Generate YouTube shorts using WayinVideo AI and upload clips to Google Drive

Description

Description

Paste any video URL in chat — YouTube, podcast, webinar, anything — and this n8n workflow automatically finds the best short clips using WayinVideo AI, adds captions, reframes to 9:16 vertical format, and uploads everything directly to your Google Drive. No editing software, no manual work. Just paste and done.

Built for content creators, marketers, and agencies who want to repurpose long-form video into viral short clips on autopilot.

What This Workflow Does

This automation handles your complete video-to-clips pipeline:

Chat-triggered** — User pastes any video URL and the workflow starts instantly
AI clip detection** — WayinVideo AI finds the most engaging moments automatically
Auto-captions** — Adds styled captions to every clip without manual effort
Smart reframing** — Converts horizontal video to 9:16 vertical (perfect for Reels, Shorts, TikTok)
Smart polling loop** — Waits and retries every 30 seconds until processing is complete
Batch download** — Downloads all generated clips automatically
Google Drive upload** — Saves every clip with its title directly to your chosen folder

Setup Requirements

Tools You'll Need:

Active n8n instance (self-hosted or n8n Cloud)
WayinVideo account with API access
Google Drive with OAuth2 access

Estimated Setup Time: 10–15 minutes

Step-by-Step Setup

1. Get Your WayinVideo API Key

WayinVideo is the AI engine that generates short clips from your videos.

Go to WayinVideo and create a free/paid account
Navigate to Dashboard → API section
Copy your Bearer API token
Open the "🎬 Submit Video to WayinVideo API" node in n8n
Replace YOUR_WAYINVIDEO_API_KEY with your actual token (in the Authorization header)
Do the same in the "🔄 Poll for Clip Results" node — replace the same placeholder there too

> ⚠️ The API key appears in two places — Submit node and Poll node. Replace both!

2. Connect Google Drive

In n8n: Go to Credentials → Add Credential → Google Drive OAuth2 API
Complete the Google OAuth authentication
Open the "☁️ Upload Clip to Google Drive" node
Select your Google Drive credential
Replace YOUR_GOOGLE_DRIVE_FOLDER_ID with your actual folder ID

How to find your Google Drive Folder ID:
Open Google Drive in browser
Navigate to your target folder
Look at the URL: drive.google.com/drive/folders/THIS_IS_YOUR_FOLDER_ID
Copy just that last part and paste it in the node

3. Configure the Chat Trigger

This workflow is triggered when a user sends a video URL in the n8n chat interface.

The trigger node receives $json.chatInput — this is the video URL the user pastes
Make sure your n8n instance has the chat trigger enabled
No additional setup needed — it works out of the box

4. Customise Clip Settings (Optional)

Open the "🎬 Submit Video to WayinVideo API" node to customise:

| Parameter | Default Value | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
| target_duration | DURATION_30_60 | Clip length (30–60 seconds) |
| limit | 3 | Number of clips to generate |
| resolution | HD_720 | Video quality (720p) |
| ratio | RATIO_9_16 | Vertical format (for Reels/Shorts) |
| enable_caption | true | Auto-captions on/off |
| caption_display | original | Caption language/style |
| cc_style_tpl | temp-7 | Caption design template |
| enable_ai_reframe | true | Auto-reframe to vertical |

To change clip length options:
DURATION_15_30 → 15 to 30 second clips
DURATION_30_60 → 30 to 60 second clips (default)
DURATION_60_90 → 60 to 90 second clips

To change ratio:
RATIO_9_16 → Vertical (TikTok, Reels, Shorts)
RATIO_16_9 → Horizontal (YouTube, LinkedIn)
RATIO_1_1 → Square (Instagram feed)

To change resolution:
HD_720 → 720p (faster processing)
FULL_HD_1080 → 1080p (higher quality)

5. Test & Activate

Open n8n and go to this workflow
Click "Chat" button to open the chat interface
Paste any YouTube video URL and press send
Watch the workflow run step by step in the execution view
Check your Google Drive folder — clips should appear within 1–5 minutes
Once confirmed, toggle the workflow Active at the top ✅

How It Works (Step by Step)

Step 1 — Chat Trigger
User pastes a video URL in the n8n chat. The URL is captured as $json.chatInput and passed to the next node.

