> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.trypost.it/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Repurpose
> Watch an Instagram or Facebook account and republish every new video to your other networks.
A repurpose watches one [social account](/knowledge-base/social-accounts) for new videos posted **outside** TryPost, downloads them, and republishes each one to the destinations you pick. Use it when you publish a Reel on Instagram and want the same video on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and the rest without pasting it by hand.
Only Instagram and Facebook can be a source — they are the only networks that let TryPost download the video. Destinations can be any connected account whose format accepts video.
You can also manage repurposes through the [REST API](/api-reference/endpoint/list-repurposes) and [MCP tools](/ai/tools-reference#repurpose).
## Who can manage repurposes
Owner, Admin, and Member can create, edit, activate, pause, resume, disable, and delete repurposes. Viewers do not see **Repurpose** in the sidebar. The sidebar item is labeled **Beta**.
See [Team & roles](/knowledge-base/team).
## Create a repurpose
In the sidebar, click **Repurpose**.
Click **New repurpose**.
Choose the Instagram or Facebook account TryPost should watch. Connect one first if the list is empty.
On the next screen, pick the format to watch, the destinations, and whether each new video should publish automatically or land as a draft. Then click **Activate**.
A new repurpose starts as a **draft**. Nothing is replicated until you activate it. Only videos published **after** activation are picked up.
The create dialog only picks the source. Format, destinations, and publish mode are on the next screen (defaults: watch Reels, publish automatically, no destinations).
One source account can feed several repurposes — one per format (Reels, Videos, Stories). The same account plus the same format cannot feed two rows in one workspace.
In the dashboard, creating a second row for the same source with the default format (**Reels**) opens the existing one. The [API](/api-reference/endpoint/create-repurpose) and [MCP](/ai/tools-reference#repurpose) return `422` instead.
## Source
| | |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Networks** | [Instagram](/platforms/instagram) (Standalone or Facebook Business) and [Facebook](/platforms/facebook) Pages |
| **Formats** | `reel`, `video`, `story` |
| **Health** | The source must stay **connected** and switched **on**. A dead source pauses the flow |
TryPost cannot watch TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, or any other network as a source — those APIs do not give us a downloadable file.
## Destinations
Each destination is a connected account plus the format it should publish as. A Story on Instagram can land as a Reel on TikTok or a Short on YouTube — the source format and the destination format do not have to match.
The destination's `content_type` must accept video. A Pinterest pin (image) is rejected.
Required per-platform settings (TikTok `privacy_level`, Pinterest `board_id`, Discord `channel_id`, …) are the same keys as on a regular post. You can save a draft without them; **Activate** and **Resume** refuse until every usable destination has what it needs to publish. See [per-platform meta](/api-reference/endpoint/update-post#per-platform-meta).
Captions are copied from the original. TryPost only rewrites a caption when it exceeds that network's limit (AI shortener when available, otherwise a hard trim).
A destination you switch **off** stays in the list and is skipped for that item — the flow keeps running. A destination you **delete** is removed from the list; if it was the last one, the flow pauses (`paused_reason` `no_destinations`). An **active** row cannot drop its last usable destination on save.
The source account cannot also be a destination on the same repurpose.
## Publishing mode
| Mode | What happens when a new video is found |
| ------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Publish automatically** (`publish`) | TryPost creates the posts and schedules them immediately |
| **Create as draft** (`draft`) | The posts land in your calendar as drafts for you to review |
## Status
| Status | Meaning |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Draft** | Configured, not watching yet |
| **Active** | TryPost checks the source regularly and replicates new videos |
| **Paused** | Checks are on hold. Resume continues from where it stopped |
| **Disabled** | Turned off. Activating again starts fresh — whatever you posted while it was off is not backfilled |
### Pause vs disable
**Pause** keeps the watermark. Videos published while it is paused are still picked up after **Resume**.
**Disable** clears the watermark. The next **Activate** only watches from that moment on.
A user pause (you clicked **Pause**) resumes from the same place. A system pause (the source died, or every destination disappeared) stamps a new watermark on resume, so the backlog from the outage is not replayed.
### Changing the source
Editing the source account or the watched format on an already-activated row resets the watermark. Only videos published after that change are replicated.
## How polling works
On Cloud, and on a self-hosted install with the [scheduler](/self-hosting/production#scheduled-tasks-cron) running:
1. `repurpose:poll` runs every five minutes and queues a check for every **active** source that is due
2. Each source is polled about every **15 minutes** (`REPURPOSE_POLL_INTERVAL_MINUTES`)
3. A rate-limit from Instagram or Facebook backs the next check off to **60 minutes** (`REPURPOSE_BACKOFF_MINUTES`)
4. New videos after the watermark become activity items; each one is downloaded and turned into posts
Videos you already published **through TryPost** are listed as skipped. They are never cloned back onto the other networks.
