Four patterns that keep my YouTube longform JSON queue from going stale

I manage the YouTube longform queue for my BuilderStack channel as JSON files in content/yt-longform-queue/ . A spec file lands there when a generator script commits a new dialogue; the publish workflow picks the file, renders it to MP4, uploads it, then moves the file to uploaded/ . No external queue service, no database rows, no management dashboard. This has worked for three months without a major incident. Four patterns kept it from collapsing. Archetype-priority picking, not FIFO First-in, first-out publishing breaks when you have product walkthrough videos, educational deep-dives, and weekly recap specs all in the queue simultaneously. A recap spec committed yesterday would block a product walkthrough from two weeks ago if the queue ran FIFO — and the product content is what actually grows the channel. The picker uses an explicit priority rank: RANK = { " product_findindiegame " : 0 , " product_ossfind " : 1 , " hidden-gem " : 1 , " build_in_public " : 2 , " technical " : 3 , " curated " : 4 , " meta " : 4 , " contrarian " : 6 , " recap " : 7 , " ai_tools " : 7 , } DEFAULT_RANK = 5 Archetypes not in the dict fall to DEFAULT_RANK = 5 — the middle, not the bottom. New formats I haven't classified yet still air rather than sitting perpetually at the end. Within each rank tier, files sort by filename (oldest-first). The archetype value comes from the spec JSON's top-level archetype field, falling back to a prefix match on the filename for older files that predate the field. One consequence: adding a new archetype name to the dict can reorder the queue overnight. I've done this intentionally to let a backlogged product video jump ahead of a stale recap. 21-day stale expiry Queue files include a date prefix: YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.json . The picker removes files whose date is more than 21 days old before selecting what to publish: MAX_AGE_DAYS = " ${ QUEUE_MAX_AGE_DAYS :- 21 } " CUTOFF = $( date -u -d " ${ MAX_AGE_DAYS } days ago" +%Y-%m-%d ) for f in content/yt-longform