Integrations
Watch Folder: the universal bridge for any NLE
When a native plugin doesn't exist (yet), the Watch Folder helper lets any desktop editor — Final Cut, OpenShot, CapCut Desktop — render into a sync folder that auto-uploads to your Fotofolio album.
We have native plugins for Premiere, Resolve Studio, Blender, Photopea, and Lightroom CC. We don't have native plugins for everything — Final Cut Pro, OpenShot, CapCut Desktop, VN Desktop, and a long tail of others don't have plugin APIs we can reasonably target.
For all of those, the Watch Folder helper is the answer. It's a tiny background process that watches a folder on your computer and auto-uploads any new video file to a Fotofolio album you've linked it to. From the editor's perspective you're just rendering to a folder. From your client's perspective the finished render appeared in their gallery without you doing anything.
What it does in v1
- One-way upload: folder → album. New video files dropped into the watched folder upload to the linked Fotofolio album.
- Video formats supported: mp4, mov, mkv, webm, avi, wmv, m4v, 3gp.
- Robust against half-rendered files: we wait ~2 seconds for the file size to stop growing before uploading, so partial renders don't get pushed.
- Survives restarts: a
~/.fotofolio/sync-state.jsonfile tracks what's been uploaded so the helper doesn't re-upload on reboot. - Auto-poster: if you have ffmpeg installed, we grab a still frame ~1s in as the album thumbnail. If you don't have ffmpeg, upload still succeeds and the album shows a placeholder thumbnail.
Setup
- Install Python 3.8+ if you don't have it. Most Macs do. Windows users grab the official installer from python.org.
- Fotofolio dashboard → Integrations → Watch Folder Sync. Generate token + download the helper zip.
- Unzip the package somewhere on your machine.
- In a terminal/PowerShell, navigate to the unzipped folder and run:
python -m pip install -r requirements.txtpython fotofolio_sync.py
- The first run prompts for your access token, the local folder to watch, and the destination album. Settings save to
~/.fotofolio/sync.jsonwith mode 0600. - Helper is now running. Drop a video file into the watched folder; it uploads.
Running as a service so you don't have to remember
The helper is meant to run all the time. You don't want to manually launch a terminal every morning.
- macOS: install as a launchd agent. The README in the zip includes a
.plisttemplate; copy it to~/Library/LaunchAgents/and runlaunchctl loadon it. Helper starts on login. - Windows: Task Scheduler → Create Task → Trigger: At log on, Action: Start a program → Program:
python, Arguments: path tofotofolio_sync.py. Helper starts on login.
Day-to-day with Final Cut Pro
- In Final Cut: File → Share → Master File (Default). Set destination to your Watch Folder.
- Hit Send. Final Cut renders the master into the folder.
- Helper notices the new file, waits for the size to stabilize (2 seconds), then uploads.
- Couple's gallery has the new film. You didn't click anything Fotofolio-related.
What v1 doesn't do
- Bidirectional sync. New items in the album don't download to the watched folder. v2 will add this; for now use the album's "Download all" for local copies of source media.
- Native menu-bar / tray app. We're building one but the v1 helper is terminal-only.
- Native installers. v2 ships signed
.appand.exeso you don't need Python at all. We're holding off until we're ready to commit to the ongoing code-signing cert fees. - Photos. Video-only for v1. Drop an image in the folder and the helper ignores it.
Why this is the universal answer
Most desktop NLEs that don't have a plugin API still have an Export / Render dialog with "output to folder." If the editor can write a file to disk, Watch Folder can pick it up. That makes it the lowest-common-denominator integration — works with everything; doesn't care what the editor is.
Native plugins give a better UX where they exist (no terminal, no Python, you don't leave the editor). Watch Folder is the safety net for everything else.
Related
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