stories-publish-folder

Stories Publish — Folder Method

Publish Instagram and Facebook Stories from a local folder.

Drop images or short videos into ~/Stories/. This skill publishes them as Stories to Instagram and Facebook.

For creators who make their own story content and want automated publishing.

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Watch Folder

Default: ~/Desktop/Stories/

The skill scans this folder for:

• Images: .jpg, .png, .webp
• Videos: .mp4, .mov (under 15 seconds recommended)

Folder Structure

~/Stories/
  ├── monday-bts.jpg                  ← ready to publish
  ├── product-tease.mp4               ← short video story
  ├── old-story.jpg                   
  └── old-story.published.json        ← sidecar (marks as published)

Story Sequences

Create a numbered sequence to post multiple stories in order:

~/Stories/monday-sequence/
  ├── 1.jpg (or 01-intro.jpg)
  ├── 2.jpg
  ├── 3.mp4
  └── 4.jpg

All items in the folder get posted as sequential stories.

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Usage

# Publish the next unpublished story
node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js

# Publish to Instagram only
node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js --platforms "instagram"

# Publish a specific file
node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js --file "~/Stories/my-story.jpg"

# Preview without publishing
node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js --dry-run

# Custom watch folder
node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js --folder "~/Desktop/ig-stories"

# Publish ALL unpublished stories (batch mode)
node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js --all --limit 10

Flags

Flag	Description
--file PATH	Publish a specific image or video
--folder PATH	Override watch folder (default: ~/Stories/)
--platforms LIST	Comma-separated: instagram,facebook (default: both)
--all	Publish all unpublished stories
--limit N	Max stories in --all mode (default: 10)
--dry-run	Preview, skip publishing

Supported Platforms

Platform	Image Stories	Video Stories
Instagram	✅	✅
Facebook	✅	✅

Environment Variables

Variable	Required	Description
LATE_API_KEY	Yes	Late API key for publishing
INSFORGE_CONNECTION_STRING	No	Database for tracking

Story Specs

Instagram Stories

• Images: 1080x1920 recommended (9:16 aspect ratio)
• Videos: Up to 60 seconds, but 15 seconds recommended per story

Facebook Stories

• Images: 1080x1920 recommended
• Videos: Up to 20 seconds

Output

After publishing, each story gets a .published.json sidecar:

{
  "source_file": "monday-bts.jpg",
  "media_url": "https://cdn.getlate.dev/media/...",
  "late_post_id": "post_abc123",
  "published_at": "2026-03-13T12:00:00Z",
  "published_platforms": ["instagram", "facebook"]
}

Cron Schedule (Recommended)

Check for new stories 3x/day:

0 9,13,17 * * * node skills/stories-publish-folder/scripts/stories-publish-folder.js --all --limit 5