Video processing with FFmpeg

Prerequisites

A project with Trigger.dev initialized
FFmpeg installed on your machine

Adding the FFmpeg build extension

To use these example tasks, you’ll first need to add our FFmpeg extension to your project configuration like this:

trigger.config.ts
import { ffmpeg } from "@trigger.dev/build/extensions/core";
import { defineConfig } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";

export default defineConfig({
  project: "<project ref>",
  // Your other config settings...
  build: {
    extensions: [ffmpeg()],
  },
});

Build extensions allow you to hook into the build system and customize the build process or the resulting bundle and container image (in the case of deploying). You can use pre-built extensions or create your own.

You’ll also need to add @trigger.dev/build to your package.json file under devDependencies if you don’t already have it there.

Compress a video using FFmpeg

This task demonstrates how to use FFmpeg to compress a video, reducing its file size while maintaining reasonable quality, and upload the compressed video to R2 storage.

Key Features

Fetches a video from a given URL
Compresses the video using FFmpeg with various compression settings
Uploads the compressed video to R2 storage

Task code

trigger/ffmpeg-compress-video.ts
import { PutObjectCommand, S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
import { logger, task } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import ffmpeg from "fluent-ffmpeg";
import fs from "fs/promises";
import fetch from "node-fetch";
import { Readable } from "node:stream";
import os from "os";
import path from "path";

// Initialize S3 client
const s3Client = new S3Client({
  // How to authenticate to R2: https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/api/s3/tokens/
  region: "auto",
  endpoint: process.env.R2_ENDPOINT,
  credentials: {
    accessKeyId: process.env.R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID ?? "",
    secretAccessKey: process.env.R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY ?? "",
  },
});

export const ffmpegCompressVideo = task({
  id: "ffmpeg-compress-video",
  run: async (payload: { videoUrl: string }) => {
    const { videoUrl } = payload;

    // Generate temporary file names
    const tempDirectory = os.tmpdir();
    const outputPath = path.join(tempDirectory, `output_${Date.now()}.mp4`);

    // Fetch the video
    const response = await fetch(videoUrl);

    // Compress the video
    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      if (!response.body) {
        return reject(new Error("Failed to fetch video"));
      }

      ffmpeg(Readable.from(response.body))
        .outputOptions([
          "-c:v libx264", // Use H.264 codec
          "-crf 28", // Higher CRF for more compression (28 is near the upper limit for acceptable quality)
          "-preset veryslow", // Slowest preset for best compression
          "-vf scale=iw/2:ih/2", // Reduce resolution to 320p width (height auto-calculated)
          "-c:a aac", // Use AAC for audio
          "-b:a 64k", // Reduce audio bitrate to 64k
          "-ac 1", // Convert to mono audio
        ])
        .output(outputPath)
        .on("end", resolve)
        .on("error", reject)
        .run();
    });

    // Read the compressed video
    const compressedVideo = await fs.readFile(outputPath);
    const compressedSize = compressedVideo.length;

    // Log compression results
    logger.log(`Compressed video size: ${compressedSize} bytes`);
    logger.log(`Temporary compressed video file created`, { outputPath });

    // Create the r2Key for the extracted audio, using the base name of the output path
    const r2Key = `processed-videos/${path.basename(outputPath)}`;

    const uploadParams = {
      Bucket: process.env.R2_BUCKET,
      Key: r2Key,
      Body: compressedVideo,
    };

    // Upload the video to R2 and get the URL
    await s3Client.send(new PutObjectCommand(uploadParams));
    logger.log(`Compressed video saved to your r2 bucket`, { r2Key });

    // Delete the temporary compressed video file
    await fs.unlink(outputPath);
    logger.log(`Temporary compressed video file deleted`, { outputPath });

    // Return the compressed video buffer and r2 key
    return {
      Bucket: process.env.R2_BUCKET,
      r2Key,
    };
  },
});

Testing your task

To test this task, use this payload structure:

{
  "videoUrl": "<video-url>" // Replace <a-video-url> with the URL of the video you want to upload
}

Extract audio from a video using FFmpeg

This task demonstrates how to use FFmpeg to extract audio from a video, convert it to WAV format, and upload it to R2 storage.

Key Features

Fetches a video from a given URL
Extracts the audio from the video using FFmpeg
Converts the extracted audio to WAV format
Uploads the extracted audio to R2 storage

Task code

trigger/ffmpeg-extract-audio.ts
import { PutObjectCommand, S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
import { logger, task } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import ffmpeg from "fluent-ffmpeg";
import fs from "fs/promises";
import fetch from "node-fetch";
import { Readable } from "node:stream";
import os from "os";
import path from "path";

// Initialize S3 client
const s3Client = new S3Client({
  // How to authenticate to R2: https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/api/s3/tokens/
  region: "auto",
  endpoint: process.env.R2_ENDPOINT,
  credentials: {
    accessKeyId: process.env.R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID ?? "",
    secretAccessKey: process.env.R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY ?? "",
  },
});

export const ffmpegExtractAudio = task({
  id: "ffmpeg-extract-audio",
  run: async (payload: { videoUrl: string }) => {
    const { videoUrl } = payload;

