Introducing the Tella API (and How to Automate Your Video Workflow)

What the Tella API is (in plain English)

An API is a way for two tools to talk to each other. Instead of you clicking around in Tella and copying information by hand, another tool can “ask” Tella for that same information automatically.

If you’ve ever thought, “Why do I have to copy the transcript into ChatGPT again?”—that’s exactly what an API helps you avoid.

With the Tella API, you can programmatically pull video details like:

• Video title
• Thumbnail
• Embed URL
• Chapters
• Transcript

And you can also push actions back into Tella, like updating a video, exporting it, or adding it to a playlist.

The problem the API solves: the work after the recording

Most video workflows have a hidden second half.

After your video is done in Tella, you typically still need to do things like:

• Copy the embed URL into an email or landing page
• Export and upload to YouTube
• Use chapters + transcript to write a YouTube description
• Repurpose the transcript into a blog post
• Organize the video into the right playlist

Manually, none of these steps are “complex,” but together they can easily turn one finished recording into an extra 60–90 minutes of admin work.

This is where the Tella API gets fun: you can chain those post-production steps together using automation tools like Make.com or Zapier.

Use case #1: Automatically organize a messy Tella video library

If you’ve made a lot of videos, your Tella workspace can get messy fast. In my case, I’ve got 1,166 videos. At that scale, manual organization breaks.

The workflow I built fixes two things:

1. I can finally see all my videos in one place.
2. I can automatically file videos into playlists without manually clicking through Tella.

Here’s the simple structure:

• Step 1: Create an Airtable base to store your Tella content
• Step 2: Use the Tella API to import your videos (including metadata)
• Step 3: Also import your playlists
• Step 4: Use automation to decide where each video belongs
• Step 5: Add the video to the right playlist automatically

The key is what you pull from the API. When you import videos into Airtable (or any database), you’re not just saving the title—you’re saving rich data like the transcript and chapters.

Once those fields exist, you can do something smarter than “guessing” where a video belongs. For example, your automation can read:

• The title
• The transcript
• The chapter headings

Then it can match the content to a playlist. A practical way to do this is to use an AI step inside Make/Zapier that outputs a playlist ID (or playlist name) based on the text.

Result: you stop spending hours dragging videos into playlists, and your library stays organized as you publish.

Use case #2: Repurpose a Tella video into a blog post (end-to-end)

This is the workflow that usually saves the most time.

A typical repurposing process looks like this:

• Export the video
• Upload to YouTube
• Copy the transcript
• Copy the chapters
• Paste into ChatGPT
• Ask for a blog post
• Copy the final post into your CMS

That’s a solid hour (or more) per video if you do it carefully.

With the API + Make.com, you can automate almost all of it.

Here’s one clean version of the workflow:

1. Trigger: When a video is added to a specific Tella playlist
2. Action: Retrieve video details via the Tella API (embed URL, chapters, transcript)
3. Action: Send transcript + chapters to an AI step to generate a blog post draft
4. Action: Create a new draft in your CMS (Webflow, WordPress, Ghost, Notion, etc.)
5. Optional: Add the embed URL at the top of the post automatically

The small detail that makes this work well is the trigger. Instead of relying on “when a new video is created,” you can use “when I add a video to a repurpose playlist.”

That keeps you in control. You decide which videos are worth turning into posts, and the automation handles everything after that.

How to get started (without feeling overwhelmed)

You don’t need to build a giant automation on day one. Start with one outcome you want and build the smallest workflow that gets you there.

A simple starter path:

• Pick your tool: Zapier (easier) or Make (more flexible)
• Read the Tella API docs once, just to see what’s possible
• Choose one workflow:
  • “Sync all videos into Airtable” OR
  • “When video enters playlist, generate a blog draft”
• Build it with 3–5 steps max

As you get comfortable, you can add nice upgrades like:

• Auto-tagging videos based on transcript keywords
• Storing performance notes (views, clicks) in your database
• Creating a full content pipeline: video → blog → email → social posts

The main win is simple: the API connects the parts of your workflow you used to do manually, so you can ship content faster with fewer moving pieces.

The Tella API is a big deal because it removes the “copy, paste, repeat” part of video production. You can pull key data like transcripts, chapters, thumbnails, and embed URLs, then use tools like Zapier or Make to organize videos and repurpose them automatically.

If you want a quick win, start with one automation: either sync your Tella videos into Airtable or build a “repurpose playlist” that generates a blog draft the moment you drop a video into it. Once that’s working, you can expand it into a full content engine.