Media Processing HTTP API (FFmpeg API)

A HTTP API for processing video, audio, and images using FFmpeg.

What it does

• Convert media formats (video ↔ audio, MP4 → GIF, WAV → MP3)
• Resize, trim, or transcode files
• Extract audio or frames from video
• Run media workflows without local file handling

You provide input files and FFmpeg commands; the API returns the results via S3, Base64, or a direct HTTP stream.

Endpoint

POST /v1/process

API Example

curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/v1/process \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "input": {
      "input.mp4": { "http": "https://example.com/video.mp4" }
    },
    "commands": [
      ["-i", "input.mp4", "-vn", "output.mp3"]
    ],
    "output": { "base64": true }
  }'

Request Structure

{
  "s3Config": { ... },
  "input": { ... },
  "commands": [ ... ],
  "output": { ... }
}

Inputs

A map of filename → source (used by FFmpeg).

Supported sources:

• s3: Objects stored in S3, referenced as s3://bucket/key
• http: Accessible URLs
• base64: Content provided as a Base64-encoded string
• temporary: A placeholder for indeterminate files that are not emitted as outputs

{
  "input.mp4": {
    "http": "https://example.com/video.mp4"
  }
}

FFmpeg Commands

An array of FFmpeg argument lists, executed sequentially.

[
  ["-i", "input.mp4", "-vn", "output.mp3"]
]

Filenames reference input files or outputs from previous commands.

Output Options

Upload to S3

{ "s3": "s3://my-bucket/outputs/" }

Return Base64

{ "base64": true }

Stream via HTTP

{ "inlineContentType": "audio/mpeg" }

When streaming, the first output file is returned directly and no JSON is sent.

JSON Response

{
  "results": {
    "output.mp3": {
      "url": "...",
      "base64": "..."
    }
  }
}

S3 Configuration

S3 access is configured per request using the s3Config object.

• Works with:

  • AWS S3
  • S3-compatible providers (MinIO, DigitalOcean Spaces, Cloudflare R2, etc.)

• The endpoint should not include a bucket name

• useSSL defaults to true if omitted

Example

{
  "s3Config": {
    "endpoint": "s3.amazonaws.com",
    "region": "us-east-1",
    "accessKey": "AKIA...",
    "secretKey": "SECRET...",
    "useSSL": true
  }
}

Docker

• FFmpeg is bundled
• No external dependencies

Image

ghcr.io/aureum-cloud/ffmpeg-api:latest

Run

docker run -d -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/aureum-cloud/ffmpeg-api:latest

API available at:

http://localhost:8080

Scaling & Concurrency

Each request is handled independently by the HTTP server.

• Input files are fetched in parallel (HTTP, S3, Base64 decoding).
• FFmpeg is executed as a separate OS process per request.

Concurrency comes from handling multiple HTTP requests simultaneously. FFmpeg’s own multithreading is fully supported and can be controlled via standard flags such as:

-threads 0   # auto
-threads 4   # fixed

The service is stateless:

• No shared filesystem state
• No in-memory session data

This makes it easy to scale horizontally by running multiple instances behind a load balancer, for example using Kubernetes, or a managed container service.