YouTube chapter generator
Four rules that decide whether chapters appear
YouTube ignores a chapter list entirely unless the first chapter starts at 0:00, there are at least 3 of them, the times go in order, and every chapter lasts at least 10 seconds. Every list this returns is checked against all four, and one that breaks a rule says which under the result instead of looking finished, so you know to generate again before pasting it in.
Describe the moments, not the video
Chapters are timestamps, and a timestamp cannot be worked out from a title without making up the moment it points at. So this asks what happens and roughly when: "the calendar at about two minutes, publishing at six". It uses only the moments you describe and is told never to invent one to fill a gap.
Pasting them into the description
The result is one block, a chapter per line with the time first and a label of under 40 characters after it, which is the form YouTube reads chapters from. Times come back as m:ss, or h:mm:ss for a video over an hour.
Related tools
This tool also runs over MCP, so Claude, Cursor or another MCP client can use it against your own channel. See the MCP page.
Questions about this tool
Why are my chapters not showing on YouTube?
The usual reasons are the four this checks: the first timestamp is not 0:00, there are fewer than 3, the times are out of order, or one chapter is shorter than 10 seconds. Any one makes YouTube ignore the whole list rather than part of it. Chapters also stay off on a channel with an active strike. If a list here breaks a rule, the note under it says which.
Does it need an account?
Not for your first 3 runs a day: they are free with no sign-up. After that, a free account with no credit card: connect your channel and it includes 50 Cue credits a month, one balance for every drafting tool. The character counter, the line break tool and the bold text tool need no account at all, because they run entirely in your browser.
Will it make things up about my video?
It works only from what you type, and it is instructed to keep to your facts: any statistic, timestamp or sponsor in a draft comes from what you mentioned. The more specific you are, the better the draft.
Where do my channel's numbers come from?
From measurement. Runsheet uses a model to write copy, and every number it reports about your channel is measured, uses medians rather than means and carries its sample size.
Can I run YouTube chapter generator automatically?
Yes. Every tool here is also exposed as an MCP tool, so Claude, Cursor or anything else that speaks MCP can run it against your own channel. How to connect one is on the MCP page, https://runsheet.buildifyapp.in/mcp.
Do you keep what I type?
Runsheet sends the text you enter to Google's Gemini API to produce the answer, and records only that a generation happened and its cost in credits, so your balance can be kept.