Thought Leadership Video Pipeline

A complete pipeline for generating AI avatar videos and distributing them across social platforms.

Overview

1. •Script → Extract from your content source
2. •Generate → HeyGen API (streaming avatar)
3. •Captions → Use HeyGen's caption feature or post-process with CapCut
4. •Host → Upload to CDN (Cloudflare R2, S3, etc.)
5. •Distribute → YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn

Pipeline Steps

1. Prepare Script

Keep scripts TTS-optimized:

• •Short sentences
• •No complex punctuation
• •Natural speech patterns

2. Generate Video (HeyGen)

Store HeyGen credentials in keychain:

security add-generic-password -s "openclaw-heygen" -a "heygen" \
  -w '{"api_key":"your_api_key","avatar_id":"your_avatar_id","voice_id":"your_voice_id"}' -U

API Call:

import requests, json, subprocess

# Get credentials
result = subprocess.run(['security', 'find-generic-password', '-s', 'openclaw-heygen', '-w'], capture_output=True, text=True)
creds = json.loads(result.stdout.strip())

# Generate video
response = requests.post(
    'https://api.heygen.com/v2/video/generate',
    headers={'X-Api-Key': creds['api_key'], 'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    json={
        'video_inputs': [{
            'character': {'type': 'avatar', 'avatar_id': creds['avatar_id']},
            'voice': {'type': 'audio', 'voice_id': creds['voice_id']},
            'script': {'type': 'text', 'input': 'Your script here'}
        }],
        'dimension': {'width': 1080, 'height': 1920},
        'caption': True  # Bakes captions into video
    }
)
video_id = response.json()['data']['video_id']

3. Download Video

Poll for completion, then use video_url_caption (not video_url) for baked-in captions:

# Poll status
status = requests.get(
    f'https://api.heygen.com/v1/video_status.get?video_id={video_id}',
    headers={'X-Api-Key': creds['api_key']}
).json()

if status['data']['status'] == 'completed':
    video_url = status['data']['video_url_caption']  # With captions

4. Upload to CDN

Cloudflare R2 example:

wrangler r2 object put your-bucket/video.mp4 \
  --file=video.mp4 \
  --content-type=video/mp4 \
  --remote

Instagram and Threads require public URLs (not local files).

5. Post to Platforms

Platform Credentials

YouTube

{
  "client_id": "your_client_id.apps.googleusercontent.com",
  "client_secret": "your_client_secret",
  "refresh_token": "your_refresh_token"
}

⚠️ Tokens expire — refresh before EVERY upload:

requests.post('https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token', data={
    'client_id': creds['client_id'],
    'client_secret': creds['client_secret'],
    'refresh_token': creds['refresh_token'],
    'grant_type': 'refresh_token'
})

LinkedIn

Keychain: openclaw-linkedin

⚠️ Uses camelCase keys:

• •accessToken (not access_token)
• •linkedinId (not linkedin_id)

Person URN: urn:li:person:{linkedinId}

Facebook

{
  "PAGE_ID": "your_page_id",
  "PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_page_token"
}

Native chunked upload (start → transfer → finish).

Instagram

Same credentials as Facebook:

• •IG_USER_ID
• •PAGE_ACCESS_TOKEN

⚠️ Requires public URL (not local file)

• •Wait 30s after container creation before publish

Threads

{
  "THREADS_USER_ID": "your_threads_id",
  "THREADS_ACCESS_TOKEN": "your_threads_token"
}

⚠️ Requires public URL (not local file) ⚠️ Wait 45+ seconds for video processing (20s will fail)

Platform Configuration

Store your platform IDs in a config file or TOOLS.md:

platforms:
  youtube:
    channel_id: "your_channel_id"
  facebook:
    page_id: "your_page_id"
  instagram:
    user_id: "your_ig_user_id"
  threads:
    user_id: "your_threads_user_id"
  linkedin:
    person_id: "your_linkedin_id"

Posting Schedule

Establish a consistent schedule:

• •Tuesday: Episode 1
• •Thursday: Episode 2

Stagger posts across platforms:

• •7:00 AM → YouTube
• •7:30 AM → Instagram Reel
• •8:00 AM → LinkedIn + Facebook
• •8:15 AM → Threads

Checklist Before Posting

• • Script is TTS-optimized
• • Video downloaded with captions (video_url_caption)
• • Video uploaded to CDN with public URL
• • YouTube token refreshed
• • LinkedIn using camelCase keys
• • Threads wait time ≥45s

Tips

1. •HeyGen captions — Use caption: true to bake captions into the video
2. •Instagram/Threads — Must use public CDN URLs, not local files
3. •LinkedIn video — Use native upload, not URL embedding
4. •Facebook — Chunked upload works best for larger files
5. •YouTube — Always refresh token before upload