Core Concepts

Very Good FFmpeg runs FFmpeg commands on remote workers. You send file URLs, command strings, and output names. The API returns a job you can poll.

Jobs

A job is one FFmpeg run. It can contain one command or many commands.

Jobs start as queued, move to running, and then finish as succeeded, failed, or cancelled.

Inputs

input_files is a map of names to URLs.

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

The worker downloads each input before it runs FFmpeg.

Outputs

output_files is a list of files you want back.

{
  "output_files": ["output.mp4"]
}

When the job succeeds, the job response includes output_files as a map of output name to download URL.

Placeholders

Use {{name}} in commands to refer to inputs and outputs.

{
  "ffmpeg_commands": ["-i {{input}} -c:v libx264 {{output.mp4}}"]
}

{{input}} must match a key in input_files. {{output.mp4}} must match a name in output_files.

Machines

Jobs use the CPU worker by default.

Set "machine": "nvidia" only when your command uses GPU features like h264_nvenc, hevc_nvenc, CUDA filters, or NVDEC decode.

Local Files

The API needs URLs. If a file is only on your machine, upload it first with Temporary Files.