Step 2 — Submit Video to WayinVideo API
The workflow sends a POST request to the WayinVideo API (/api/v2/clips) with:
The video URL
All your clip preferences (duration, ratio, captions, resolution)
A project name auto-generated with today's date (e.g., Podcast Clips - 2025-01-15)

The API returns a Job ID which is used to track processing status.

Step 3 — Wait 30 Seconds
The workflow pauses for 30 seconds to give WayinVideo time to start processing. This avoids hitting the API too early with an empty response.

Step 4 — Poll for Clip Results
Using the Job ID from Step 2, the workflow calls:
GET /api/v2/clips/results/{job_id}
to check if clips are ready.

Step 5 — Clips Ready? (Smart Loop)
The IF node checks if the clips array in the response is non-empty:

YES (clips ready)** → Moves forward to extract clip details
NO (still processing)** → Loops back to "Wait 30 Seconds" and tries again

> This smart retry loop runs automatically every 30 seconds until your clips are done. No manual retries needed.

Step 6 — Extract Clip Details
The Code node loops through all generated clips and extracts:
title — AI-generated clip title
export_link — Direct download URL for the clip
score — AI virality/engagement score
tags — Topic tags for the clip
desc — Short clip description
begin_ms / end_ms — Timestamp of the clip in the original video

Each clip becomes a separate item for parallel processing.

Step 7 — Download Clip File
For each clip, the workflow downloads the video file from the export_link URL. The file is stored as binary data (responseFormat: file) ready for upload.

Step 8 — Upload to Google Drive
Each downloaded clip is uploaded to your specified Google Drive folder. The file is named using the clip's AI-generated title automatically.

Key Features

✅ Zero manual editing — AI handles clip selection, captions, and reframing
✅ Smart polling loop — Auto-retries every 30s, no timeout issues
✅ Batch processing — Handles multiple clips from one video in one run
✅ AI virality scoring — Each clip comes with an engagement score
✅ Auto-named files — Clips saved with meaningful AI-generated titles
✅ Flexible formats — Supports 9:16, 16:9, and 1:1 ratios
✅ Caption support — Multiple caption style templates available
✅ Google Drive ready — Organised storage with zero manual uploads

Customisation Options

Generate more clips per video:
Change limit from 3 to 5 or 10 in the Submit node.

Sort clips by score before uploading:
Add a Sort node after "Extract Clip Details" and sort by score descending — this ensures your best clips are uploaded first.

Save clip metadata to Google Sheets:
Add a Google Sheets node after "Extract Clip Details" to log the title, score, tags, and timestamp of each clip for tracking.

Add a response message back to chat:
Add a "Respond to Webhook" node at the end to send a confirmation message like: "✅ 3 clips have been uploaded to your Google Drive!"

Process multiple videos in batch:
Modify the chat trigger to accept comma-separated URLs and add a Split node to process each video sequentially.

Troubleshooting

Clips not generating / API returns empty:
Verify your WayinVideo API key is correct in both the Submit and Poll nodes
Check your WayinVideo account has active credits
Ensure the video URL is publicly accessible (private YouTube videos won't work)
Try with a shorter video first (under 20 minutes)

Workflow stuck in polling loop:
Very long videos (1+ hour) can take 5–10 minutes to process — this is normal
Check WayinVideo dashboard to see if your job is still running
If stuck for more than 15 minutes, check API status at wayinvideo.com

Google Drive upload failing:
Re-authenticate your Google Drive OAuth credential
Verify the Folder ID is correct (copy directly from the URL)
Check that your Google account has write access to that folder
Ensure the folder is not inside a Shared Drive (use My Drive for simplest setup)

Video URL not accepted:
Make sure you paste only the URL with no extra text
YouTube Shorts URLs work — use full URL format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...
Some region-locked videos may not be accessible

Clips uploading with wrong names:
The file name comes from clip.title in the Extract node
If titles look odd, you can add a Code node to clean/rename them before upload

Support

Need help setting this up or want a custom version for your use case?

📧 Email: [email protected]
🌐 Website: https://isawow.com