Reel Autopsy: Steal Viral Shorts, Fact-Checked

What you get in one run

Paste one link (Instagram Reel, YouTube Short, TikTok) or upload the clip. Reel Autopsy downloads the video when the platform allows it, samples its frames, reads every on-screen line, pulls the numbers the platform exposes, and gives you:

1. Verdict in one line - is this worth copying, is it legit, what could not be verified
2. Numbers, labeled - likes, comments, views, post age, comment/like ratio. Every figure is tagged [retrieved], [calculated], [external] or [proposed], so you always know where it came from
3. Sampled transcript - on-screen text with timestamps (1 s sampling for list-style videos); needs the video file, see the blocked-download note below
4. Hook & structure - the opening device, a beat map, the retention tricks actually used
5. Claim check - every tool, price or money claim with a verdict: Verified / Plausible, unproven / Unverifiable / Contradicted, with sources when it could be checked
6. Engagement numbers - what the counts show and, honestly, what they cannot show (comment bait is called out only when the mechanism is on screen)
7. Your version - a shoot-ready script in your language, same pacing, for your niche, minus the parts of the original that did not hold up

Real sample (public Instagram reel, run on a local machine, 2026-11-10)

Input: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DJjwvHGI2A8/ ("6 AI side hustles to make $1000 with AI")

## Verdict in one line
A clean, fast "6 tools in 25 seconds" list that is built to farm comments
("COMMENT ... I'll DM YOU"), not to teach; every tool named is real, the "$1000"
is never shown, so copy the format and the pacing, not the promise.

## Numbers (labeled)
- Likes 22,864 [retrieved] · Comments 8,810 [retrieved] · Views: unavailable
- Posted 2025-05-12 [retrieved], age 547 days [calculated]
- Comments-to-likes 0.385 [calculated]  (typical list reels sit far below 0.05)

## Sampled transcript
[frame 0-2s]   "6 AI SIDE HUSTLES" / "to make $1000 with ai"
[frame 3-5s]   NUMBER 01 / CREATE LOGO USING LogoDiffusion / AND SELL ON BrandCrowd
[frame 6-9s]   NUMBER 02 / 3D MODEL USING Meshy / AND SELL ON Sketchfab
[frame 10-13s] NUMBER 03 / CREATE IMAGES USING IDEOGRAM / WIRESTOCK
[frame 14-16s] NUMBER 04 / CREATE KITTL / Etsy
[frame 17-18s] NUMBER 05 / CREATE WEBSITES 10Web / AND SELL ON [not sampled]
[frame 19-21s] NUMBER 06 / CREATE VOICEOVERS USING ELEVENLABS
[frame 22-24s] "COMMENT" / "I'll DM YOU" / "TO GET"  (lectern: HUSTLER GANG)

## Claim check
| Claim                        | Evidence in video | External check                   | Verdict            |
| "make $1000 with AI"         | none              | not checkable                    | Unverifiable       |
| LogoDiffusion makes logos    | logo only         | logodiffusion.com 200 [external] | Verified (exists)  |
| Meshy makes 3D models        | logo only         | meshy.ai 200 [external]          | Verified (exists)  |
| Kittl designs sell on Etsy   | logo only         | kittl.com 200; no sales shown    | Plausible, unproven|

## Engagement numbers
Comment mechanism IS on screen (22-24s), so the 0.385 ratio is explained by
comment bait, not debate. Counts alone cannot prove organic vs bought.

## Your version: shoot-ready script  (niche assumed: Notion templates)
Hook options: "5 free AI tools I use to run a one-person agency" / ...
0.0-2.0s  "5 AI TOOLS" over your real desktop; 1.5s: "that replaced $400/mo"
2.0-5.0s  NUMBER 01 - tool left / what it replaced right / "writes proposals"
...
17.0-21.0s PROOF - one real screenshot of your cancelled subscriptions page
21.0-24.0s CTA - "Full list + links in bio" (say exactly what they get)
Honest note: the "$1000" promise and the DM loop were not copied; show the
real cancelled-subscriptions screenshot instead.

## Coverage & limits
Frame interval 1 s (25 frames). Audio present, not transcribed on this host.
Views not exposed by Instagram without login. Not checked: 10Web, ElevenLabs.

The full report ships inside the package as examples/sample-report.md.

What happens when a platform blocks the download (read this first)

This agent runs on Capafy's cloud sandbox. YouTube, Instagram and TikTok apply bot detection to data-center IPs, so a hosted run is often refused the video file, and sometimes the counts as well. This is a platform-side limit, not something the agent can switch off. What you get then:

• Reduced report, always delivered - title, uploader and cover image (from the platform's public oEmbed endpoint) plus whatever counts and caption came through, with the transcript and beat map marked "not available: media blocked". The report file is still written with every section present.
• Two ways to get the full version: upload the clip (a screen recording is fine), or paste the on-screen text, spoken words and caption. The analysis continues from that.
• The agent never asks you for cookies, session IDs or passwords in chat. The optional Instagram cookie setting exists only in the agent settings, for owners who want to add their own.

Tested on (local machine, no cookie)

• YouTube Shorts: full download, frames, audio, counts
• TikTok: full download, counts
• Instagram public reel: full download, counts
• Simulated blocked download (bot wall): reduced report from oEmbed title, uploader and cover image, with the two alternatives listed
• Uploaded local clip: works without any link
• Wrong or deleted link: one-line error with the real cause, no hallucinated report

On the hosted sandbox, expect the "blocked download" path for a share of links; the report says so explicitly when it happens.

Good for

• Creators deciding whether a format is worth copying before spending a day shooting
• Anyone sent a "make money with AI" reel asking "is this real?"
• Marketers reverse-engineering a competitor's top short

Limits (read this)

• Frames are sampled. Text that appears only between samples is not captured. The report says which interval was used.
• Audio transcription depends on the host having a speech model; otherwise on-screen text and caption are used and the report says so.
• It never promises earnings and never calls a creator a fraud. It reports what is verified, what is not, and why.
• External services used: the video platform itself (yt-dlp and its public oEmbed endpoint) and, for claim checks, public web pages. No other data service. An Instagram cookie, if the owner adds one in settings, is used only for the download and is never printed.