Last week I published a video about building AI tools. Three minutes later, I had a perfectly formatted blog post on my website that I never actually wrote.
No, I didn't hire a virtual assistant or use some sketchy content mill. I built an automation that watches my YouTube channel, grabs the transcript from new videos, and uses Claude to turn them into blog posts that actually sound like me. Then it pushes everything directly to my website without me touching a single line of code.
The whole thing runs inside Claude Desktop using MCP servers, and honestly? What used to be this nagging task on my to-do list now just happens automatically. Plus, the blog posts are actually good, not some robotic AI nonsense (or maybe they are robotic nonsense? Claude wrote everything up to this point for this here very blog post, so I don't know, you be the judge).
Here's exactly how I built it, and why you might want to steal this idea for your own content workflow.
Before we dive into the setup, let me paint you a picture of what this looks like in action:
The whole process takes about 2-3 minutes from start to finish. And because it's all happening within Claude Desktop with your custom project knowledge, the output actually maintains your voice and style.
This setup combines several tools that work together seamlessly:
Don't worry if this sounds complex—I'll walk you through each piece step by step.
First things first: we need to set up the automation that monitors your YouTube channel and extracts transcripts. I originally tried building this in n8n, but their MCP server trigger is completely broken as of version 1.94. Make.com, on the other hand, works like a charm.
Start by logging into Make.com and heading to your profile. You'll find a section called "API/MCP Access" where you can generate a new MCP token. This is what allows Claude to trigger your automations.
Once you have your token, you'll need to add the Make.com MCP server to Claude Desktop:
The Make.com documentation makes this super straightforward—they provide the exact JSON configuration you need.
Now for the fun part: creating the actual automation scenario. Here's how to set it up:
Step 1: YouTube Module
Step 2: Extract Video URL
Step 3: Apify YouTube Scraper
This scraper handles the difficulty of extracting YouTube transcripts, which I found out the hard way was actually more difficult than I thought when I tried building my own transcript downloader. It costs about 50 cents per thousand videos scraped and saves you from all the headaches.
The raw transcript data comes back in a pretty gnarly XML format with weird encoding and timestamps. We need to clean this up before sending it to Claude.
Step 4: HTTP Request
Step 5-7: Text Processing
I'll be honest—I had to ask ChatGPT for help with the regex patterns here, and I suggest you do the same. It's super easy. Just ask ChatGPT directly with something like: "help me clean up this XML. What do I tell make.com?" Text processing isn't my strong suit, but the important thing is that it works consistently.
Step 8: Thumbnail Extraction
Step 9: Google Doc Creation
Here's where the magic happens. This isn't just about connecting tools—it's about creating a system that actually writes in your voice.
Create a dedicated Claude project and feed it everything you've ever written:
The more content you provide, the better Claude gets at mimicking your style. I've uploaded probably 50+ pieces of my writing, and the results are genuinely impressive.
Within your project, create a detailed prompt that outlines the entire workflow. Mine is honestly like 11 pages long, but it covers everything:
The beauty of building this kind of automated workflow is that once you get it dialed in, it becomes incredibly consistent.
The final piece is getting your blog post live on your website. If you're using a static site generator (like most modern sites), this means pushing to GitHub.
Add the GitHub MCP server to your Claude Desktop configuration. If you need help with this setup, I've got a detailed tutorial on using Claude with MCP for publishing. Once it's connected, Claude can:
Make sure your blog post template includes all the necessary frontmatter:
Claude handles all of this automatically based on the template in your project instructions.
What I love most about this system is that it's not completely automated. Claude presents you with the finished blog post before publishing, so you can:
This is where AI automation really shines—it handles the heavy lifting while keeping you in control of the final output.
Before you start relying on this system, run through it manually a few times:
Most issues come from incorrect MCP server configurations or permission problems, so double-check those first.
What's so cool about MCP servers is how they let Claude talk to basically anything. I especially love a workflow like this because my lizard brain cannot physically withstand multiple applications running at the same time. I need one interface, or as few interfaces as possible, and Claude Desktop with MCP servers makes this possible.
It's exciting to see where this technology can go and how we can start creating things with natural language. It helps bring down the friction of producing content and just lets you get your ideas out there quicker. That's what excites me about this automation and MCP servers in general.
Former ad man turned creative I became obsessed with AI after ChatGPT's release in 2022, and despite the very real fear of it replacing me as a creative, I haven't looked back since.
My mission with all my content is simple: turn your AI fear into excitement and show you how these tools can make your life more productive, more curious, and genuinely more fulfilling.
Former ad man turned creative I became obsessed with AI after ChatGPT's release in 2022, and despite the very real fear of it replacing me as a creative, I haven't looked back since.
My mission with all my content is simple: turn your AI fear into excitement and show you how these tools can make your life more productive, more curious, and genuinely more fulfilling.
Whatever happened to ChatGPT Operator? It briefly broke the internet in January, then vanished. But I think we're about to see a major comeback that will make current automation tools look like dial-up internet.
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