/ads publish — Push creatives to socials via Zernio

Pricing: Zernio is free for the first 2 connected social accounts (no credit card). Solo users posting to Instagram + Facebook = $0/mo forever. Agencies pay $1–$6/mo per additional account (see "Pricing tiers" below). X/Twitter API costs are metered pass-through even on the free tier; all other 13 networks are fully included up to your account quota.

When to use this

After /ads generate (image ad creatives) or /ads photoshoot (product photography) produces an ad-assets/ directory, /ads publish takes those files and schedules them as posts on every social network you've connected in Zernio. Supported: Twitter/X · Instagram · Facebook · LinkedIn · TikTok · YouTube · Pinterest · Reddit · Bluesky · Threads · Google Business · Telegram · Snapchat · WhatsApp · Discord.

Process

1. Verify prerequisites. Confirm:
   • ZERNIO_API_KEY is set (see "Auth setup" below).
   • ad-assets/ exists or the user passed --assets <dir>.
   • Optionally, campaign-brief.md exists (the script will extract per-platform captions from it).
2. Discover assets. List images and videos in the assets directory. For each, infer compatible platforms from the filename aspect-ratio hint (9x16, 1x1, 16x9, 1.91x1).
3. Plan the publication. Show the user a table: per asset, which platforms it would go to, the caption length, and the scheduling time. Ask the user to confirm before calling Zernio (unless --dry-run). If twitter or x is in the target platforms list, surface the X/Twitter pass-through cost note before posting — those posts incur metered Twitter API charges on top of any Zernio tier; the other 13 networks are free up to the account quota.
4. Call scripts/zernio_publish.py. Use Bash with the user's selected platforms and the optional --schedule flag.
5. Report results. Read the JSON output, show what was published vs. errored, and surface any rate-limit or auth issues clearly. If anything was scheduled (vs. posted immediately), remind the user of when posts will go live.

Auth setup

1. Sign up at https://zernio.com — first 2 accounts are always free, no credit card. Confirm at https://zernio.com/pricing.
2. Dashboard → API Keys → create a key (sk_<64-hex-chars>). Keys are shown once.
3. For each social network you want to publish to, complete the OAuth flow in Zernio's dashboard at /connect/<platform>. Zernio handles the per-network OAuth — you don't need to manage Twitter/Meta/LinkedIn tokens yourself. Each social network you connect counts as one of your "accounts" toward the free quota.
4. Export:

   export ZERNIO_API_KEY='sk_...'

Pricing tiers

Important caveat: X/Twitter API costs are metered pass-through at X's published rates regardless of your Zernio tier. All other 13 platforms (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, Bluesky, Threads, Google Business, Telegram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Discord) are fully included.

Without Zernio (alternative for 3+ accounts)

The free 2-account quota covers the typical solo user. If you manage 3+ social accounts (an agency setup) and don't want to pay Zernio's per-account fee, run /ads publish --dry-run to get the plan (which asset goes to which network with which caption) and then publish manually using each platform's native scheduler:

• Meta Business Suite: free, supports Facebook + Instagram scheduling.
• LinkedIn Page Posts → schedule from the composer.
• TikTok Business Suite: free scheduling for organic posts.
• Buffer / Hootsuite free tiers: limited but functional.

Same plan, zero recurring cost — just more clicks per post.

Asset-to-platform matching

The script reads the filename's aspect token (e.g. hero_9x16.png, product_1x1.jpg) to decide. Override with --platforms <list>.

Caption extraction from brief

If campaign-brief.md exists, the script parses sections like ## Instagram caption, ## TikTok caption, etc. and uses each as the caption for that platform. A ## Default caption section is used as fallback for any platform without a specific one.

Output

/ads publish writes a JSON report (publish-results.json) with:

{
  "tool": "zernio_publish",
  "dry_run": false,
  "assets_found": 5,
  "captions_parsed": ["instagram", "facebook", "linkedin", "default"],
  "planned": [
    {"asset": "ad-assets/hero_9x16.png", "platform": "instagram", "scheduled_at": "..."}
  ],
  "published": [
    {"asset": "...", "platform": "instagram", "post_id": "...", "status": "scheduled"}
  ],
  "errors": []
}

Use it to verify what landed and what didn't.

Quality gates

• Never publish without explicit user confirmation unless --yes was passed.
• If --schedule is in the past, refuse and prompt for a future timestamp.
• If the caption exceeds the platform's limit (X: 280, LinkedIn: 3000, etc.), show a warning before posting.
• Per asset: cap to ≤5 platforms per /ads publish invocation by default (avoids burning Zernio quota on large directories accidentally).