# Clip Autopilot

> Keep each channel's calendar filled from your clip library on the days you choose, with every draft waiting for approval before it goes out.

> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.conviapro.com/llms.txt).

Clip Autopilot keeps your social calendar topped up with posts made from clips you already have. You choose the days each channel posts on, and every night Autopilot drafts only what is missing to fill them. It is a type of Content Automation in Convia Pro, and every post it writes lands as **Pending Approval**, so nothing goes out until a person approves it.

Autopilot is for workspace owners and managers. It is plan-gated separately from trend automations and also needs bulk clip scheduling on your plan. If your plan does not include it, the **Your clip library** card shows **Not on your plan**. See [Plans and billing](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md).

## How Clip Autopilot works

Autopilot is not a "post daily" button. Every night it compares your calendar with the posting days you picked for each channel and fills only the gap. That has some useful consequences:

- A day you did not pick is never scheduled on, however empty the rest of the week is. Leaving a day off is how you keep an episode release day, a newsletter day or a weekend clear.
- On the days you did pick, it counts every post already scheduled on that channel, not just its own. Schedule a week by hand and Autopilot correctly does nothing.
- It fills the days that still have room. Running it again tops up the gaps instead of adding a second post to days it already filled. If the queue is full, running it again changes nothing.
- If a night is missed, the next night sees the same gap and catches up.
- Posts always start tomorrow. Autopilot never drafts a post for today.
- The first fill only looks 7 days ahead. It widens to your full horizon once one fill has produced posts.
- It never posts a clip before its episode is out, unless you turn that rule off.

Every post is written by AI from the clip and its own episode: the caption names that episode's guests, with hashtags written as single words, and it ends the way you choose under **How each post ends**.

## Set up Clip Autopilot

Before you start, connect the social accounts Autopilot will post to and make sure your clips are in the clips library. See [Connect social accounts](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/connect-social-accounts.md) and [Episodes and clips](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/episodes-and-clips.md).

1. Open the launcher and go to **In Motion → Content Automations**, then click **New automation**.
2. Choose **Your clip library**, and give the automation a **Name**.
3. Set **Keep filled this far ahead**: how many days ahead you want kept full.
4. Under **Channels and posting days**, switch on each channel Autopilot should post to. For each one, pick the days of the week it posts on (or use **Weekdays** or **Every day**) and how many posts **per day**.
5. Check the **eligible** count beside each channel. If it turns red with **needs** and a number, your library cannot sustain that schedule over the horizon, and the channel will run short rather than invent content.
6. Leave **Only clips from released episodes** on, unless you want teasers ahead of a release.
7. Choose **Which clips go first**: **Breadth** or **Newest first**.
8. Set **Wait before reusing a clip**, and leave **Skip days that already have a post** on.
9. Leave **Keep breathing room** on and set **Days between clips from one episode**.
10. Under **How each post ends**, choose the closing link or line, and a first comment if you want one.
11. For each Instagram channel, set **Publish as**, **Also show in feed** and **Trial reel**.
12. Read the estimate at the bottom, for example "A full fill on these days is about 40 posts, roughly 220 credits".
13. Leave **Active (runs on schedule)** on and click **Create automation**. The first fill happens in the next nightly run, or click **Run now** on the automation to start it straight away.

## Clip Autopilot settings and defaults

| Setting | Default | Range | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Keep filled this far ahead** | 14 days | 1 to 90 days | How far ahead the calendar is kept full. A depth, not a schedule: the fill runs nightly whatever this is |
| Posting days | None | Any days of the week, per channel | The only days Autopilot schedules on for that channel |
| **per day** | 1 | 1 to 10 | Posts on each posting day for that channel |
| **Only clips from released episodes** | On | On or off | Holds a clip until its episode is out |
| **Which clips go first** | Breadth | Breadth or Newest first | How Autopilot orders the clips it can pick |
| **Wait before reusing a clip** | 90 days | 0 or more days | How long before a clip may repeat on a channel, once unposted clips run out |
| **Skip days that already have a post** | On | On or off | Counts anything already on a posting day toward its per-day count |
| **Keep breathing room** | On for new automations | On or off | Tidies the calendar before each fill |
| **Days between clips from one episode** | 3 | 0 to 30 days | Minimum gap between two clips of one episode on one platform. 0 turns it off. Applies only while **Keep breathing room** is on |
| **Link to the full episode** | On | | Closes each caption with the episode link |
| **Link to the podcast episode** | Off | | Closes each caption with the podcast episode link |
| **Your own closing line (optional)** | Blank | Up to 280 characters | Added word for word at the end of every post |
| **First comment (optional)** | Blank | Up to 600 characters | Posted as the first comment where the platform allows it |
| **Active (runs on schedule)** | On | | Switch off to pause the automation |

There is no "posts per run" setting. Autopilot fills to the cadence you set and stops only when a plan limit is reached. See [Credits and plan limits](#credits-and-plan-limits).

