N8n Tip: Handling Image/Video for Socials (URL + Binary + Local Files)

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BINARY on flow | BINARY local | url

Realized in dealing with social media different platforms ended up needing media in different formats: Some take a URL; some need binary in the flow; browser automation (Playwright) needs an actual local file.

I needed to support all 3 for chaining things together.

So I just standardized it:

  • generate image → generate video from that image

  • keep the hosted URLs

  • keep binary in the flow

  • and save both to DISK for upload steps!

  • finally - have a nice Set node on the end organizing everything for downstream.

Since doing that, all the random upload issues across nodes/platforms basically disappeared. This is just a small section of a bigger workflow, but it solved a bunch of headaches. Curious if others ran into the medium version snare! (btw- Insta/Fcbk didnt like the fal.ai urls; and they get a cloudinary url fed from the fal.ai)

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solid approach — having URLs, binary, and local file paths available in one workflow def saves a lot of pain when chaining different platforms together. the sticky notes are super helpful for explaining the three-format pattern.