File Management

Manage your inputs and outputs using directories and presigned uploads.

Create a directory (optional)

POST https://api.ffmpeg-api.com/directory
Authorization: Basic <YOUR_API_KEY>
Content-Type: application/json
 
{}

Response:

{ "ok": true, "directory": { "id": "dir_123", "ttl": 86400 } }

Create a file (optionally in a directory) and get an upload URL

POST https://api.ffmpeg-api.com/file
Authorization: Basic <YOUR_API_KEY>
Content-Type: application/json
 
{
  "file_name": "input.mp4",
  "dir_id": "dir_123" // optional; if omitted, a temp dir is created
}

Response (abridged):

{
  "ok": true,
  "file": {
    "dir_id": "dir_123",
    "file_path": "dir_123/input.mp4",
    "file_name": "input.mp4",
    "added_on": "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"
  },
  "upload": {
    "url": "https://...",
    "method": "PUT",
    "headers": {},
    "expiresInSeconds": 3600
  }
}

ℹ️

File names are case-sensitive and must be unique within a directory. The upload URL expires after ~5 minutes.

Upload the file to the upload URL

curl -X PUT "$UPLOAD_URL" --data-binary @./input.mp4 -H "Content-Type: video/mp4"

await fetch(upload.url, { method: 'PUT', body: fs.readFileSync('./input.mp4') })

requests.put(upload_url, data=open('input.mp4', 'rb'))

List your directories

GET https://api.ffmpeg-api.com/directory
Authorization: Basic <YOUR_API_KEY>

Response:

{ "ok": true, "directories": [ { "id": "dir_123", "ttl": 86400, "added_on": "2024-01-01" } ] }

List files in a directory

GET https://api.ffmpeg-api.com/directory/{dirId}
Authorization: Basic <YOUR_API_KEY>

Response:

{ "ok": true, "files": [ { "file_name": "input.mp4", "added_on": "2024-01-01" } ] }

Tips

Use one directory per workflow (inputs and resulting outputs live together).
Reuse uploaded files across multiple processing runs.
Clean up: temporary directories expire automatically based on TTL.

Quick Start Processing