ReelSum

Extract the real value from Instagram Reels.

ReelSum is a beautifully simple CLI tool that turns any Instagram Reel into clean, readable text right in your terminal. No more re-watching videos or taking notes by hand.

Just pass a link, and ReelSum will accurately transcribe the audio and intelligently structure the content into perfect, readable paragraphs, making it effortless to save, read, or share the information you care about.

Features

• ✨ Zero-friction TUI: Interactive, single-command onboarding.
• 📋 Auto-Copy: Final text is instantly copied to your system clipboard.
• 💾 Auto-Save: Every generated result is saved to ~/.reelsum/outputs/.
• 🕘 History Browser: Run reelsum history to browse, preview, and copy saved outputs.
• 🔄 Continuous Flow: Process multiple reels back-to-back without restarting.
• ⬆️ Update Prompt: When a newer npm version is available, ReelSum can prompt you to update with a single Y or N keypress.
• 🔒 Local-First Config: Your OpenAI API key can live in ~/.reelsum/config.json, with restricted file permissions where supported.

Installation

Ensure you have Node.js installed, then install globally via npm:

npm install -g reelsum

Getting Started

The easiest way to use is to simply run it:

reelsum

The CLI will launch a clean, interactive terminal UI and prompt you for:

1. The Instagram Reel URL
2. Your OpenAI API Key (only asked once, stored locally in ~/.reelsum/config.json)

That's it. It will grab the reel, process the speech, copy the clean text to your clipboard, save it under ~/.reelsum/outputs/, and output it right in your terminal for you to read or reuse.

When processing reels interactively, the final prompt reacts immediately to Y, H, or N without waiting for Enter:

• Y processes another reel
• H opens your saved history browser
• N exits

If a newer version of ReelSum is published on npm, the CLI can also prompt you at startup to update immediately:

• Y runs npm install -g reelsum@latest
• N skips the update for now

Alternative: Inline Usage

If you prefer to drop it into scripts or skip the interactive prompt, you can pass the URL directly:

reelsum "https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV27yTkkzw7/"

Tip: Always wrap the URL in quotes (" ") to prevent your terminal from misinterpreting special characters like ? or &.

If you do not want ReelSum to store your API key locally, set it in your shell instead:

export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
reelsum

You can also save or update the key later with:

reelsum config

View Saved History

To open the saved history browser:

reelsum history

Inside the history browser:

• Up/Down or J/K moves through saved entries
• Enter opens the full saved output
• C copies the selected saved output
• B goes back from the full view
• Q exits

To limit how many entries are loaded into the browser:

reelsum history --limit 20

Privacy & Security

• ReelSum is a local CLI: your API key and saved outputs stay on your machine.
• ReelSum stores configuration in ~/.reelsum/config.json and saved outputs in ~/.reelsum/outputs/.
• On systems that support POSIX file permissions, ReelSum restricts its config and saved output files to the current user.
• Your API key is only used for the OpenAI requests needed to transcribe and format the reel you chose.
• Reel URLs are fetched through yt-dlp, audio is processed locally with ffmpeg, and transcript/formatting requests are sent to OpenAI.
• Passing reelsum config --key ... works, but it can expose the key in shell history. reelsum config or OPENAI_API_KEY is safer.

Uninstallation

To remove ReelSum from your system, run:

npm uninstall -g reelsum

(Optional) To remove your stored API key and saved outputs, delete the local ReelSum data directory from your home directory:

rm -rf ~/.reelsum

License

MIT License.