How to upload to YouTube from OpenAI Codex

Set it up and upload, step by step

Prompt to copy once your channel is connected: Write a YouTube title and description for ./videos/v3.1-demo.mp4 from CHANGELOG.md, show them to me with the title length, and schedule it public for Thursday at 10am.

1. Add PostWire to Codex

   In your terminal run codex mcp add postwire --url https://postwire.io/api/mcp, then codex mcp login postwire. The browser opens PostWire's sign-in, which asks for your email and a 6-digit code and creates a free PostWire account if you have none: no password and no card. codex mcp list, or /mcp inside Codex, shows postwire with its tools. The entry lands in ~/.codex/config.toml, which the Codex CLI, the IDE extension and the ChatGPT desktop app share, so one setup uploads to YouTube from any of them.

2. On a server or in CI, sign in another way

   codex mcp login postwire --no-browser gives you a sign-in link to open on any device. In CI, give Codex your key instead: copy it in the dashboard under API & MCP, set POSTWIRE_API_KEY, and put the variable's name in ~/.codex/config.toml, never the key itself:

   [mcp_servers.postwire]
   url = "https://postwire.io/api/mcp"
   bearer_token_env_var = "POSTWIRE_API_KEY"

3. Connect your YouTube channel

   Ask "connect my YouTube". Codex calls create_connect_link and prints a one-hour link; open it, sign in on Google's own page and pick the channel. You do this once per channel.

4. Give it the video

   YouTube fetches the video from a link, so a file on your disk goes through an upload page: Codex asks for one (create_upload_link, valid 24 hours, up to 100 MB on the free plan and 1 GB on paid plans), you pick the file there, and get_uploaded_file hands Codex its link for video_url. No video yet? make_video_from_text turns a few lines into an 8-12 second vertical MP4 (1080×1920), which YouTube shows as a Short.

5. Ask for the title, description and tags

   "Write the title and description." generate_posts returns a draft and publishes nothing: a title with the words people search in its first 40 characters (YouTube takes up to 100), a description of up to 5,000 characters whose first lines repeat the promise, 3-5 hashtags, and 5-8 tags. Then say who can see it: public, unlisted (only people with the link) or private. With no choice, PostWire uploads it private.

6. Upload now, or schedule it

   Say "upload it" and Codex calls post_to_social; the result carries the video's link. Say "schedule it for Thursday at 10" and it calls schedule_post, up to 365 days ahead, or with run_at: "next_slot" for your next free posting hour. This is the call:

   {
     "name": "schedule_post",
     "arguments": {
       "platforms": ["youtube"],
       "per_platform": { "youtube": {
         "title": "Invoice CSV export in 60 seconds: what's new in v3.1",
         "text": "v3.1 exports every invoice to CSV in one click.\n\nIn this demo: …\n\n#productupdate #saas #devtools",
         "tags": ["invoice csv export", "release notes", "product demo"]
       } },
       "video_url": "https://postwire.io/m/…/v3.1-demo.mp4",
       "privacy": "public",
       "run_at": "2026-11-12T10:00:00-05:00"
     }
   }

7. Check the queue

   "What's scheduled on YouTube?" calls list_scheduled_posts and "cancel Thursday's upload" calls cancel_scheduled_post; the same queue is on the dashboard's Queue page.

From a release script, codex exec "upload ./videos/release.mp4 to YouTube, unlisted, title and description from CHANGELOG.md" runs the same request without the interactive screen. Prefer to set it up by hand? Open the dashboard, connect YouTube under Accounts and copy your key under API & MCP.