YouTube Instant Article

Transform YouTube videos into beautiful Telegraph Instant View articles with embedded slides and timestamped summaries.

Best used with Bot + Telegram for inline article opening.

Features

• 🎬 Automatic slide extraction — Key frames from the video
• 📝 AI-powered summaries — GPT-5.2 generates concise, timestamped summaries
• 🖼️ Interleaved layout — Images paired with relevant timestamp sections
• ⚡ Telegram Instant View — One-tap readable articles in Telegram
• 🔗 Reliable hosting — Images on catbox.moe (no expiration)

Example Output

📺 Watch video

[Image: Video thumbnail]

⏱️ 0:00 - Introduction and overview of the device
The reviewer introduces the new handheld gaming device...

[Image: Device closeup]

⏱️ 5:30 - Performance testing
Testing shows impressive results with modern games...

[Image: Gameplay footage]

⏱️ 12:00 - Final verdict
Overall recommendation and pricing discussion...

Installation

Prerequisites

# Install summarize CLI
brew install steipete/tap/summarize

# Install jq (JSON processor)
brew install jq

Setup

1. Get a Telegraph token:

   ./scripts/setup.sh
   

   This creates a Telegraph account and outputs your access token.

2. Set environment variables:

   export TELEGRAPH_TOKEN="your_token_here"
   export OPENAI_API_KEY="your_openai_key"
   

3. Configure summarize (optional):

   mkdir -p ~/.summarize
   echo '{"model": "openai/gpt-5.2"}' > ~/.summarize/config.json
   

Usage

Basic

./scripts/generate.sh "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID"

With options

# Limit to 4 slides
./scripts/generate.sh "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" --slides-max 4

# Debug mode (keeps temp files)
./scripts/generate.sh "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" --debug

Output

The script outputs the Telegraph article URL:

📹 Extracting slides...
📝 Getting summary...
📤 Uploading 4 slides...
🔨 Building article...
🌐 Publishing...

✅ Done!

https://telegra.ph/Article-Title-01-22

How It Works

Pipeline

1. Extract video title — Gets the actual YouTube title via summarize
2. Extract slides — Captures key frames at scene changes
3. Generate summary — GPT-5.2 creates timestamped summary
4. Upload images — Slides uploaded to catbox.moe
5. Build article — Constructs Telegraph-compatible JSON
6. Publish — Creates the Telegraph page via API

Image Distribution

Images are distributed evenly across timestamp sections:

• 6 timestamps + 4 images → images at sections 1, 2, 4, 5
• Remaining timestamps get no image
• Any unused images added at the end

Telegraph Format

The article uses this structure for Instant View compatibility:

• <p> — Video link, paragraphs
• <h4> — Timestamp headers (required for Instant View)
• <figure><img> — Embedded images
• <blockquote> — Notable quotes
• <hr> — Section dividers

Configuration

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
TELEGRAPH_TOKEN	Yes	Your Telegraph API access token
OPENAI_API_KEY	Yes	OpenAI API key for GPT-5.2
SLIDES_MAX	No	Default max slides (default: 6)

Summarize Config

Create ~/.summarize/config.json:

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5.2"
}

Technical Details

Why catbox.moe?

Previous versions used freeimage.host, which had issues:

• Images sometimes returned 404
• Inconsistent availability
• SSL certificate problems

catbox.moe provides:

• No API key required
• No expiration
• Reliable CDN
• Simple upload API

Why GPT-5.2?

We tested multiple models:

Model	Speed	Cost	Quality
gpt-5.2	4.5s	$0.01	⭐ Best
gpt-4o-mini	6s	$0.0007	Good
gpt-4o	4.7s	$0.012	Good
gpt-5-nano	42s	$0.002	Slow
gemini-3-flash	timeout	—	❌

GPT-5.2 offers the best balance of speed and quality.

Why zsh?

The script uses zsh instead of bash because:

• macOS bash is v3.2 (no associative arrays)
• zsh is the default shell on modern macOS
• Better array handling for image distribution

Instant View Requirements

Telegram's Instant View requires specific formatting:

• h4 headers — h3 doesn't trigger Instant View
• Proper figure tags — Images must be in <figure><img></figure>
• Processing time — Telegram needs 1-2 minutes to generate preview

Troubleshooting

Script fails immediately

# Check zsh is available
which zsh

# Make script executable
chmod +x scripts/generate.sh

"Failed to get summary"

# Verify OpenAI key
echo $OPENAI_API_KEY

# Test summarize directly
summarize "https://youtu.be/VIDEO_ID" --length short --plain

Images not appearing

# Test catbox upload
curl -s "https://catbox.moe/user/api.php" \
  -F "reqtype=fileupload" \
  -F "[email protected]"

No Instant View button in Telegram

• Wait 1-2 minutes after sharing the link
• Visit the Telegraph URL directly to verify content
• Try sharing the link again

License

MIT

Credits

• summarize — CLI for video summarization
• Telegraph API — Article hosting
• catbox.moe — Image hosting