r/Shorts

A full-stack web app that turns text prompts into short-form videos for TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Paste a prompt, and the app generates a reddit-style story, narrates it with AI voices, syncs word-level captions, and renders the final video on AWS Lambda.

How it works

1. Story generation -- GPT-4o turns a prompt into a structured, narrated story
2. Voice synthesis -- OpenAI TTS or ElevenLabs narrates the story with 12+ voice options
3. Caption sync -- Word-level captions are generated and aligned to the audio
4. Preview -- Real-time Remotion player lets you tweak captions, intros, playback speed, and background music
5. Render -- Remotion Lambda renders the final 1080x1920 MP4 on AWS, no local FFmpeg needed

Tech stack

• Framework: Next.js 16 (App Router, React 19)
• Auth: Clerk
• Video: Remotion v4 with Lambda rendering
• AI: OpenAI (story + TTS), ElevenLabs (TTS)
• Storage: AWS S3 (videos, audio, renders)
• Styling: Tailwind CSS v4, shadcn/ui, custom theme system
• Validation: Zod
• Language: TypeScript (strict)

Getting started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• AWS account with S3 bucket and Lambda access
• OpenAI API key
• Clerk application
• ElevenLabs API key (optional, for additional voices)

Setup

git clone <repo-url>
cd rshorts
npm install
cp .env.example .env

Fill in the values in .env (see .env.example for all required variables), then:

npm run dev

Lambda deployment

To deploy the Remotion Lambda function and site bundle:

npx tsx scripts/deploy-lambda.ts

This prints REMOTION_FUNCTION_NAME and REMOTION_SERVE_URL values to add to your .env.

Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server
npm run build	Production build
npm run lint	Run ESLint
npm run remotion:studio	Open Remotion Studio for composition preview
npx tsx scripts/deploy-lambda.ts	Deploy Lambda function and site bundle

Project structure

app/                    Next.js routes and API handlers
  api/                  REST endpoints (story, narration, captions, render, clips)
  clips/                Server-rendered clips gallery
  create/               Video creation wizard
components/             React components
  create/               Wizard steps (Story, Narration, Background, Preview, Finish)
  clips/                Clips page components
  ui/                   shadcn/ui primitives
hooks/                  Custom React hooks (useApi)
lib/                    Shared logic
  api/                  Axios client, typed endpoint functions, API types
  narration/            TTS types, voice config, audio effects
  story/                Story generation types and prompts
  captions/             Caption generation and processing
  render/               Lambda config and render types
  video/                S3 storage layer
remotion/               Video compositions and Remotion config
scripts/                Deployment and utility scripts