Quick overview
Turn the newest posts from any blog's RSS feed into 32-second vertical Shorts. Claude designs each video from the article: AI images, AI music, a voiceover and subtitles, all cut to the beat. No stock footage. Self-hosted n8n only: it saves files on disk.
How it works
- Downloads Shotstack's guide for AI agents once, then reads the newest articles from your RSS feed, one at a time.
- Claude Opus 5.5 reads the guide, the article and a plain-English brief and writes the whole Shotstack edit: 5 Nano Banana 2 images, ElevenLabs music at 120 BPM, a voiceover, subtitles and animated text, timed to the beat.
- Claude Opus 5.5 reads the guide, the article and a plain-English brief and writes the whole Shotstack edit: 5 Nano Banana 2 images, ElevenLabs music at 120 BPM, a voiceover, subtitles and animated text, timed to the beat.
- A Code step checks the edit before anything costs money. It fixes small things itself and sends anything else back to Claude with the exact problem.
- One Shotstack render generates every image and sound and renders the 32-second Short, which is saved to the article-shorts folder. If Shotstack turns the edit down, Claude fixes it, up to twice.
Setup
- Install the Shotstack community node from the nodes panel or Settings → Community nodes, then import this workflow.
- Add your Anthropic API key to Claude and Claude (fixes), and your Shotstack API key to Make the video and Check the render. Free trial: https://shotstack.io/?utm_source=n8n&utm_medium=template&utm_campaign=article-shorts&utm_content=description
- Put your feed's link and how many articles to make in Your feed. Make an empty article-shorts folder in n8n's files folder (/home/node/.n8n-files in Docker). On an npm install, change that path in Save the short.
- Click Execute workflow, and try one article first: each Short takes 5 to 15 minutes.
Requirements
- Self-hosted n8n, version 2 or later, because the workflow saves files on disk
- The Shotstack community node, any version
- A Shotstack API key with credits for AI generation. The free trial's 10 credits cover a first Short
- An Anthropic API key. Claude Opus 5.5 works best
Customization
- Change the length, tempo, number of images or style in the brief in Claude makes the video
- Add AI video shots in the brief for more motion, at about 2.5 credits each
- Swap the RSS trigger in for Read the feed, so a Short is made every time a new post goes live
- Post the Shorts to YouTube or save them to Google Drive instead of saving them on disk
Additional info
Each Short costs about 8 Shotstack credits: 3.75 for the 5 images, 3.75 for the music and under 1 for the voiceover and render, plus your Claude usage. So a first Short fits the 10 free trial credits.