Schedules and autopilot

A channel's schedule is a list of posting times in the channel's own time zone. At each time — a slot — ChannelForge posts the channel's next ready episode to every platform you chose for it, keeps a stock of episodes ready ahead of the slots, and records every slot it could not fill, with the reason. The autopilot is the one-click way to get a channel to that point: it builds the channel and its first episodes, and you switch the schedule on.

How a schedule works#

• Times belong to the channel, not to a platform. Every slot posts to all of the channel's chosen platforms at once. There is no separate time per platform: a channel posting to YouTube and LinkedIn posts to both at its slots.
• Each platform gets the oldest ready episode it has not had yet. Usually that is the same episode everywhere; when one platform refused a post earlier, it may be one episode behind the others.
• One post per platform per slot, queued in a fixed order: YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn first, then Threads, then Bluesky, and X last.
• Only a channel's shorts post on slots — and its own-footage clips where clipping is on. Translations and compilations are posted by hand with their post packs; films have their own schedule.

 09:12 Europe/Rome — one slot of one channel
   │
   ├─▶ YouTube     the oldest ready episode YouTube has not had
   ├─▶ Facebook    the same, as its Facebook edit (under 90 seconds)
   ├─▶ Instagram   the same, as a Reel (its Facebook edit when the episode is longer)
   ├─▶ LinkedIn    the same, as a video post
   ├─▶ Threads     after the four above
   ├─▶ Bluesky     at a minute of its own, 4 to 52 minutes after the slot
   └─▶ X           queued last; each post costs credits

Two platforms never post on slots, because their rules want a person to make each post:

Set up a channel's schedule#

Editors, admins and owners can change a schedule; viewers see it.

1. Connect the channel's accounts in Settings → Connections, and under Which account each channel posts as choose the account for each platform. The channel page's Publishing card has a Manage connections button that opens this for that channel.
2. Open Channels, then the channel, and scroll to Schedule & generation.
3. Type the Times, comma separated — for example 09:12, 13:40, 19:05 — and check the Time zone (an IANA name such as Europe/Rome or America/New_York).
4. Tick the platforms under Post to — only those with an account linked for the channel.
5. Set New episodes a day and Keep ready (below), so the channel keeps making episodes for its slots.
6. Tick Post automatically on these slots and press Save schedule. The page answers "Schedule on: …" with the times and the zone, and a ready channel becomes Live.

To stop posting, untick Post automatically on these slots and save: nothing posts by itself from then on, and generation carries on as set.

Settings#

The workspace's Default time zone is set in Settings → Workspace; until it is saved there, new channels start on Europe/Rome. Under the schedule, the channel's Monthly spending cap card limits what the channel may spend — see Billing, invoices and caps.

Generation ahead of the slots#

A schedule only posts what is ready, so ChannelForge works ahead of it:

• It keeps Keep ready episodes ready for the channel, making at most New episodes a day new ones a day (the day counted from midnight Central European Time), one at a time per channel.
• This runs whether or not the schedule is on, so a channel builds a stock before its first slot.
• Every episode is an ordinary job: its price is shown on the channel page beside Generate, it is charged what it used, and an episode the critic holds is not charged. See Episodes.
• When the credits cannot cover the next episode, or a spending cap would be passed, nothing is tried; the Publishing page records it once a day and generation carries on by itself when credits arrive or the cap allows.
• With storyboard approval on for the channel, its next episode is planned as a storyboard first and made once someone approves it — see The editor and storyboards.

Human-like timing#

Platforms watch for automation: the same second every day, bursts of posts, the same shape every time. ChannelForge varies these by itself:

On YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and X the post goes at the slot itself. Choose times the way a person would: off the hour (09:12 rather than 09:00), and different for each channel. When two of a channel's slots are within 90 minutes of each other, the coach suggests spreading them.

The autopilot: a channel in one click#

The autopilot takes a channel from nothing to a stock of finished episodes. Open Overview and press New channel to reach Start a channel; on a project's page, Add a channel from a format starts one inside that project. Editors, admins and owners can start it.

Choose one of three ways in:

• Start from a proven format — pick a format, press Start with this format, add an optional Focus, then Start autopilot. See Proven formats.
• Or describe your own channel — write who it is for and what it shows under What should the channel be about?, then Research and build it. A renderer is built for that channel.
• From the niche finder — a niche you picked in the free niche finder waits on the page; Build this channel starts with exactly that niche.

The setup's price is shown before you start: what it reserves and what similar setups typically cost. Each stage is an ordinary job, charged what it really used.

A channel you describe yourself starts with Niche research (1–2 min) and Best niche → identity (1 min), and gets its own Renderer kit (45–120 min) before the first episode.

The setup's card on the project page shows each stage as it runs. What happens along the way:

• Credits run short: the setup waits ("Waiting for credits: …") and you get one email. It looks again every five minutes and carries on by itself once credits arrive. A spending cap makes it wait the same way.
• A stage fails: a stage that failed on our side is tried once more; then — or at once when the stage cannot work as asked — the setup stops, you get an email and a notification, and Continue the setup tries that stage again. A failure on our side is not charged.
• The critic holds an episode: that is not a failure — another topic is tried, up to two episodes more than the setup's target.
• You want to stop: Stop after this step lets the running job finish (and be charged as usual) and starts nothing new.

