# YouTube Shorts Clip Finder - Best Moments to Repurpose (`seemuapps/youtube-shorts-clip-finder`) Actor

Turn any long YouTube video into a ranked list of short-form clips - exact start and end timestamps, the spoken hook, a title, caption and hashtags.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/seemuapps/youtube-shorts-clip-finder.md
- **Developed by:** [Seemu Scraping](https://apify.com/seemuapps) (community)
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $50.00 / 1,000 video analyzeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## YouTube Shorts Clip Finder - Best Moments to Repurpose

Paste a long YouTube video and get back the moments worth cutting into Shorts, Reels or TikToks — each with exact start and end seconds, the opening line as it was actually spoken, a title, a caption, hashtags and a score.

It reads the video's transcript with timestamps, so every pick is a real moment in the video, not a guess from the description.

### What you get

One row per clip, best first:

- **startSeconds** / **endSeconds** and **startTimestamp** / **endTimestamp** — the exact cut points
- **clipDurationSeconds** — always inside the length window you set
- **hook** — the opening words, copied verbatim from the transcript
- **title**, **caption**, **hashtags** — ready to post, shaped for your target platform
- **whyItWorks** — one line on why the moment holds attention
- **viralityScore** — 1-100 short-form potential
- **transcriptExcerpt** — what is actually said inside the clip window, so you can sanity-check the pick before editing
- **watchUrl** — opens the video at the clip's start time
- **clipRange** — `{url, start, end, label}`, ready to paste into a clip-cutting actor
- Video context: **videoTitle**, **channelTitle**, **uploadDate**, **videoDurationSeconds**, **viewCount**

### Use cases

- **Repurposing a back catalogue** — mine podcasts, interviews and lectures for short-form content
- **Podcast clip production** — hand an editor exact in and out points instead of "somewhere around the middle"
- **Agency workflows** — process a client's long videos in bulk and deliver a ranked clip sheet
- **Competitor teardown** — see which moments of a rival's video would travel as Shorts
- **Newsletter and social scheduling** — turn one upload into a week of posts

### How to use

1. Enter one or more **Video URLs** (long-form videos with captions work best).
2. Set **Clips per video** and the **Minimum / Maximum clip length**.
3. Pick the **Target platform** so captions and hashtags match where you are posting.
4. Run the actor — clips appear in the **Dataset** tab, ranked.
5. Take `startSeconds` / `endSeconds` into your editor, or paste **clipRange** into a clip-cutting actor to get the file itself.

### Output format

```json
{
  "rank": 1,
  "startSeconds": 439,
  "endSeconds": 494,
  "startTimestamp": "7:19",
  "endTimestamp": "8:14",
  "clipDurationSeconds": 55,
  "title": "The shocking truth about drug efficacy",
  "hook": "It's for the number needed to treat. Now, what is this, the NNT?",
  "caption": "Most drugs work for far fewer people than you think. Here's the number nobody quotes.",
  "hashtags": ["#MedicalTruth", "#NNT", "#Healthcare"],
  "whyItWorks": "Opens on a counterintuitive statistic and pays it off inside a minute.",
  "viralityScore": 95,
  "watchUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID&t=439s",
  "clipRange": { "url": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID", "start": "7:19", "end": "8:14", "label": "the-shocking-truth-about-drug-efficacy" }
}
```

### Notes

- The video needs captions — manual or auto-generated. Videos with captions disabled come back with an explanation in the `error` field.
- Clips never overlap: a candidate that covers the same ground as a higher-ranked pick is dropped.
- Timestamps come back as numbers, so they drop straight into an editor, ffmpeg, or a clip-cutting actor without reformatting.
- Longer videos cost a little more to analyse but are where this pays off — a two-hour podcast usually yields several strong clips.

# Actor input Schema

## `videoUrls` (type: `array`):

Long-form YouTube video URLs or IDs, one per line. Up to 20 per run.

## `clipsPerVideo` (type: `integer`):

How many clip candidates to return for each video, best first.

## `minClipSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Shortest clip to return.

## `maxClipSeconds` (type: `integer`):

Longest clip to return. Shorts, Reels and TikTok all accept up to 60 seconds comfortably.

## `platform` (type: `string`):

Shapes the caption and hashtag style of each suggestion.

## `includeTranscriptExcerpt` (type: `boolean`):

Add the actual spoken words inside each clip window, so you can check the pick before editing.

## `outputLanguage` (type: `string`):

Language for the titles and captions, e.g. English, Spanish. Leave empty to match the video.

## `languages` (type: `array`):

Caption languages to try, in order of preference (e.g. en, es, de).

## `model` (type: `string`):

Language model used to pick the clips.

## `proxyMode` (type: `string`):

Proxy strategy for fetching the transcript. Auto tries the free routes first and only escalates to residential proxy when YouTube blocks them.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc"
  ],
  "clipsPerVideo": 5,
  "minClipSeconds": 20,
  "maxClipSeconds": 60,
  "platform": "shorts",
  "includeTranscriptExcerpt": true,
  "languages": [
    "en"
  ],
  "model": "openai/gpt-6-luna",
  "proxyMode": "auto"
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

One record per clip: rank, startSeconds, endSeconds, startTimestamp, endTimestamp, clipDurationSeconds, title, hook, caption, hashtags, whyItWorks, viralityScore, transcriptExcerpt, watchUrl, clipRange, plus videoId, videoUrl, videoTitle, channelTitle, uploadDate, videoDurationSeconds and viewCount.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "videoUrls": [
        "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("seemuapps/youtube-shorts-clip-finder").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "videoUrls": ["https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("seemuapps/youtube-shorts-clip-finder").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "videoUrls": [
    "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jPQjjsBbIc"
  ]
}' |
apify call seemuapps/youtube-shorts-clip-finder --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,seemuapps/youtube-shorts-clip-finder"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/i6v2735eCfeeL6FvG/builds/81we4x2QahMZHVceN/openapi.json