post to YouTube from Claude Code

Add PostDelegate to Claude Code. Add the PostDelegate MCP server with the command below. Run /mcp inside Claude Code and authenticate the postdelegate server. Your browser opens to sign in.
Terminal
```
claude mcp add postdelegate --transport http "https://app.postdelegate.com/mcp-oauth-dynamic"
```
Connect YouTube in PostDelegate. On the calendar page choose Add Channel, then YouTube. Sign in with Google, approve the permissions and, if your Google account has more than one channel, choose the one to connect.
Ask Claude Code for a draft. Describe the post in plain words. Claude Code checks your YouTube channel's rules, creates the post and sends back a preview link.

Teach Claude Code the posting rules

Save the PostDelegate skill to ~/.claude/skills/postdelegate/SKILL.md. Call it with /postdelegate, or just ask for a post and Claude Code loads it. Agent files has the steps.

What to ask Claude Code

Mention any YouTube setting in plain words and Claude Code fills it in. Claude Code can also read text files in your project, such as a changelog or a draft in Markdown.

Draft a YouTube post for the video I uploaded to my media library today: title “How we cut our build time in half”, unlisted, not made for kids. Do not schedule it yet.
What is scheduled on my YouTube channel this month, and are any of the videos missing a thumbnail?
Write a YouTube description for our launch video from docs/launch.md, keep the tags under 500 characters, and save it as a draft for Friday at 17:00.

What Claude Code can do on your YouTube channel

Check the rules first. Before writing, it reads your YouTube channel's length limit (5,000 characters) and required settings.
Draft, schedule or post. It creates a draft, a scheduled post or an immediate post, and runs the same checks as the app.
Use your media. It attaches files from your media library or adds one from a public link.
Review and fix. It lists what is scheduled, changes the YouTube settings of a post that has not gone out, and deletes posts you no longer want.

A YouTube post is a video, a title and a visibility choice. Unlike a text network, nothing about it can be left until the last minute, so PostDelegate keeps the video file, the title, the description and the thumbnail together with the planned post. Everything is ready before the scheduled time arrives.

YouTube settings Claude Code can fill in

Setting	Notes
Title	Required. 2 to 100 characters.
Visibility	Required. Public, Private or Unlisted.
Made for kids	Optional. Yes or No.
Thumbnail	Optional image. Custom thumbnails need a phone-verified YouTube channel, and YouTube may ignore them on videos it treats as Shorts. The video is still published if YouTube rejects a thumbnail.
Tags	Optional. All tags together can use at most 500 characters; a tag with a space counts two extra characters.

Before you start

Signing in to PostDelegate with Google does not by itself connect a YouTube channel.
Every YouTube post needs a video file. Uploads follow YouTube's own daily quota.

The YouTube channel guide has every field, and MCP tools lists exactly what an assistant can and cannot do.

Questions

Will Claude Code publish to YouTube without asking me?

Not unless you ask it to. Ask for a draft and the post waits on your calendar until you schedule it, and your workspace's approvals apply as usual. Tools that change data are marked as such, so Claude Code can ask you before it schedules or deletes anything.

Do I need an API key to connect Claude Code?

No. Claude Code signs in with your PostDelegate account through your browser. An API key is only for clients that cannot sign in, as described in MCP clients.

Does it cost extra to use Claude Code with PostDelegate?

No. The MCP server is on every plan, and Claude Code runs on your own Claude Code account, so PostDelegate never charges for AI. Every plan starts with a 7-day free trial with no card.

Can Claude Code attach images or video to a YouTube post?

It can use files already in your media library, or add one from a public link. It cannot fetch files from your computer, so upload those in the app first. See MCP tools.

Can I schedule a YouTube video as private or unlisted?

Yes. Visibility is a required setting on every YouTube post, and you can choose Public, Private or Unlisted for each video.

Can I add a custom thumbnail to a scheduled YouTube video?

Yes, add an optional thumbnail image to the post. Custom thumbnails need a phone-verified YouTube channel, and YouTube may ignore them on videos it treats as Shorts. If YouTube rejects the thumbnail, the video is still published.

YouTube from other assistants

Other networks from Claude Code

Prefer to plan YouTube posts yourself? See the YouTube scheduler.