## How Clip Autopilot picks clips

Autopilot works per channel, in two tiers:

1. **New clips**: clips that have never gone out on that channel always go first.
2. **Recycling**: once those run out, clips whose last post on that channel is older than **Wait before reusing a clip** are offered.

A clip only counts as eligible if the platform can accept it. For example, an Instagram channel set to post stories only picks clips of 60 seconds or less. A LinkedIn company page and a personal LinkedIn profile are different audiences, so a clip posted to one is still new for the other.

Within a tier, **Which clips go first** decides the order:

| Option | What it does | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| **Breadth** (default) | Rotates through your whole library. The episodes with the fewest recent or upcoming posts, on any channel, go first, so one episode does not take over every channel | Keeping a varied feed from a deep back catalog |
| **Newest first** | Favors your most recent clips, so a new episode gets posted heavily on every channel until its clips run out | Pushing each new release hard |

Either way, a week of posts draws on several episodes, and a clip with no episode is treated as its own group. Autopilot does not rank clips by how well they performed.

## Wait for episodes to release

With **Only clips from released episodes** on (it is on unless you turn it off), Autopilot never posts a clip before its episode is out. This applies to automations you set up before the switch existed, too.

| Episode | Will Autopilot pick its clips? |
|---|---|
| The clip is not linked to any episode | Yes, always |
| The episode's **Publish Date** has passed | Yes. The release day counts from midnight in your workspace time zone |
| The **Publish Date** is in the future | Not until that date |
| No **Publish Date**, and its status is marked **Ready to publish** | Yes |
| No **Publish Date**, and its status is not marked, or it has no status | No |

The date decides when there is one. Episodes imported from your RSS feed or YouTube carry their publish date, so their clips flow without any setup.

### Mark a status as Ready to publish

Episodes without a Publish Date need a status marked **Ready to publish**. If none of your statuses is marked, the automation editor warns "No episode status is marked Ready to publish, so episodes without a Publish Date will be held back", with a link to fix it.

1. Go to **Settings → Workflow & Tasks**.
2. Tick **Ready to publish** on the status, or statuses, that mean an episode is out.
3. Return to the automation editor. The warning clears, and the eligible counts include those episodes' clips.

Clips being held are left out of the eligible counts, and the editor says how many are held and why. Turn the switch off only if you want Autopilot to post teasers ahead of a release.

## Choose posting days and times

Each channel has its own posting days and **per day** count. LinkedIn on Monday, Wednesday and Friday alongside TikTok every day is a normal shape.

Autopilot picks the time of day the same way the rest of Convia does: your default posting time for that platform and weekday under **Settings → Publishing**, then the platform's generally best hour, then the start of your posting window. Times are in your workspace time zone. When a day already holds a post, the next one goes to the channel's next posting time, so a channel with two times set uses both.

If a channel posts more than once a day but has fewer posting times set than that on some days, the editor warns you: the extra posts land 15 minutes after the first. Add another time under **Settings → Publishing** to space them out. See [Calendar and scheduling](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/calendar-and-scheduling.md).

The **Channel consistency** card on your dashboard measures each channel against its Autopilot setup.

## Choose how each post ends

**How each post ends** sets what closes every caption, so a clip post sends people to the full conversation.

- **Link to the full episode** and **Link to the podcast episode** add those links. Anything the episode does not have is skipped.
- **Your own closing line** is added word for word, for example "New episodes every Tuesday".
- Links are left off Instagram and TikTok captions, where they are not clickable.

### Add a first comment

Where your plan includes first comments, **First comment** lets you write a comment once and have every post fill it in with its own episode's details. Click a token to insert it:

| Token | Filled with |
|---|---|
| `{episode_url}` | The episode link |
| `{podcast_url}` | The podcast episode link |
| `{episode_title}` | The episode title |
| `{guest_name}` | The guest's name |

If a post has nothing to put in place of a token, that post gets no comment rather than a half-finished one. A comment too long for the platform is left off, never cut short.

