example .info.json file to start with that worked for me.

Example.info.json

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+{
+  "id": "",
+  "channel_id": "Change To Channel ID/username",
+  "uploader": "Change To Channel ID/username",
+  "title": "Example",
+  "upload_date": "",
+  "thumbnail": null
+}

README.md

@@ -1 +1,73 @@
-Test
+# Tube-Archivist Scripts
+
+Small collection of Bash helpers used to prepare offline / archived YouTube videos for import into TubeArchivist. Written for Debian-like systems; should work in other Linux distributions with Bash and standard GNU utilities.
+
+---
+
+## Goal
+Normalize filenames and create accompanying metadata (.info.json) so TubeArchivist can ingest local archives (especially those from archive.org or other offline sources).
+
+Example input filename:
+`20170311 (5XtCZ1Fa9ag) Terry A Davis Live Stream.mp4`
+
+Resulting filename and sidecar JSON:
+- `20170311 Terry A Davis Live Stream [5XtCZ1Fa9ag].mp4`
+- `20170311 Terry A Davis Live Stream [5XtCZ1Fa9ag].info.json`
+
+---
+
+## How it works / Usage
+1. Put all the scripts in the directory with your video files (scripts currently do not recurse into subdirectories).
+2. Run them in order from the directory containing your media:
+
+```sh
+bash convert-()-to-[].bash
+bash move-[id]-to-end.bash
+bash create-json-alongside.bash
+bash insert-id-into-json.bash
+bash insert-title-into-json.bash
+bash insert-date-into-json.bash
+```
+
+Each script performs a single transformation so you can inspect results between steps.
+
+---
+
+## Scripts (order and purpose)
+1. `convert-()-to-[].bash`  
+   - Replace parentheses containing an ID with square brackets (e.g. `(ID)` -> `[ID]`) and clean spacing.
+
+2. `move-[id]-to-end.bash`  
+   - Ensure the video ID appears at the end of the filename inside square brackets.
+
+3. `create-json-alongside.bash`  
+   - Create an empty `.info.json` file for each video filename (sidecar).
+
+4. `insert-id-into-json.bash`  
+   - Populate the sidecar JSON with the video ID field.
+
+5. `insert-title-into-json.bash`  
+   - Insert the cleaned title into the sidecar JSON.
+
+6. `insert-date-into-json.bash`  
+   - Insert the date (if available) into the sidecar JSON.
+
+---
+
+## Notes and tips
+- Scripts do not process subdirectories. Run at the directory root for each archive.
+- Always test on a copy or run a subset first to confirm behavior.
+- If filenames contain unusual characters, run a quick grep for non-ASCII prior to processing.
+- Modify scripts to add dry-run mode if you want safer previews.
+
+---
+
+## Example archive
+Archive used for testing:  
+`https://archive.org/details/TempleOS-TheMissingVideos`
+
+Processed example (after running full pipeline):  
+`20170311 Terry A Davis Live Stream [5XtCZ1Fa9ag].mp4`  
+`20170311 Terry A Davis Live Stream [5XtCZ1Fa9ag].info.json`
+
+---

create-json-alongside.bash

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+#!/bin/bash
+template="Example.info.json"
+
+# Verify template exists
+if [ ! -f "$template" ]; then
+  echo "Error: $template not found."
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# Collect all matching video files safely
+for f in *.mp4 *.mkv *.mov *.avi; do
+  # Skip if no matching files
+  [ -e "$f" ] || continue
+  [ -f "$f" ] || continue
+
+  base="${f%.*}"              # Remove extension
+  target="${base}.info.json"  # Construct new name
+
+  cp -- "$template" "$target"
+  echo "Created: $target"
+done

insert-date-into-json.bash

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+#!/bin/bash
+
+for f in *.info.json; do
+  [ -f "$f" ] || continue
+
+  # Extract title without extension
+  title="${f%.info.json}"
+  # Remove trailing ID if present
+  title="${title% \[*\]}"
+
+  # Extract the date at the beginning of the title (YYYYMMDD)
+  if [[ "$title" =~ ^([0-9]{8}) ]]; then
+    upload_date="${BASH_REMATCH[1]}"
+  else
+    echo "No date found in $f, skipping."
+    continue
+  fi
+
+  # Update JSON upload_date
+  if command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    tmpfile=$(mktemp)
+    jq --arg date "$upload_date" '.upload_date = $date' "$f" > "$tmpfile" && mv "$tmpfile" "$f"
+    echo "Updated upload_date in $f: $upload_date"
+  else
+    # Simple sed fallback (only for simple JSON)
+    sed -i "s/\"upload_date\": *\"\"/\"upload_date\": \"$upload_date\"/" "$f"
+    echo "Updated upload_date in $f: $upload_date (using sed)"
+  fi
+done

insert-id-into-json.bash

@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Loop over all .info.json files in the current directory
+for f in *.info.json; do
+  [ -f "$f" ] || continue  # skip if no files
+
+  # Extract ID from filename: match [ID] at the end (before .info.json)
+  id=$(echo "$f" | sed -n 's/.*\[\([^]]*\)\]\.info\.json/\1/p')
+
+  # If no ID found, skip this file
+  [ -z "$id" ] && continue
+
+  # Use 'jq' to safely update the "id" field
+  if command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    tmpfile=$(mktemp)
+    jq --arg newid "$id" '.id = $newid' "$f" > "$tmpfile" && mv "$tmpfile" "$f"
+    echo "Updated $f with id: $id"
+  else
+    # If jq not installed, fallback with sed (assumes simple JSON format)
+    sed -i "s/\"id\": *\"\"/\"id\": \"$id\"/" "$f"
+    echo "Updated $f with id: $id (using sed)"
+  fi
+done

insert-title-into-json.bash

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+#!/bin/bash
+
+for f in *.info.json; do
+  [ -f "$f" ] || continue
+
+  # Extract title: remove .info.json and remove ID in brackets at the end
+  title="${f%.info.json}"          # Remove extension
+  title="${title% \[*\]}"          # Remove trailing [ID]
+
+  # Update JSON title only
+  if command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    tmpfile=$(mktemp)
+    jq --arg newtitle "$title" '.title = $newtitle' "$f" > "$tmpfile" && mv "$tmpfile" "$f"
+    echo "Updated title in $f: $title"
+  else
+    # Simple sed fallback
+    sed -i "s/\"title\": *\"\"/\"title\": \"$title\"/" "$f"
+    echo "Updated title in $f: $title (using sed)"
+  fi
+done

move-[id]-to-end.bash

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+#!/bin/bash
+for f in *; do
+  # Skip directories
+  [ -f "$f" ] || continue
+
+  # Extract the ID inside () or []
+  id=$(echo "$f" | sed -n 's/.*[([]\([^])]*\)[])].*/\1/p')
+
+  # If there's no ID, skip
+  [ -z "$id" ] && continue
+
+  # Remove the ID portion (and any leftover extra spaces)
+  base=$(echo "$f" | sed 's/[([][^])]*[])]//g' | sed 's/  / /g' | sed 's/ *$//')
+
+  # Separate name and extension
+  name="${base%.*}"
+  ext="${base##*.}"
+
+  # Rebuild new name (handle files with and without extensions)
+  if [ "$name" != "$ext" ]; then
+    newname="${name} [${id}].${ext}"
+  else
+    newname="${base} [${id}]"
+  fi
+
+  # Only rename if different
+  [ "$f" != "$newname" ] && mv -- "$f" "$newname"
+done