Transloadit Media Processing

Process, transform, and encode media files using Transloadit's cloud infrastructure. Supports video, audio, images, and documents with 86+ specialized processing robots.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

1. Encode video to HLS, MP4, WebM, or other formats
2. Generate thumbnails or animated GIFs from video
3. Resize, crop, watermark, or optimize images
4. Convert between image formats (JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, HEIF)
5. Extract or transcode audio (MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV)
6. Concatenate video or audio clips
7. Add subtitles or overlay text on video
8. OCR documents (PDF, scanned images)
9. Run speech-to-text or text-to-speech
10. Apply AI-based content moderation or object detection
11. Build multi-step media pipelines that chain operations together

Setup

Option A: MCP Server (recommended for Copilot)

Add the Transloadit MCP server to your IDE config. This gives the agent direct access to Transloadit tools (create_template, create_assembly, list_assembly_notifications, etc.).

VS Code / GitHub Copilot (.vscode/mcp.json or user settings):

{
  "servers": {
    "transloadit": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@transloadit/mcp-server", "stdio"],
      "env": {
        "TRANSLOADIT_KEY": "YOUR_AUTH_KEY",
        "TRANSLOADIT_SECRET": "YOUR_AUTH_SECRET"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your API credentials at https://transloadit.com/c/-/api-credentials

Option B: CLI

If you prefer running commands directly:

npx -y @transloadit/node assemblies create \
  --steps '{"encoded": {"robot": "/video/encode", "use": ":original", "preset": "hls-1080p"}}' \
  --wait \
  --input ./my-video.mp4

Core Workflows

Encode Video to HLS (Adaptive Streaming)

{
  "steps": {
    "encoded": {
      "robot": "/video/encode",
      "use": ":original",
      "preset": "hls-1080p"
    }
  }
}

Generate Thumbnails from Video

{
  "steps": {
    "thumbnails": {
      "robot": "/video/thumbs",
      "use": ":original",
      "count": 8,
      "width": 320,
      "height": 240
    }
  }
}

Resize and Watermark Images

{
  "steps": {
    "resized": {
      "robot": "/image/resize",
      "use": ":original",
      "width": 1200,
      "height": 800,
      "resize_strategy": "fit"
    },
    "watermarked": {
      "robot": "/image/resize",
      "use": "resized",
      "watermark_url": "https://example.com/logo.png",
      "watermark_position": "bottom-right",
      "watermark_size": "15%"
    }
  }
}

OCR a Document

{
  "steps": {
    "recognized": {
      "robot": "/document/ocr",
      "use": ":original",
      "provider": "aws",
      "format": "text"
    }
  }
}

Concatenate Audio Clips

{
  "steps": {
    "imported": {
      "robot": "/http/import",
      "url": ["https://example.com/clip1.mp3", "https://example.com/clip2.mp3"]
    },
    "concatenated": {
      "robot": "/audio/concat",
      "use": "imported",
      "preset": "mp3"
    }
  }
}

Multi-Step Pipelines

Steps can be chained using the "use" field. Each step references a previous step's output:

{
  "steps": {
    "resized": {
      "robot": "/image/resize",
      "use": ":original",
      "width": 1920
    },
    "optimized": {
      "robot": "/image/optimize",
      "use": "resized"
    },
    "exported": {
      "robot": "/s3/store",
      "use": "optimized",
      "bucket": "my-bucket",
      "path": "processed/${file.name}"
    }
  }
}

Key Concepts

1. Assembly: A single processing job. Created via create_assembly (MCP) or assemblies create (CLI).
2. Template: A reusable set of steps stored on Transloadit. Created via create_template (MCP) or templates create (CLI).
3. Robot: A processing unit (e.g., /video/encode, /image/resize). See full list at https://transloadit.com/docs/transcoding/
4. Steps: JSON object defining the pipeline. Each key is a step name, each value configures a robot.
5. :original: Refers to the uploaded input file.

Tips

1. Use --wait with the CLI to block until processing completes.
2. Use preset values (e.g., "hls-1080p", "mp3", "webp") for common format targets instead of specifying every parameter.
3. Chain "use": "step_name" to build multi-step pipelines without intermediate downloads.
4. For batch processing, use /http/import to pull files from URLs, S3, GCS, Azure, FTP, or Dropbox.
5. Templates can include ${variables} for dynamic values passed at assembly creation time.