Connect YouTube to Zernio

Check what you need before you start

The Google account that owns or manages the YouTube channel. If the channel is a Brand Account, you need Owner or Manager access.
A phone-verified channel. Turn this on at youtube.com/verify. Without it, uploads stop at 15 minutes and custom thumbnails won't work.
An email address for your Zernio account.

I have all of these

Sign up or log in to Zernio

Go to zernio.com.
Create an account, or log in if you already have one.
You land on the Zernio dashboard. Keep this tab open for the remaining steps.

I'm on the dashboard

Create a profile

A profile holds a group of connected accounts. Most people make one profile per brand or channel, for example "My Cooking Channel".

On the dashboard, open the profiles area and create a new profile.
Give it a name you'll recognise later and save it.

If your account already has a default profile, you can use it and skip this step.

I have a profile

Connect your YouTube channel

Open the profile, then pick YouTube from the list of platforms and click the connect button.
A Google sign-in window opens. Choose the Google account that owns the channel.
If Google asks you to choose an account or brand account, pick the exact channel you want to post to.
On the permissions screen, leave every box ticked and click Continue or Allow.
You are sent back to Zernio, and the channel now shows under the profile as connected.

Zernio asks for these permissions all at once:

Permission	What Zernio uses it for
Upload videos	Posting new videos and Shorts
Manage your YouTube account	Titles, descriptions, thumbnails, playlists
See, edit and delete comments	Reading and replying to comments
View YouTube Analytics	Views and other video stats

If you untick a permission, uploads later fail with YouTube permission error. To fix that, disconnect the channel and connect it again with every box ticked.

My channel shows as connected

Create your API key

Go to zernio.com/dashboard/api-keys.
Click Create API key.
Copy the key right away and keep it somewhere safe, such as a password manager.

A real key starts with sk_, followed by 64 letters and numbers (67 characters in total).

Zernio shows the key only once. If you lose it, delete it and create a new one. Treat it like a password: anyone who has it can post to your channel.

My key is saved somewhere safe

Test the key and find your account ID

Run this in a terminal, with sk_your_key_here replaced by your key. It lists every account connected to Zernio.

curl https://zernio.com/api/v1/accounts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_your_key_here"

Find the entry where "platform": "youtube". Its _id value is your account ID. Apps and scripts need it, along with the key, to post to this channel.

{
  "accounts": [
    {
      "_id": "68f1c2...",        <- account ID
      "platform": "youtube",
      "username": "Your Channel"
    }
  ]
}

Use the _id, not the channel name. If you get 401 Unauthorized, the key was copied wrong. Check that it starts with sk_ and has no extra spaces.

I see my YouTube channel in the list

If something goes wrong

You see	What it means	Fix
`401 Unauthorized`	Wrong or incomplete key	Copy the key again. It must start with `sk_`.
`YouTube permission error`	A permission was unticked when you connected	Reconnect the channel with every box ticked (step 4).
`Social account not found`	The channel was disconnected from Zernio	Connect it again (step 4).
Long videos rejected	Channel isn't phone-verified (15-minute limit)	Verify at youtube.com/verify.
`Failed to fetch video from URL`	The video link is a Google Drive or Dropbox share page, not the file itself	Use a direct file link, or upload through Zernio's media upload.

Optional: connect a channel with code instead

Developers can connect a channel without the dashboard. Once you have a key and a profile ID, ask Zernio for a sign-in link:

curl "https://zernio.com/api/v1/connect/youtube?profileId=YOUR_PROFILE_ID" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_your_key_here"

The response contains an authUrl. The channel owner opens it in a browser and approves the Google screen, the same as in step 4. To receive accountId and username on your own page afterwards, add &redirect_url=https://your-site.com/callback. The URL must be absolute.