theredditstuff Reel MVP

Free local pipeline for making short Reddit-style reels for @theredditstuff.

What it does

• Picks shareable Reddit posts: relatable, debatable, easy to understand.
• Shows each post/comment on a Reddit-orange background.
• Reads text aloud with free local TTS.
• Uses lightweight free local espeak-ng by default.
• Can use Kokoro only if explicitly enabled with USE_KOKORO=1.
• Renders vertical MP4 with ffmpeg.
• Deletes temporary render files automatically.

Run

./scripts/render.sh

Final output kept:

outputs/theredditstuff_mvp.mp4

Automation

GitHub Actions renders reels and keeps the Buffer queue topped up.

Schedule:

Set posting slots in Buffer. Current target: 5 reels/day.

Required GitHub Secrets:

BUFFER_API_KEY
BUFFER_INSTAGRAM_CHANNEL_ID
CLOUDINARY_URL

Cloudinary is used only to host the MP4 publicly so Buffer can fetch it. Free plan is enough for MVP.

The action keeps only a small duplicate-history file:

data/posted_sources.json

Autopilot guardrails:

• Queue top-up runs every 2 hours.
• Stops cleanly when Buffer queue is full.
• Old Cloudinary videos are deleted automatically.
• Daily health check writes outputs/autopilot_report.md.
• Workflow failures open one GitHub issue instead of silently failing.
• Health check fails when content runway drops below 14 days.

Real Reddit Usernames

For real post/comment usernames, use free Reddit API credentials:

export REDDIT_CLIENT_ID="..."
export REDDIT_CLIENT_SECRET="..."

Without those, the script uses Reddit RSS feeds. If RSS comments are rate-limited, it uses safe sample content.

Custom source pool:

SUBREDDITS=AskReddit,hypotheticalsituation,WouldYouRather ./scripts/render.sh