The caption and the comment are set separately. Untick **Link to the full episode** and put `{episode_url}` in the comment to move the link out of the caption; leave both to have it in both places. On Instagram, a link in a comment is copyable text rather than a clickable link.

First comments work on LinkedIn company pages, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X and Bluesky. TikTok and YouTube do not allow scheduled first comments, and the editor names any of your channels that are skipped. An Instagram, Facebook or Threads account may need reconnecting to allow comments; the editor names the account to reconnect.

## Set Instagram and TikTok options

Each Instagram channel on an Autopilot automation has its own options, shown under its row. They apply only to the posts this automation creates. The channel's defaults and posts you write by hand are unchanged.

| Option | Choices | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| **Publish as** | Reel or Story | A story takes clips of 60 seconds or less, carries no caption and disappears after 24 hours. The eligible count updates when you switch |
| **Also show in feed** | On or off | Off keeps a reel in the Reels tab but out of your profile grid and followers' feeds |
| **Trial reel** | On or off | A trial reel is shown to people who do not follow you first, and you decide in Instagram later whether to share it with followers. Instagram requires around 1,000 followers; if the account is not eligible, the reel publishes as normal |

One automation publishes one format per channel. To mix stories and reels on one account, use two automations.

Autopilot posts start from the default publishing settings you saved for each account. In the approval queue, each TikTok post shows its audience, including **Only me unless set** when no choice has been made yet, so you can set it before approving.

## Keep breathing room

Autopilot never doubles up a day itself. But a campaign you launch later, or a bulk clip schedule, can land on a day it already filled, and clips from one episode can end up on neighboring days. With **Keep breathing room** on, every fill first tidies its own channels:

- **Day cap.** On any day that holds more posts than the channel's per-day count, it moves its own posts and bulk clip posts to the next posting day with room. This part only applies while **Skip days that already have a post** is on.
- **Episode gap.** On one platform, two clips from the same episode are kept at least **Days between clips from one episode** apart. New Autopilot posts are placed with that spacing from the start.

What never moves:

- Posts you scheduled yourself, and Autopilot or bulk clip posts you moved to a new date yourself
- Campaign posts
- Anything published, and anything within the next 24 hours
- Posts from an Autopilot automation that has **Keep breathing room** off

Posts only ever move later, never earlier, to the earliest posting day that has room and keeps the episode gap. They keep their time of day, or move 15 minutes later if that time is taken. If no day works, the post stays where it is and the run says so. If a day is over its limit with only posts that cannot move, the run says so and leaves it.

If two Autopilot automations post to the same platform with **Keep breathing room** on, they share one set of rules there: the higher per-day count, all of their posting days and the longer gap.

When posts move, the run history shows how many, and the workspace is notified.

### Tidy the calendar now with Declutter

You do not have to wait for the nightly fill.

1. On the **Calendar**, click **Declutter**.
2. Choose **Keep breathing room**. Convia checks the next few weeks and lists the **Posts that will move**, with where each one goes.
3. Click **Move** (for example **Move 4 posts**), or close the dialog to change nothing.

If no Autopilot automation has **Keep breathing room** on, the dialog tells you which setting to turn on. **Declutter** appears on the Calendar when your plan includes either Autopilot or bulk clip scheduling.

## Spread out clips you scheduled in bulk

**Spread out** is the other mode in **Declutter**. It spaces one platform's clips over the days ahead, whether or not Autopilot made them. It is useful after scheduling a whole episode's clips at once, for example to finish YouTube Shorts in one sitting and space them afterwards. Spread out needs bulk clip scheduling on your plan.

1. On the **Calendar**, click **Declutter** and choose **Spread out**. You can also get here from **Space them out** after scheduling clips or finishing several Shorts on YouTube.
2. Pick the **Platform**. The count beside each one is how many clips can move there.
3. Tick **Which clips move**: **Bulk scheduled clips**, **Autopilot clips** and **Scheduled from a connected AI app** (clips an assistant scheduled outside a campaign). Each shows its count.
4. Set the spacing (see the table below).
5. Choose how to place the clips: **Only fix what's off** or **Mix new clips through the whole queue**. Both show how many clips they would move and the day the last one lands.
6. Check the list, grouped by day, with each clip's episode and why it moves. Click **Move**.

