n8n-nodes-media-toolkit

An n8n community node for media/content workflows. It renders MP4 video with ffmpeg (image+audio, image sequence, or transcode/resize), computes video render specs (resolution, frame count, bitrate, file-size estimate, ffmpeg args), and builds platform-budget-aware social caption payloads for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram/Reels.

Render Video requires ffmpeg on the n8n host. The spec and caption operations have no external dependency.

Installation

Via n8n UI (recommended)

1. Open your n8n instance
2. Go to Settings > Community Nodes
3. Click Install a community node
4. Enter n8n-nodes-media-toolkit
5. Accept the risks prompt and click Install

The Media Toolkit node will appear in your node palette after installation.

Via npm (self-hosted)

npm install n8n-nodes-media-toolkit

Then restart your n8n instance.

Operations

Render Video

Renders an MP4 with ffmpeg, sized to the target aspect ratio and bitrate from the spec math. Requires ffmpeg on the n8n host (set FFmpeg Path if it isn't on PATH).

Three modes:

Shared controls: Aspect Ratio, Resolution Scale, Frame Rate, Target Bitrate (0 = auto). Output goes to Output Path, or leave it blank for a temp file and enable Return Output as Binary to hand the MP4 to a downstream upload node.

Output:

{
  "renderMode": "imageAudio",
  "outputPath": "/data/out.mp4",
  "width": 1080,
  "height": 1920,
  "fps": 30,
  "bitrateMbps": 6.22,
  "fileSizeBytes": 4821234,
  "fileSizeMB": 4.82,
  "ffmpegCommand": "ffmpeg -y -loop 1 -i /data/img.png -i /data/vo.mp3 -vf scale=1080:1920:... -c:v libx264 -b:v 6.22M -c:a aac -shortest -movflags +faststart /data/out.mp4"
}

Arguments are passed to ffmpeg as an array (never a shell string), so file paths can't inject shell commands. Renders are killed after the configurable Timeout.

Extract Video Metadata Specs

Turns render inputs into a full output spec: even-safe resolution, frame count,
a recommended H.264 bitrate, a file-size estimate, and ready-to-use ffmpeg args.

Output:

{
  "frameRate": 30,
  "duration": 15,
  "aspectRatio": "9:16",
  "resolutionScale": 1,
  "totalFrames": 450,
  "outputWidth": 1080,
  "outputHeight": 1920,
  "resolutionLabel": "1080p",
  "aspectRatioDecimal": 0.5625,
  "megapixels": 2.07,
  "recommendedBitrateMbps": 6.22,
  "bitrateMbps": 6.22,
  "estimatedFileSizeMB": 11.66,
  "ffmpegScaleFilter": "scale=1080:1920",
  "ffmpegArgs": "-r 30 -s 1080x1920 -t 15 -b:v 6.22M",
  "renderParams": {
    "width": 1080, "height": 1920, "fps": 30,
    "durationSeconds": 15, "totalFrames": 450, "bitrateMbps": 6.22
  }
}

• Base resolutions — 16:9 1920×1080 · 9:16 1080×1920 · 1:1 1080×1080 · 4:5 1080×1350. The scale multiplier is applied to both dimensions.
• Even dimensions — width/height are rounded to the nearest even number (H.264/H.265 reject odd sizes).
• Recommended bitrate — 0.1 × width × height × fps ÷ 1e6 Mbps (H.264 rule of thumb), floored at 1 Mbps.
• File-size estimate — bitrateMbps × duration ÷ 8 MB.

Build Social Caption Payload

Sanitizes a caption and formats hashtags within the platform's character budget —
it reserves space for the hashtag block, de-duplicates tags, and trims the caption (not the tags) to fit.

What it does: strips control/zero-width characters and trailing spaces, collapses 3+ blank lines to one, de-duplicates hashtags case-insensitively (first-seen order kept), caps tags to the platform limit, then fits the caption so caption + hashtags never exceeds the platform ceiling.

Platform limits applied:

Output:

{
  "platform": "tiktok",
  "caption": "Check out this new video!",
  "hashtags": ["#media", "#automation", "#n8n"],
  "hashtagBlock": "#media #automation #n8n",
  "fullCaption": "Check out this new video!\n\n#media #automation #n8n",
  "characterCount": 52,
  "platformCharacterLimit": 2200,
  "hashtagLimit": 5,
  "withinLimit": true,
  "truncated": false,
  "droppedHashtagCount": 0
}

Example Workflow

1. Schedule Trigger → fires daily
2. Media Toolkit (Extract Video Metadata Specs) → computes render specs for a 9:16 short
3. HTTP Request → sends specs to your render pipeline
4. Media Toolkit (Build Social Caption Payload) → formats the caption for TikTok
5. TikTok upload node / HTTP Request → publishes with the generated fullCaption

Credentials

This node pack does not require any credentials. All operations are pure data transformations performed locally within your n8n instance.

Compatibility

• Requires n8n version 1.0.0 or later
• Node.js 18+

Development

git clone https://github.com/Media-Studios/n8n-nodes-media-toolkit.git
cd n8n-nodes-media-toolkit
npm install
npm run build

To test locally, link the package into your n8n custom nodes directory:

npm link
cd ~/.n8n/custom
npm link n8n-nodes-media-toolkit

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines on submitting pull requests and reporting issues.

License

MIT

Resources

• n8n community nodes documentation
• n8n node development docs