Your AI podcast & YouTube operations manager. One agent handles the entire episode lifecycle — guest intake, prep docs, scheduling, transcription, show notes, YouTube SEO (titles, descriptions, tags), AI-generated thumbnails, promo kits, and follow-ups. From recording to published on every platform.
Every episode means writing titles, descriptions, and tags for YouTube. Making thumbnails. On top of all the podcast admin. Most creators either skip YouTube entirely or spend half their week on post-production.
Crafting SEO-optimized titles, keyword-rich descriptions, and 20+ relevant tags per episode. Most creators half-ass it and their videos get buried.
Designing custom thumbnails for every episode. Either you spend $10-50 per thumbnail hiring designers, or you spend 30-60 minutes in Canva per episode.
Chasing guests for bios, headshots, talking points. Following up when they ghost. Manually piecing together scattered replies.
Researching each guest, writing questions, building prep docs. Every episode starts from scratch because there's no system.
Transcribing, show notes, YouTube content, promo kits — a 5-8 hour black hole after every recording that delays publishing by days or weeks.
Episodes go live, guests get notified late (or never), nobody shares anything. Missed distribution because there's no system tracking who was told what.
One agent reads the tracking sheet, processes every episode at its current stage, and moves it forward. Including YouTube content and AI thumbnail generation — all automatic.
Every stage is a self-contained handler. The agent reads the sheet, finds the row's current status, runs the matching handler, updates the status, moves on.
Creates a Google Calendar event with the guest as an attendee, sends a personalized intake email asking for bio, headshot, social links, talking points, and current promotions. Saves event ID and link to the tracking sheet.
Monitors Gmail for the guest's reply. Parses all intake fields, validates every link actually resolves (HEAD request), saves raw response to Drive, logs broken links. Sends a gentle follow-up after 3 days if no reply.
Reads the guest's actual bio and talking points, generates 5 specific questions (not generic templates — questions that couldn't be asked to anyone else). Copies the template, fills all placeholders, saves as Google Doc.
The night before recording, sends two reminders: one to the host with the full prep doc, and one to the guest with recording details. Nobody forgets. Nobody no-shows.
Watches the Recordings Drive folder. When it finds a file matching the guest's name, downloads it, transcribes audio/video to text, saves the transcript — kicking off post-production.
Reads the full transcript and writes professional show notes: episode summary, chapter timestamps, key takeaways. Generates three title options — direct, curiosity-driven, provocative. Never invents quotes or timestamps not in the transcript.
Generates everything needed to publish on YouTube: an SEO-optimized title (under 70 chars, keyword-rich, click-worthy), a comprehensive description (hook, summary, timestamps, takeaways, guest links, CTA, hashtags), and 15-25 strategic tags.
Uses AI image generation to create a professional, eye-catching YouTube thumbnail based on the episode topic, title, and emotional hook. Designed for high CTR — bold colors, high contrast, optimized for small mobile screens.
Builds the complete promo kit: 3 pre-written social posts (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram), plus a YouTube publishing guide with copy-paste ready title, description, tags, and thumbnail. Everything the guest and host need to publish everywhere.
The episode goes live. Emails the guest with congratulations, episode link, and the full promo kit including YouTube assets — making it dead simple to publish and share everywhere.
If the guest hasn't shared yet, sends a single gentle nudge with the promo kit link again. Not pushy — one friendly reminder. No pestering.
Closes out the episode. After 7 days from follow-up, marks as complete. The entire pipeline took ~5 minutes of your time — all you did was review.
These two stages alone save 2-4 hours per episode and replace a thumbnail designer ($10-50/episode).
Under 70 characters, primary keyword first, guest name for authority, power words for CTR. 3 options per episode.
Hook above the fold, episode summary, clickable timestamps, guest bio + links, CTA, 5-10 hashtags. Copy-paste ready.
15-25 tags: primary keyword first, mix of broad + specific, guest name, long-tail search phrases. Maximize discoverability.
Generated per episode via AI. 16:9 format, bold composition, high contrast, mobile-optimized. Custom to your episode topic.
PodcastMate runs inside OpenClaw and orchestrates 5 services. A single 26-column Google Sheet is the database — every asset, every link, every stage logged.
26-column tracking sheet. Status-driven pipeline. Every email, file, and link gets logged.
Intake emails, reminders, confirmations, publish notifications, follow-ups. Auto-sent from your account.
Creates events with guests as attendees. Updates descriptions with prep doc links.
8 organized folders: Prep Docs, Recordings, Transcripts, Show Notes, YouTube Content, Thumbnails, Promo Kits, Templates.
LLM for questions, show notes, YouTube SEO, social copy. AI image gen for thumbnails. Whisper for transcription.
At 2 episodes/month, that's 12-20 hours saved — the equivalent of a part-time VA and a thumbnail designer you're not paying for.
| Task | Manual / Hiring Help | PodcastMate |
|---|---|---|
| Guest intake + follow-up | 30-60 min | Automatic |
| Research + prep doc | 60-120 min | Automatic |
| Scheduling + reminders | 15-30 min | Automatic |
| Transcription | 60-180 min (or $1-5/min) | Automatic |
| Show notes + chapters | 60-120 min | Automatic |
| ▶️ YouTube title + description + tags | 45-90 min | Automatic |
| 🖼️ Thumbnail design | 30-60 min (or $10-50/ep) | Automatic (AI) |
| Social promo kit (3 platforms) | 45-90 min | Automatic |
| Guest publish email | 10-15 min | Automatic |
| Follow-up for shares | 15-30 min | Automatic |
| Total per episode | 6-10 hours | ~5 minutes (review) |
The complete 350+ line operating manual. All 12 handlers, YouTube stages, guardrails, and edge cases. Drop into OpenClaw and run.
Tracking sheet with status pipeline engine. Pre-configured columns for podcast + YouTube assets.
Auto-generates titles (under 70 chars), keyword-rich descriptions, 15-25 strategic tags. Copy-paste to YouTube.
Custom thumbnails per episode via AI image generation. 16:9, bold design, mobile-optimized. No designer needed.
Professional Google Docs templates with all placeholders. Filled automatically with real guest data.
8 organized folders: Prep Docs, Recordings, Transcripts, Show Notes, YouTube Content, Thumbnails, Promo Kits, Templates.
Never publishes publicly. Never invents quotes. Validates all links. All files private. Silence mode.
Step-by-step deployment: Composio OAuth, Google Workspace config, test run checklist.
Stop spending 6-10 hours per episode on operations. PodcastMate handles guest management, show notes, YouTube SEO, thumbnails, promo kits, and distribution — while you focus on the conversation.
Get PodcastMate → $97 — AGENTS.md blueprint + setup guide + templates + Drive structure