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Every 30 minutes

Write captions for Drive videos and track them in Airtable

Each video or photo you drop into a Drive folder gets a caption and hashtags and appears in your Airtable content table, ready to post.

Runs
Every 30 minutes
Apps
Airtable, Google Drive
AI
Yes, uses the built-in AI allowance
Access
Drive read; Airtable write

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: when a new video appears in my Drive 'Reels' folder, write a caption and hashtags from its name and description, and add it to my Airtable 'Content' table as ready to post with the Drive link.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

A café owner films short clips on their phone through the week and saves them to a Drive folder. Posting means watching each clip again, thinking of a caption, choosing hashtags and remembering which ones have already gone out. Clips pile up, and the account goes quiet for days at a time.

Turning each new clip into a ready-to-post row in Airtable, with a draft caption and hashtags, gives the owner a content calendar that fills itself. Posting becomes a five-minute job: open the table, tweak the caption, post, change the status.

What you get out of it

  • A caption is waiting for each clip

    Every new video or photo gets a draft caption and a few hashtags, so you edit rather than write from scratch.

  • One list of what's ready

    The Content table shows each file, its caption and whether it has been posted, so nothing is posted twice or forgotten.

  • Your voice, not a generic one

    The script includes a short description of your brand tone, so captions sound like your account.

  • Files stay in Drive

    The record links to the original file, so you download it from one place when you post.

How it works

What happens, step by step

  1. Every 30 minutes, ClickRuntime checks your Reels folder in Drive for new videos and photos.

  2. It reads each file's name and any description you added.

  3. AI writes a short caption and a few hashtags in your brand's tone.

  4. A record is added to your Airtable Content table with the caption, the Drive link and the status Ready to post.

  5. The newest file time is remembered, so each file gets one record.

Before it runs live

  • Connect Airtable
  • Connect Google Drive

What you get

RunsEvery 30 minutes
Write captions for Drive videos and track them in Airtabletoday, 9:00Succeeded
Airtable · Contentlatte-art-friday.mp4 · Ready to post Friday rush, steady hands. Come and see what the barista draws on yours. #latteart #coffeetime #fridayvibes

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.
  • Your own rules

    Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.

  • Any number of apps

    One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.

  • AI where it helps

    Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.

  • On a schedule or on each event

    Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

  • Act only on the items that match your own rules, and skip the rest
  • Change what the AI looks for, or how it writes the result
  • Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
  • Combine it with other Airtable and Google Drive steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.
caption_drive_media_and_track_posts_in_airtable.pyexample
from google.oauth2.credentials import Credentials
from googleapiclient.discovery import build
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, ai, state, report_fetched

BASE_ID, FOLDER_ID = "appXXXXXXXXXXXXXX", "1FolderIdOfReels"
TONE = "Friendly neighbourhood café, warm and a little playful, no more than two emojis."
SCHEMA = {"type": "object", "properties": {"caption": {"type": "string"}, "hashtags": {"type": "string"}},
          "required": ["caption", "hashtags"]}

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    drive = build("drive", "v3", credentials=Credentials(credentials.connection("google", "work")), cache_discovery=False)
    since = state.get("since") or "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"
    q = (f"'{FOLDER_ID}' in parents and createdTime > '{since}' and trashed = false "
         "and (mimeType contains 'video/' or mimeType contains 'image/')")
    files = drive.files().list(q=q, orderBy="createdTime",
                               fields="files(id,name,description,createdTime,webViewLink)").execute()["files"]
    report_fetched(len(files))
    if not files:
        return {"new": 0}
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('airtable', 'work')}"}
    for f in files:
        post = ai.generate(f"File name: {f['name']}\nDescription: {f.get('description', '')}", json_schema=SCHEMA,
                           system=f"Write a short social caption (under 40 words) and 5 hashtags. Tone: {TONE}",
                           max_output_tokens=200).json
        http.post(f"https://api.airtable.com/v0/{BASE_ID}/Content", headers=headers, json={"typecast": True,
                  "records": [{"fields": {"File": f["name"], "Link": f["webViewLink"], "Caption": post["caption"],
                               "Hashtags": post["hashtags"], "Status": "Ready to post"}}]}).raise_for_status()
        state.set("since", f["createdTime"])
    return {"new": len(files)}

FAQ

Common questions

Does AI watch the video?
No. Captions are written from the file name and the description you add in Drive. Naming files clearly, such as 'latte art Friday rush', gives better captions.
Does it post to Instagram or TikTok for me?
No. It prepares the caption and tracks the status in Airtable. You post from your phone and mark the record as posted.
Can it handle photos as well as videos?
Yes. Any image or video file in the folder is picked up. Other file types, such as documents, are skipped.
What permissions does it need?
Drive read; Airtable write. Nothing else in your accounts is used.
Does it need AI?
Yes. It uses ClickRuntime's built-in AI, so you don't need an OpenAI or Anthropic key. Every plan includes a monthly AI allowance.
How many runs does it use?
One run each time it checks. Checks that find nothing new and stop right away aren't counted.
Can I change how it works?
Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Set up “Write captions for Drive videos and track them in Airtable” from your assistant

Copy the prompt above, or connect your assistant first. Free plan, no credit card.