Transloadit Media Processing

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 invoke

Use this skill when you need to:

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

Prerequisites and context

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

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

Tips

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

Output template

## Transloadit media processing result

**Status:** template created | assembly created | payload only | blocked
**Input:** `<local file, URL, bucket object, or batch source>`
**Mode:** `<MCP create_assembly/create_template | CLI assemblies create/templates create>`

### Steps JSON
```json
{ "steps": { "<step_name>": { "robot": "</robot/name>", "use": ":original" } } }

Result

• Assembly/template ID: <id or n/a>
• Output locations: <URLs or storage paths>

## Quality gate

- [ ] Credentials are referenced only by environment variable names and never printed.
- [ ] The selected robots match the requested media operation.
- [ ] Every chained step uses `use` to reference `:original` or a prior step.
- [ ] CLI runs include `--wait` when processing completion must be verified.