Before you start, the page says how much of the setup your credits cover; the stages beyond them wait for credits, and the card says so. On the Trial's 400 credits, a setup from a format reaches its first episode and its brand suite; one you describe yourself gets its renderer kit, and its first episode waits for credits.

Holds and approvals#

• Hold back from the schedule, under an episode's video, keeps it out of every slot. Release for posting brings it back. A held episode is never posted — not by a slot, not by Post now.
• An episode the quality checks held was not charged; releasing it costs what it cost to make, once, and the price is on the button. See The quality gates and the critic.
• With Ask for approval before each episode posts ticked, new episodes wait in Approvals (it appears in the sidebar, with a count) and the slots post only approved ones. Holding an episode withdraws its approval. When nothing approved is ready, the slot is recorded as empty with how many episodes wait for approval.
• Each morning from 07:00 Central European Time, the owners and admins get one email listing what waits for approval, so a slot is not left empty because nobody looked. See Approvals on your phone.

Retries, missed slots and the never-twice rule#

A slot is handled once. Each slot and platform is decided one time only, and the decision is kept.

A missed slot is not made up. When a slot is found more than 10 minutes late — our service was down at the time — it is recorded as missed and nothing is posted late. The episode simply goes at the next slot.

A refused post is tried again at the next slots. When a platform refuses a post, the post is marked failed with the platform's reason, and the next slot offers the same episode to that platform again. After its third try the slots move on to the next episode there; Retry on the episode page still sends it by hand.

Some waits use no try. Nothing is sent, and the episode keeps its tries, when: the connection is already marked for reconnecting; a daily limit of your plan or of ChannelForge's, X's billing pause, the day's YouTube uploads or a spending cap holds the post back; or — on X, TikTok, Threads, Bluesky and Pinterest — the platform asks the account to wait or refuses its sign-in. On YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn a refusal found while posting is an ordinary failure, and uses a try.

A post never goes out twice. Each episode is posted at most once per platform. When a platform took a post but its answer was lost, the post is marked may be live and nothing repeats it blindly:

The YouTube upload allowance#

ChannelForge uploads to YouTube through one Google project, and Google gives each project a fixed number of uploads a day, counted on Pacific time. When the day's uploads are used up, a slot's YouTube post is not queued — the slot says "ChannelForge's YouTube uploads for today are used up — the next YouTube post goes out after midnight Pacific" — the episode keeps its tries and the slot's other platforms post as usual. A Post now that day is queued, then stops with the same words and uses no try. See YouTube.

Where to see what happened#

• Calendar — the next 7 days of slots in your own time zone (set in Account & security), each with its platforms and how many episodes are ready, plus what was posted in the last 48 hours.
• Publishing — every post with its state (Posted, Failed, May be live), its link and, where measured, its views; and Slots the scheduler could not fill, with the reason:

• The episode page's Publishing card shows each platform's post, its error when there is one, and the buttons to post or retry.

Credits and plans#

Schedules and automatic generation are in every plan, the Trial included. A schedule costs nothing in itself: you pay for the episodes it makes, and for X posts, which carry a fixed price per post (shown on the X card in Settings → Connections and on the Post now button) charged only once the post is live. Which platforms a plan posts to is on Pricing: the Trial posts to YouTube, every paid plan to all nine. See Credits and plans.

Limits and good to know#

• Pause, at the top of a channel's page, stops its generation and posting and switches its schedule off. Resume makes the channel ready again; tick Post automatically on these slots and save to start posting.
• A paused or archived project posts and generates nothing for any of its channels. A suspended workspace posts nothing until it is active again.
• Archive channel stops generation and posting for good and frees the channel's place in your plan; its episodes stay in the library.
• A channel whose schedule is on but whose platforms have no linked account is recorded as not-connected at each slot.
• An episode becomes published once every platform the channel chose has it (TikTok and Pinterest never hold that back).

Troubleshooting#

Nothing posted at a slot. Open Publishing and read Slots the scheduler could not fill. Then check, in order: the schedule is ticked on and saved; the channel is not paused and its project is active; each chosen platform has an account linked under Which account each channel posts as; the connection is not marked "reconnect"; an episode is ready (and approved, if the channel asks for approval).

Slots keep coming up empty. Check that every platform ticked under Post to has an account linked (see the warning under Settings), raise New episodes a day, check your credits, and look for episodes held by the quality checks in the channel's library.

A post failed. The episode page shows the platform's reason under the platform. Fix the cause (often the connection), then press Retry, or let the next slot try again.

Related#

• Ready-to-post packs — posting an episode yourself
• Approvals on your phone and Review links for clients
• The platform pages: YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, X, Threads, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Pinterest
• The publishing engine — how it is built