Make sure you have:
An active Ssemble subscription (Pro, Expert, or Business)
Credits available
At least one connected social media account
Open your dashboard
Click Channel Automation
Click Add Channel
Paste any of the following:
Full URL
Channel page URL
Handle (e.g. @channelname)
Click Preview Channel to confirm details, then click Next.
Channel Automation turns a channel's long-form videos into short clips. For it to produce anything, the channel you enter must:
Upload long-form videos (longer than ~1 minute). The system finds the best moments in a longer video and cuts them into shorts.
Be public. Private or unlisted videos, and brand-new channels with no uploads yet, can't be processed.
⚠️ Shorts-only channels won't produce clips. If the channel uploads only YouTube
Shorts, the automation will skip every video — a Short is already short, so there's nothing to clip out of it. Point the automation at a channel that posts full-length videos (uploads, podcasts, interviews, talks, streams, etc.).
Source channel vs. your account — they're different. The channel URL you enter here is the source the system clips from. The clips are posted to the social account you connect in Step 4 (the destination). A common mistake is entering your own (often empty) channel as the source — set the source to a channel that actually has the long videos you want clipped.
Set how videos will be processed:
Virality Threshold (0–100)
Clip Duration (30 / 60 / 90 seconds)
Clips Per Video (1–10)
Check Frequency (6h / 12h / 24h / weekly)
Language
Select where clips should be posted:
YouTube Shorts
TikTok
Instagram Reels
You can also select a caption/template style.
Choose one:
Suggested Schedule
Select frequency (e.g. 3 per week, daily)
Custom Schedule
Choose exact days and times
Check all settings and click Create Automation.
After creation:
System checks for new videos
Clips are generated automatically
High-scoring clips are scheduled
Everything appears in your dashboard
Only new videos are processed
Processing time depends on video length
Credits are used during processing, not posting
If your automation is Active but you're not seeing clips in your dashboard or on your calendar, it's almost always one of the following. They're listed from most to least common.
1. The monitored channel only uploads Shorts. The automation clips long-form videos, so a Shorts-only channel produces nothing. Check the channel — if its uploads are all Shorts, change the automation to monitor a channel that posts full-length videos.
2. The monitored channel has no public long-form videos. A new or empty channel (or one with only private/unlisted videos) has nothing for the system to clip. Make sure the source channel has public, full-length uploads.
3. You entered the wrong channel. Double-check that the channel in the automation is the source you want clipped, not your own posting account. Edit the automation and confirm the channel URL.
4. The channel hasn't uploaded since you set up the automation. Only videos published after the automation is created are processed — there's no backfill of older videos. If the channel hasn't posted a new long video since setup, nothing will appear. New uploads are picked up on your chosen check frequency (e.g. every 6 hours), so allow some time after a new video goes live.
5. Your virality threshold is too high. If it's set to 90–100, only the very top-scoring clips auto-post. Clips below the threshold are saved to your dashboard but not posted. Lower the threshold (try 80) so more clips qualify. Also check your dashboard — clips may have been generated but held back as below-threshold.
6. The automation is paused, or you're out of credits. A paused automation skips all new videos until you resume it. If your credits run out, the automation pauses automatically and you'll get an email — top up to resume. Credits are used when a video is processed, not when a clip is posted.
7. Clips were created but didn't publish to social. If clips appear in your calendar but fail to post, that's usually a platform limit, not the automation — see "Why are my scheduled posts failing to publish?" (YouTube and Instagram each cap how many posts you can publish per day via their API).
Still stuck? Contact support with your account email and the channel you're monitoring, and we'll take a look.
