A researched YouTube plan before you record

Most weak videos are decided before the camera turns on: a topic nobody searches, a title that promises the wrong thing, an opening that makes people leave. This loop does the research first and writes the plan down, so the recording starts from a decision.

Use it when you are about to record and want the title, thumbnail, and opening argued over before they are fixed.

You need a topic, your channel context, and access to YouTube search results.

You get a plan: the videos that already rank for the topic and what they miss, three title options, a thumbnail brief, a written hook, a section outline, and a description with chapters left as placeholders.

The gate is a person approving the plan. Nothing is recorded, uploaded, or scheduled by the loop.

The title and thumbnail are one promise

The title and the thumbnail are read together in about a glance, so they should do different jobs. The title says what the viewer gets. The thumbnail shows why it matters, usually one image and at most a few words that do not repeat the title.

The hook is where the promise gets kept. If the first lines of the video are an intro, a logo, or a request to subscribe, the viewer who clicked for the promise leaves.

Goal prompt

Read <topic> and <channel-context-file>. Search YouTube for the topic and its
closest phrasings. For the top results, record title, channel, publish date,
URL, and what the video covers and misses, from its description, chapters,
and top comments.

Then write a plan:
- the gap: what viewers ask in comments that the ranking videos do not answer
- three title options, each stating what the viewer gets, none clickbait the
  video cannot pay off
- a thumbnail brief: one image idea and at most a few words, not repeating
  the title
- the hook: the first lines of the script, word for word, paying off the
  title immediately
- an outline: sections in order, each with the question it answers and the
  reason a viewer keeps watching to the next one
- a description with placeholder chapters and the link to <offer-url>

Write to <output-file>. Every claim about a competing video carries its URL.
Never invent view counts, subscriber counts, or search volumes.

Verifier prompt

Open the plan in a fresh session and load every URL.

FAIL if any competing video listed has no URL, or the URL does not load.
FAIL if the gap names a viewer question with no linked comment or page.
FAIL if any title promises something the outline never delivers.
FAIL if the hook does not address the title's promise in its opening lines.
FAIL if the thumbnail brief repeats the title word for word.
FAIL if any view count, subscriber count, or volume figure appears without a
named source and date.

Otherwise PASS. On FAIL, print the section and the reason.

Stopping condition

The plan contains researched competitors with URLs, a linked gap, three titles, a thumbnail brief, a word-for-word hook, an outline, and a description, the verifier printed PASS, and a person approved it before recording.

What it may and may not do

May: read YouTube search results, video pages, and public comments; write the plan.

May not: record, upload, schedule, change a live video’s title or thumbnail, or invent performance numbers for any video.

What this will not tell you

A plan is a hypothesis. Whether the title earns the click and the hook keeps the viewer is only known after the video is live, from your own analytics. Write the plan’s bet down, then compare it to what the video actually did.

When the video is live, the youtube-repurpose template turns the recording into clips, chapters, and an article.