## Activity
Open a repurpose and switch to **Activity** to see every source video TryPost has seen.
| In the app | API `status` | Meaning |
| ---------- | ------------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| Queued | `pending` | Waiting to download |
| Processing | `processing` | Download or post creation in progress |
| Replicated | `published` | Destinations created and scheduled (`publish` mode) |
| Drafted | `drafted` | Destinations created as drafts (`draft` mode) |
| Skipped | `skipped` | Intentionally not replicated — see the reason |
| Failed | `failed` | Download or post creation failed — see the reason |
| In the app | API `reason` | What it means |
| --------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Already published through TryPost | `published_via_trypost` | The original was posted from this workspace. It is not cloned |
| The network did not share a downloadable file | `media_url_missing` | Usually copyrighted audio on the original |
| The video could not be downloaded | `download_failed` | Transient download failure after retries |
| Could not create the posts | `post_creation_failed` | Post creation failed |
| No destination was available | `no_usable_destinations` | Every destination was missing or switched off |
Deleting a repurpose stops checks immediately. Posts it already created stay in the [calendar](/knowledge-base/posts#the-calendar).
## Account health
Source and destination are treated differently on purpose.
A **dead source** (disconnected, token expired, or switched off) pauses an active flow with `paused_reason` `source_unavailable`. When that account is connected and switched on again, TryPost **resumes it for you** — you do not click Resume. A user pause (`paused_reason` is `null`) is never auto-resumed.
If the source account is **deleted**, the flow pauses with `source_removed` and the source field is cleared. Pick a new source, then **Resume**. That is not auto-resumed.
A **dead destination** does not stop the flow:
* Switched off — skipped at job time; the others still get the video
* Disconnected but still listed — a post is still created so you can retry after reconnecting
* Deleted — removed from the destination list; if none remain, the flow pauses (`no_destinations`)
The list shows an amber warning when a system pause is in effect. Open the row to see why. When the cause is fixed and the flow did not auto-resume, the banner says it is ready — click **Resume**.
No email is sent when a repurpose pauses. You already get account-level mail when a connection dies.
## REST and MCP
| Task | REST | MCP |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| List formats | [`GET /repurpose-source-formats`](/api-reference/endpoint/list-repurpose-source-formats) | `list-repurpose-source-formats-tool` |
| List / get | [`GET /repurposes`](/api-reference/endpoint/list-repurposes), [`GET /repurposes/{id}`](/api-reference/endpoint/get-repurpose) | `list-repurposes-tool`, `get-repurpose-tool` |
| Create / update | [`POST /repurposes`](/api-reference/endpoint/create-repurpose), [`PUT /repurposes/{id}`](/api-reference/endpoint/update-repurpose) | `create-repurpose-tool`, `update-repurpose-tool` |
| Activity | [`GET /repurposes/{id}/items`](/api-reference/endpoint/list-repurpose-items) | `list-repurpose-items-tool` |
| Lifecycle | [`activate`](/api-reference/endpoint/activate-repurpose), [`pause`](/api-reference/endpoint/pause-repurpose), [`resume`](/api-reference/endpoint/resume-repurpose), [`disable`](/api-reference/endpoint/disable-repurpose) | matching `*-repurpose-tool` |
| Delete | [`DELETE /repurposes/{id}`](/api-reference/endpoint/delete-repurpose) (`204`) | `delete-repurpose-tool` (`{ deleted: true }`) |
MCP lists return `{ repurposes \| items, total, per_page, current_page, last_page }` instead of the Laravel `data` / `links` / `meta` envelope. `list-repurpose-source-formats-tool` returns `{ source_formats: [...] }`.
## Webhooks
Replicated posts are ordinary [posts](/knowledge-base/posts). They fire the same [webhook](/knowledge-base/webhooks) events (`post.created`, then `post.scheduled` in publish mode, then the publish outcome). `created_via` is `repurpose`.
## Self-hosting
Repurpose needs Horizon (or another queue worker) **and** the scheduler. `repurpose:poll` is already on the default schedule (every five minutes). Tune how often each source is checked:
```env theme={null}
REPURPOSE_POLL_INTERVAL_MINUTES=15
REPURPOSE_BACKOFF_MINUTES=60
```
See [Configuration](/self-hosting/configuration#repurpose) and [Scheduled tasks](/self-hosting/production#scheduled-tasks-cron).
## FAQ
TryPost has to download the original video. Instagram and Facebook expose a file URL; the other networks do not. Those accounts can still be **destinations**.
No. Activation stamps a watermark. Only videos published after that moment are replicated. Disable-then-activate does the same — the gap stays empty.
It is skipped (`published_via_trypost`). The activity row still appears so you can see why nothing new showed up.
No. That account is skipped for each new item. The others still receive the video. Activate and Resume only need **one** usable destination. Deleting the last destination does pause the flow.
Not if TryPost paused it because the source died (`source_unavailable`). Reconnect (or switch the account back on) and the flow resumes by itself. A pause you started, or a deleted source (`source_removed`), still needs **Resume**.
Instagram often withholds the download URL in that case. The activity row says the network did not share a downloadable file.