ffmpegd

FFmpeg websocket server and API for FFmpeg Commander.

How It Works

ffmpegd connects FFmpeg Commander to ffmpeg by providing a websocket server to send encode tasks and receive realtime progress updates back to the browser. This allows using ffmpeg-commander as a GUI for ffmpeg.

The goal is to provide a simple interface for sending FFmpeg tasks from the browser (and other supported clients in the future) to your local machine.

See Usage for more details.

Versions

ffmpegd and ffmpeg-commander share version numbers: releases with the same major.minor version (2.1.x with 2.1.x) speak the same payload format. Update ffmpegd when ffmpeg-commander moves to a new minor version.

          process              websocket
[ffmpeg] <-------> [ffmpegd] <-----------> [ffmpeg-commander]

Install

Homebrew

Installs ffmpegd along with ffmpeg:

$ brew install alfg/tap/ffmpegd

Go

Requires Go 1.26 or newer:

$ go install github.com/alfg/ffmpegd@latest

Download

Release binaries for your platform at: https://github.com/alfg/ffmpegd/releases

Docker

A Docker image with an alfg/ffmpeg build installed is available on the GitHub Container Registry:

$ docker run -it -p 127.0.0.1:8080:8080 -v /tmp/:/home ghcr.io/alfg/ffmpegd

Or using the Docker Compose example:

$ docker compose up ffmpegd

Usage

• ffmpeg must be installed and available on your $PATH.
• Run ffmpegd:

$ ffmpegd

This will start the websocket server in your current working directory and wait for a connection. Input and output paths are relative to this directory.

• Go to https://ffmpeg-commander.com/ in the browser
• Enable ffmpegd in Options.
• Once connected, you can start sending encode jobs to ffmpegd!

Options

$ ffmpegd help

Usage:
  ffmpegd [--host address] [port]   Run server on localhost:8080 by default.
  ffmpegd version                   Print version.
  ffmpegd help                      This help text.

Options:
  --host address   Address to listen on. Use 0.0.0.0 to let other machines on
                   your network connect. Can also be set with $FFMPEGD_HOST.

By default ffmpegd only accepts connections from your own machine. Only listen on other addresses on a network you trust: anyone who can reach ffmpegd can run encodes and list files in its directory.

Example

ffmpegd with a job in progress from ffmpeg-commander

$ ffmpegd

███████╗███████╗███╗   ███╗██████╗ ███████╗ ██████╗ ██████╗
██╔════╝██╔════╝████╗ ████║██╔══██╗██╔════╝██╔════╝ ██╔══██╗
█████╗  █████╗  ██╔████╔██║██████╔╝█████╗  ██║  ███╗██║  ██║
██╔══╝  ██╔══╝  ██║╚██╔╝██║██╔═══╝ ██╔══╝  ██║   ██║██║  ██║
██║     ██║     ██║ ╚═╝ ██║██║     ███████╗╚██████╔╝██████╔╝
╚═╝     ╚═╝     ╚═╝     ╚═╝╚═╝     ╚══════╝ ╚═════╝ ╚═════╝
                                                      v2.1.0

[ffmpegd] - websocket server for ffmpeg-commander.

  Checking FFmpeg version....9.0.1
  Checking FFprobe version...9.0.1

  Server started on http://localhost:8080.
  - Go to https://ffmpeg-commander.com to connect!
  - ffmpegd must be enabled in ffmpeg-commander options.

Encoding tears-of-steel.mp4 -> tears-of-steel-720p.mp4
Encoding... 34.68% 3.37x @ 80.77 fps

WebSocket Demo

See demo for a websocket client example.

Develop

Requires Go 1.26 or newer and ffmpeg/ffprobe on your $PATH.

go build -v
./ffmpegd

Tests

go test ./...

TODO

• Logging levels and output

License

MIT