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☁️ Cloudinary Setup Guide

Cloudinary is a free media hosting service used by Apollo to temporarily host videos for Instagram publishing.

🤔 Why Do I Need Cloudinary?

Instagram's API requires a public URL to fetch your video (it doesn't accept direct file uploads).

The flow:

Your Device → Upload to Cloudinary → Get URL → Instagram fetches → Auto-deleted

Apollo automatically deletes videos from Cloudinary after successful publish.

📋 Prerequisites

  • Email address
  • 3 minutes of your time

No credit card required!

🚀 Quick Setup

Step 1: Create Free Account

Go to: https://cloudinary.com/

  1. Click "Sign Up For Free" (top right)
  2. Choose "Programmable Media"
  3. Fill in details:
    • Full name
    • Email
    • Password
  4. Click "Create Account"
  5. Verify your email

Step 2: Complete Registration

  1. Select your role: Developer
  2. Company/Project name: Apollo (or your choice)
  3. Skip the survey questions
  4. Click "Continue"

Step 3: Get Your Credentials

  1. You'll land on the Dashboard
  2. Look for "Product Environment Credentials" section
  3. You'll see three important values:
Credential Example
Cloud Name dxxxxxxxx or apollo-user
API Key 123456789012345
API Secret abc***DEFghij***klm (click "Reveal" to see)

Step 4: Add to Apollo

In Apollo:

  1. Open Settings (⚙️)
  2. Find ☁️ Cloudinary section
  3. Fill in:
    • Cloud Name: paste your cloud name
    • API Key: paste your API key
    • API Secret: paste your API secret (click 👁 to see)
  4. Click 💾 Save all settings

💰 Free Tier Limits

Cloudinary's free tier is very generous:

Feature Free Limit
Storage 25 GB
Bandwidth 25 GB/month
Transformations 25,000/month
API Calls Unlimited

Reality Check

For Apollo usage:

  • Average reel: ~15 MB
  • You can publish ~1,600 reels per month for FREE
  • Since Apollo auto-deletes, storage stays minimal

More than enough for personal and small business use!

🔄 How Apollo Uses Cloudinary

Upload Flow

  1. User clicks "Publish to Instagram"
  2. Apollo uploads video to Cloudinary (encrypted)
  3. Cloudinary returns a temporary public URL
  4. Apollo sends URL to Instagram API
  5. Instagram fetches video from URL
  6. Instagram processes video (30-60 seconds)
  7. Apollo automatically deletes video from Cloudinary
  8. User's storage stays clean

Security

  • ✅ Videos are only accessible via unique URL
  • ✅ URLs are temporary
  • ✅ Auto-deletion after publish
  • ✅ Cloudinary uses HTTPS encryption
  • ✅ Your credentials stay on your device

📊 Monitor Your Usage

Dashboard

Go to Cloudinary Dashboard to see:

  • Storage used (should be near 0 if Apollo auto-deletes)
  • Bandwidth this month
  • Total transformations
  • Recent uploads

Usage Alerts

Set up alerts to avoid surprises:

  1. Settings → Notifications
  2. Enable "Usage warnings"
  3. Set threshold: 80%

🎥 Supported Formats

Cloudinary accepts these video formats:

  • Best: MP4 (H.264 + AAC)
  • Also: MOV, AVI, WEBM, MKV, WMV, FLV
  • Max file size: 100 MB (free tier)

Apollo outputs MP4 by default, so no issues.

🐛 Troubleshooting

❌ "Invalid API key"

Solution:

  1. Verify you copied the entire key
  2. Check for extra spaces
  3. Regenerate credentials in Dashboard → Settings

❌ "Cloud name not found"

Solution:

  1. Verify cloud name spelling (case-sensitive)
  2. Copy from Dashboard exactly
  3. Don't include quotes or spaces

❌ "Upload failed - size exceeded"

Cause: Video too large (over 100 MB).

Solution:

  1. Use shorter videos (under 60 seconds)
  2. Reduce video quality in Apollo settings
  3. Upgrade to paid Cloudinary plan for larger files

❌ "Bandwidth limit exceeded"

Cause: Used 25 GB this month.

Solutions:

  1. Wait until next month (resets on the 1st)
  2. Delete old videos from Cloudinary
  3. Upgrade to paid plan

❌ "Rate limit exceeded"

Solution:

  1. Wait 1-2 minutes
  2. Try again
  3. Contact Cloudinary support if persistent

🔒 Security Best Practices

  • ✅ Never share your API Secret
  • ✅ Never commit credentials to Git
  • ✅ Rotate credentials every few months
  • ✅ Monitor usage for suspicious activity
  • ✅ Delete old assets manually if needed

If Credentials Are Compromised

  1. Go to Dashboard
  2. Settings → Security
  3. Click "Regenerate API Secret"
  4. Update credentials in Apollo
  5. Save settings

🎨 Advanced Features (Optional)

Cloudinary offers many features Apollo doesn't use, but you can explore:

  • Auto video optimization
  • Image transformations
  • CDN delivery
  • Video streaming
  • AI-powered tagging

Learn more: Cloudinary Docs

📚 Additional Resources

💬 Need Help?

Contact us: @main_admin_tahasite on Telegram

Response time: Usually within 24 hours