| Spread out setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| **Start on** | | The first day clips may move to |
| Posting days | | The days clips may go out on |
| **Per day** | | Clips per posting day. Posts already on a day count toward it |
| **Time of day** | | Several clips on one day are staggered by 15 minutes |
| **Days between clips from one episode** | 3 | 0 turns it off |
| **Keep each episode within** | 60 days | How many days after its episode a clip may go out. Clear it for **No limit**. Applies to episodes not out yet or out within that many days |
| **Cool off big episodes** | Off | Spaces an episode's clips across its window instead of packing them, never closer than the gap above. Twenty clips over 60 days sit 3 days apart. Needs a window |

Convia remembers these choices for your workspace. Spread out always opens on **Only fix what's off**:

- **Only fix what's off** checks every clip first. A clip that already sits well keeps its day and time. Only clips that share a day, sit too close to another clip from the same episode, or would go out before their episode move, each to the nearest day that works. New clips wait behind the ones already scheduled.
- **Mix new clips through the whole queue** re-places every clip, shuffled across episodes. A new episode goes out sooner, but far more clips change.

A clip never goes out before its own episode. Posts you made by hand, campaign posts, full episodes, anything already public and anything within the next 24 hours stay where they are, and count toward their day. A clip that would land beyond **Keep each episode within** is not pushed out of sight: it stays where it is and is listed, so you can raise the per-day count, widen the window, archive some or accept the wait. When the queue is full, the summary says which day the last clip goes out, how far away that is, and what one more clip a day would do.

After you click **Move**, the dialog closes and the work carries on behind any page. A progress card at the bottom right shows how far it has got. **Stop after this clip** ends it early, and **Finish moving** moves the rest later. Closing or reloading Convia stops the run; the next time you open **Declutter**, choose **Finish moving** or **Forget the rest**. Only one set of clips moves at a time across your workspaces.

A clip Spread out places counts as placed by you, so **Keep breathing room** leaves it alone afterwards. Run Spread out again with **Mix new clips through the whole queue** to reshuffle.

### Spread out and YouTube Shorts

Clips already uploaded with **Finish on YouTube** get their new publish time on YouTube too, on a channel that has given Convia permission to change videos after upload. On any other channel, uploaded clips stay where they are and count toward their day, and you change their times in YouTube Studio. A video you made unlisted, or unscheduled in YouTube Studio, is left as it is, and a publish time you changed in YouTube Studio is kept.

> [!NOTE]
> Changing uploaded videos is in preview. A channel in the preview shows **Allow changing videos** on its card on **Social Channels**, and Google shows a notice that the app is not verified yet, which you can continue past from **Advanced**.

Changing a time on YouTube uses part of a daily allowance YouTube gives Convia. If a large spread runs out of it, Spread out finishes everything else, and **Finish moving** becomes available once the allowance resets at midnight Pacific time. If YouTube needs reconnecting, Spread out stops and says so; reconnect it on **Social Channels**, then choose **Finish moving**. See [YouTube publishing](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/youtube-publishing.md).

## Run a fill now

**Run now** on an automation queues a fill and returns straight away. The work happens on the server, so you can close the tab or move to another page and it still finishes. New drafts appear in the approval queue as each channel is topped up.

| Message | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Fill queued** | The fill has started in the background |
| **Nothing new to queue** | A fill may already be in progress. Open the automation to see its recent runs |
| **A fill is already running** | New drafts appear in the approval queue as each channel is topped up |
| **A fill is retrying** | The last attempt hit an error and is waiting to try again |
| **Nothing to queue** | Every channel either has no posting days set, has no connected account, or is not included in your plan |

## Read the run history

Click **Details** on an Autopilot automation to open its page. **Recent runs** lists each channel's fill, with a total of the posts created, the runs and the credits used. Run history is kept for 30 days.

Each run shows the platform, the outcome, and when it ran, plus:

- **New clips** or **Recycling**: which tier the clips came from. **Recycling** means every eligible clip has already gone out on that channel at least once.
- How many episodes the fill drew from, and how many clips were eligible.
- How many posts **Keep breathing room** moved, if any. **Breathing room check failed** means the tidy could not run.
- For a retry, the attempt number and when the next try is due.

