Create 32-second AI video Shorts from RSS blog posts with Claude and Shotstack

Description

Quick overview
Turn the newest posts from any blog's RSS feed into 32-second vertical Shorts. Claude designs each video from the article: AI images, AI music, a voiceover and subtitles, all cut to the beat. No stock footage. Self-hosted n8n only: it saves files on disk.

How it works
Downloads Shotstack's guide for AI agents once, then reads the newest articles from your RSS feed, one at a time.
Claude Opus 5.5 reads the guide, the article and a plain-English brief and writes the whole Shotstack edit: 5 Nano Banana 2 images, ElevenLabs music at 120 BPM, a voiceover, subtitles and animated text, timed to the beat.
Claude Opus 5.5 reads the guide, the article and a plain-English brief and writes the whole Shotstack edit: 5 Nano Banana 2 images, ElevenLabs music at 120 BPM, a voiceover, subtitles and animated text, timed to the beat.
A Code step checks the edit before anything costs money. It fixes small things itself and sends anything else back to Claude with the exact problem.
One Shotstack render generates every image and sound and renders the 32-second Short, which is saved to the article-shorts folder. If Shotstack turns the edit down, Claude fixes it, up to twice.

Setup
Install the Shotstack community node from the nodes panel or Settings → Community nodes, then import this workflow.
Add your Anthropic API key to Claude and Claude (fixes), and your Shotstack API key to Make the video and Check the render. Free trial: https://shotstack.io/?utm_source=n8n&utm_medium=template&utm_campaign=article-shorts&utm_content=description
Put your feed's link and how many articles to make in Your feed. Make an empty article-shorts folder in n8n's files folder (/home/node/.n8n-files in Docker). On an npm install, change that path in Save the short.
Click Execute workflow, and try one article first: each Short takes 5 to 15 minutes.

Requirements
Self-hosted n8n, version 2 or later, because the workflow saves files on disk
The Shotstack community node, any version
A Shotstack API key with credits for AI generation. The free trial's 10 credits cover a first Short
An Anthropic API key. Claude Opus 5.5 works best

Customization
Change the length, tempo, number of images or style in the brief in Claude makes the video
Add AI video shots in the brief for more motion, at about 2.5 credits each
Swap the RSS trigger in for Read the feed, so a Short is made every time a new post goes live
Post the Shorts to YouTube or save them to Google Drive instead of saving them on disk

Additional info
Each Short costs about 8 Shotstack credits: 3.75 for the 5 images, 3.75 for the music and under 1 for the voiceover and render, plus your Claude usage. So a first Short fits the 10 free trial credits.