GopherUpload

A simple CLI-based YouTube Video Uploader 🎬 ⬆️ 🚀

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What is GopherUpload?

GopherUpload is a lightweight command-line tool that uploads videos to YouTube using the YouTube Data API v3. It supports:

• 📤 Video uploads with custom metadata
• 📝 Title, description, and tags from metadata.json
• 🖼️ Custom thumbnails (thumbnail.png)
• 📅 Scheduled publishing at a specific date/time
• 🏷️ Hashtags appended to descriptions

Quick Start

# 1. Authenticate with Google
gopherupload login

# 2. Upload a video
gopherupload upload "outputs/My Video Folder"

Installation

Prerequisites

• Go 1.21 or later
• Google OAuth2 credentials for YouTube Data API v3

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/gopherupload.git
cd gopherupload

# Get dependencies
go mod tidy

# Build the application
go build -o gopherupload

# (Optional) Move to PATH
# Windows: move gopherupload.exe to a directory in your PATH
# macOS/Linux: sudo mv gopherupload /usr/local/bin/

Configuration

1. Google OAuth2 Credentials

1. Go to the Google Cloud Console
2. Create a new project or select an existing one
3. Enable the YouTube Data API v3 from the API Library
4. Go to "Credentials" → "Create Credentials" → "OAuth client ID"
5. Select "Desktop app" as the application type
6. Download the credentials JSON file
7. Save it as client_secrets.json in the GopherUpload directory

2. Application Config (Optional)

Create a config.json file to set upload defaults:

{
  "upload_defaults": {
    "default_privacy": "public",
    "default_category": "22",
    "default_description": "Uploaded with GopherUpload",
    "default_tags": ["video", "upload"]
  }
}

Category IDs:

• 1 - Film & Animation
• 2 - Autos & Vehicles
• 10 - Music
• 15 - Pets & Animals
• 17 - Sports
• 20 - Gaming
• 22 - People & Blogs (default)
• 23 - Comedy
• 24 - Entertainment
• 25 - News & Politics
• 26 - Howto & Style
• 27 - Education
• 28 - Science & Technology

Usage

Authentication

Before uploading, authenticate with your Google account:

gopherupload login

This opens a browser for OAuth2 authentication. After granting access, copy the authorization code back to the terminal.

Note: The token is valid for ~1 hour. Run login again when it expires.

Upload a Video

gopherupload upload <directory>

The directory should contain:

• One .mp4 file (required) - the video to upload
• metadata.json (optional) - video metadata
• thumbnail.png (optional) - custom thumbnail

Directory Structure Example

outputs/My Video/
├── My Video.mp4        # Required: video file
├── metadata.json       # Optional: metadata
└── thumbnail.png       # Optional: thumbnail

metadata.json Format

{
  "youtube": {
    "title": "My Awesome Video",
    "description": "This is a great video about...",
    "tags": ["tutorial", "coding", "golang"],
    "hashtags": ["#programming", "#tech"],
    "schedule": {
      "publish_date": "2025-12-31",
      "publish_time": "10:00"
    }
  }
}

Fields:

Field	Type	Description
title	string	Video title (uses filename if empty)
description	string	Video description
tags	array	Search tags (no # symbol)
hashtags	array	Hashtags (with # symbol, appended to description)
schedule.publish_date	string	Publish date (YYYY-MM-DD)
schedule.publish_time	string	Publish time (HH:MM, system timezone)

Fallback Behavior:

• If metadata.json is missing → video filename becomes the title, uploaded as public
• If schedule is missing or in the past → uploads immediately as public
• Empty fields → use values from config.json defaults

Commands

gopherupload login              # Authenticate with Google
gopherupload upload <directory> # Upload video from directory
gopherupload help               # Show detailed help

Troubleshooting

"Token not found" error: Run gopherupload login to authenticate.

"Multiple .mp4 files found" error: The upload directory must contain exactly one .mp4 file.

"Scheduled time is in the past" warning: The video will upload as public immediately instead of scheduled.

Upload quota exceeded: YouTube API has daily quota limits. See YouTube API Quotas.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

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Made with ❤️ and Go