Teardown No. 22 · Video

How Nick Saraev built three YouTube workflows with Claude Code

Nick Saraev runs three separate workflows for his YouTube channel. The first edits his talking-head recordings. The second finds video ideas and puts them in a Google Sheet. The third generates thumbnails by matching face angles. He built all three by describing what he wanted to Claude Code and letting it research tools, plan and build. He says the video editor cost about $25 in API costs and the other two were "basically free."

Nick SaraevVerified Oct 16, 2026Markdown copy

The problem

He describes the work these systems took over as “the stuff I used to spend hours on every week.” For thumbnails he names a specific failure: “Most AI face swaps look terrible because the face angle doesn’t match the source image.”

The blueprint (as he describes it)

How he built each one

  1. He described what he wanted.
  2. He had Claude Code research the best tools.
  3. He picked a plan.
  4. He let Claude Code build it.

He says: “I know nothing about the programming behind any of it.”

Workflow 1: video editor

  1. He records a talking head.
  2. The workflow cuts out silences and verbal mistakes.
  3. It does audio enhancement and color grading.
  4. It adds an intro animation and exports.

Workflow 2: idea finder

  1. It scrapes YouTube channels in niches adjacent to his.
  2. It scores each video by how much it outperformed that channel’s average.
  3. It puts the best ones into a Google Sheet with the thumbnail, title and three alternative titles adapted for his channel.

Workflow 3: thumbnail generator

  1. It works out the exact angle of the face in the thumbnail he wants to replicate.
  2. It finds the best matching photo of him at that same angle.
  3. It generates three variations.

Stated results

  • The video editor cost “about $25 in API costs.” The other two were “basically free.”
  • He says the video the post promotes was edited by the editing workflow, and that the idea finder produced the idea for that video.
  • He says the three systems handle work that used to take him hours every week. No time-saved figure, view counts or performance numbers are stated.
  • “I automated most of my YouTube workflow in 24 mins.” The post does not say whether 24 minutes is the build time or the length of the video.

Caveats

  • The post promotes his own YouTube video, which walks through the builds. He says the workflows are shared for free in the video description. The post does not mention a paid product.
  • The tools Claude Code chose for editing, scraping and image generation are not named in the post. The details are presumably in the video, which was not reviewed for this draft.
  • No dates are given in the source text.
  • Comments under the post are from third parties and were not used as evidence.
  • X: Unverified not checked.

Sources

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