ShortEngine

Generate YouTube Shorts from a single command. Free. Open-source. $0/video.

npx tsx src/generate.ts "The House That Watches You Back"

One command → script (Ollama) → voiceover (edge-tts) → AI images (Flux) → video (FFmpeg)

Requirements

• Node.js 22+
• Ollama running locally with llama3.1:8b
• FFmpeg installed
• Python 3 with edge-tts (pip3 install edge-tts)
• Internet connection (for Flux image generation)

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/johnmives/shortengine.git
cd shortengine
npm install
npx tsx src/generate.ts "5 Money Habits That Keep You Broke"
open output/5-money-habits-that-keep-you-broke/final.mp4

How It Works

Step	Tool	Cost
Script	Ollama (local AI)	$0
Voice	edge-tts (Microsoft)	$0
Images	Flux via Pollinations.ai	$0
Video	FFmpeg	$0

Output

Each run creates a folder under output/ containing:

• script.txt — generated narration
• voice.mp3 — voiceover audio
• img-0.jpg, img-1.jpg, img-2.jpg — AI-generated images
• subs.srt — subtitle file
• final.mp4 — finished Short, ready to upload

ShortEngine Pro

Want more? ShortEngine Pro ($49) includes:

• 5 niches (horror, finance, motivation, facts, devtools) with niche-specific prompts
• 74 curated viral topics with proven title formulas
• ElevenLabs premium voices (George, Brian, Charlie) — noticeably better than edge-tts
• Karaoke-style animated captions (Montserrat Black, word-by-word highlight)
• YouTube auto-upload with SEO metadata and affiliate links in description
• Daily automation — cron/launchd service, 1 Short per night, no manual work
• AI-generated Flux images matched to narration scenes
• Background music per niche

Videos made with ShortEngine: youtube.com/@johncalloway

License

MIT — use it however you want.