| Outcome | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A number of posts | The fill drafted that many posts | Review them in the approval queue |
| **Calendar already full** | Nothing was missing | Nothing |
| **Every posting day in the window is full** | Each posting day already holds its per-day count | Add a posting day, raise **per day** or widen the horizon |
| **No clips left to post** | No eligible clip remains for the channel | Add clips, or lower **Wait before reusing a clip** |
| **Every free day is too close to a clip from the same episode** | The episode gap left no valid day | Usually nothing: the next night has a day more of room. Or lower the gap |
| **Every clip belongs to an episode that has not released yet** | The release rule held every clip | Wait for the release, or set the Publish Date |
| **Episodes have no Publish Date, and no status is marked Ready to publish** | Dateless episodes can never pass the release rule | Click **Fix under Settings, Workflow & Tasks** |
| **Out of AI credits** | The fill could not pay for the posts | Top up credits |
| **Scheduled-post limit reached** | Your plan's limit on queued posts is reached | Wait for scheduled posts to publish, remove some, or upgrade |
| **Monthly post limit reached** | This month's post allowance is reached | Wait for the new month, or upgrade |
| **Channel paused** | The channel has no posting days, or is switched off | Turn it back on in the editor |
| **Not on your plan** | Autopilot or bulk clip scheduling is not included | See [Plans and billing](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/plans-and-billing.md) |
| A "Couldn't read…" message, **Post generation failed** or **Couldn't save the drafts** | The fill failed after its retries | Click **Run now** to try again, or contact support |

The automation's card on the list shows the most serious recent outcome across its channels, such as **Last run: waiting for episodes to release** or **Fill in progress**.

## Credits and plan limits

An Autopilot fill costs about 5 credits per post, plus a base charge each time a channel is filled. The editor estimates the cost of a full fill before you save. Steady-state nights cost far less, because each only tops up what has gone out. If generation fails, the credits are returned.

A fill stops when one of your plan's limits runs out, and the run history names which:

| Limit | When it stops a fill |
|---|---|
| **AI credits** | Straight away, because writing the posts costs credits |
| **Scheduled post queue** | When your plan's limit on queued posts is reached. Drafts already waiting for approval count toward it |
| **Monthly posts** | When this calendar month's allowance is reached |

### Clip Autopilot limits

| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Posts per channel per fill | 25. A channel that needs more reaches a full queue over the next few nights |
| First fill | 7 days ahead, then your full horizon |
| Posts **Keep breathing room** moves per channel per run | 50 |
| How far **Keep breathing room** looks for a new day | Your horizon plus 30 days |
| Clips a fill considers | Your 5,000 most recent clips |
| Run history | 30 days |

## Review and approve Autopilot drafts

> [!IMPORTANT]
> Autopilot posts always land as **Pending Approval**, even if your workspace has approval switched off, so a post written in the background never reaches a channel unread. The automation's **Approval** setting does not change this.

In the Approval Queue (**Approvals** at the bottom of the sidebar), Autopilot drafts show **Automation** as their author, with a robot icon. Chips show an Instagram post's format and a YouTube post's visibility. Each draft already has a date, so approving it moves it to **Scheduled** on that date. A weekly pass works well: open the approval queue, review the coming week, and approve.

To see everything one automation made, filter the Posts list or the **Calendar** by automation, or click the **Autopilot** badge on a post. To compare automations, use **Analytics → By Automation**. See [Approval and review](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/approval-and-review.md) and [Analytics](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/analytics.md).

## Troubleshooting Clip Autopilot

### Why did Autopilot create nothing last night?

Open the automation's **Details** and read the latest outcome under **Recent runs**. The most common reasons are a full calendar, no eligible clips, episodes not yet released, or no status marked **Ready to publish**.

### Why are so many posts from the same episode?

Check **Which clips go first**. **Newest first** posts a new episode heavily until its clips run out. Switch to **Breadth** to rotate through your library, and turn on **Keep breathing room** to keep an episode's clips apart.

### Why did Autopilot leave my release day empty?

That day is not one of the channel's posting days. Autopilot never schedules on a day you did not pick.

### Why do two posts land 15 minutes apart?

The channel posts more than once a day but has only one posting time set for that day. Add another time under **Settings → Publishing**.

### Why did a clip go out before its episode?

**Only clips from released episodes** is off, or the episode looked released: its **Publish Date** was earlier than the real release, or it had no date and its status was marked **Ready to publish**. Turn the switch on and check the episode's date and status.

## Related

- [Content Automations](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/content-automations.md): both automation types, and how trend automations work.
- [Calendar and scheduling](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/calendar-and-scheduling.md): posting times, the posting window and bulk clip scheduling.
- [Approval and review](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/approval-and-review.md): approve the week's drafts.
- [Episodes and clips](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/episodes-and-clips.md): build the clip library Autopilot draws from.
- [Automate your drafts](https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/automate-your-drafts.md): a guide to setting up Autopilot end to end.

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Source: https://docs.conviapro.com/docs/autopilot · Section: Creating with AI · Last updated: 2026-10-03