    // Generate temporary file names
    const tempDirectory = os.tmpdir();
    const outputPath = path.join(tempDirectory, `audio_${Date.now()}.wav`);

    // Fetch the video
    const response = await fetch(videoUrl);

    // Extract the audio
    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      if (!response.body) {
        return reject(new Error("Failed to fetch video"));
      }

      ffmpeg(Readable.from(response.body))
        .outputOptions([
          "-vn", // Disable video output
          "-acodec pcm_s16le", // Use PCM 16-bit little-endian encoding
          "-ar 44100", // Set audio sample rate to 44.1 kHz
          "-ac 2", // Set audio channels to stereo
        ])
        .output(outputPath)
        .on("end", resolve)
        .on("error", reject)
        .run();
    });

    // Read the extracted audio
    const audioBuffer = await fs.readFile(outputPath);
    const audioSize = audioBuffer.length;

    // Log audio extraction results
    logger.log(`Extracted audio size: ${audioSize} bytes`);
    logger.log(`Temporary audio file created`, { outputPath });

    // Create the r2Key for the extracted audio, using the base name of the output path
    const r2Key = `extracted-audio/${path.basename(outputPath)}`;

    const uploadParams = {
      Bucket: process.env.R2_BUCKET,
      Key: r2Key,
      Body: audioBuffer,
    };

    // Upload the audio to R2 and get the URL
    await s3Client.send(new PutObjectCommand(uploadParams));
    logger.log(`Extracted audio saved to your R2 bucket`, { r2Key });

    // Delete the temporary audio file
    await fs.unlink(outputPath);
    logger.log(`Temporary audio file deleted`, { outputPath });

    // Return the audio file path, size, and R2 URL
    return {
      Bucket: process.env.R2_BUCKET,
      r2Key,
    };
  },
});

Testing your task

To test this task, use this payload structure:

Make sure to provide a video URL that contains audio. If the video does not have audio, the task will fail.

{
  "videoUrl": "<video-url>" // Replace <a-video-url> with the URL of the video you want to upload
}

Generate a thumbnail from a video using FFmpeg

This task demonstrates how to use FFmpeg to generate a thumbnail from a video at a specific time and upload the generated thumbnail to R2 storage.

Key Features

Fetches a video from a given URL
Generates a thumbnail from the video at the 5-second mark
Uploads the generated thumbnail to R2 storage

Task code

trigger/ffmpeg-generate-thumbnail.ts
import { PutObjectCommand, S3Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-s3";
import { logger, task } from "@trigger.dev/sdk/v3";
import ffmpeg from "fluent-ffmpeg";
import fs from "fs/promises";
import fetch from "node-fetch";
import { Readable } from "node:stream";
import os from "os";
import path from "path";

// Initialize S3 client
const s3Client = new S3Client({
  // How to authenticate to R2: https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/api/s3/tokens/
  region: "auto",
  endpoint: process.env.R2_ENDPOINT,
  credentials: {
    accessKeyId: process.env.R2_ACCESS_KEY_ID ?? "",
    secretAccessKey: process.env.R2_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY ?? "",
  },
});

export const ffmpegGenerateThumbnail = task({
  id: "ffmpeg-generate-thumbnail",
  run: async (payload: { videoUrl: string }) => {
    const { videoUrl } = payload;

    // Generate output file name
    const tempDirectory = os.tmpdir();
    const outputPath = path.join(tempDirectory, `thumbnail_${Date.now()}.jpg`);

    // Fetch the video
    const response = await fetch(videoUrl);

    // Generate the thumbnail
    await new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      if (!response.body) {
        return reject(new Error("Failed to fetch video"));
      }
      ffmpeg(Readable.from(response.body))
        .screenshots({
          count: 1,
          folder: "/tmp",
          filename: path.basename(outputPath),
          size: "320x240",
          timemarks: ["5"], // 5 seconds
        })
        .on("end", resolve)
        .on("error", reject);
    });

    // Read the generated thumbnail
    const thumbnail = await fs.readFile(outputPath);

    // Create the r2Key for the extracted audio, using the base name of the output path
    const r2Key = `thumbnails/${path.basename(outputPath)}`;

    const uploadParams = {
      Bucket: process.env.R2_BUCKET,
      Key: r2Key,
      Body: thumbnail,
    };

    // Upload the thumbnail to R2 and get the URL
    await s3Client.send(new PutObjectCommand(uploadParams));
    const r2Url = `https://${process.env.R2_ACCOUNT_ID}.r2.cloudflarestorage.com/${process.env.R2_BUCKET}/${r2Key}`;
    logger.log("Thumbnail uploaded to R2", { url: r2Url });

    // Delete the temporary file
    await fs.unlink(outputPath);

    // Log thumbnail generation results
    logger.log(`Thumbnail uploaded to S3: ${r2Url}`);

    // Return the thumbnail buffer, path, and R2 URL
    return {
      thumbnailBuffer: thumbnail,
      thumbnailPath: outputPath,
      r2Url,
    };
  },
});

Testing your task

To test this task in the dashboard, you can use the following payload:

{
  "videoUrl": "<video-url>" // Replace <a-video-url> with the URL of the video you want to upload
}

Local development

To test this example task locally, be sure to install any packages from the build extensions you added to your trigger.config.ts file to your local machine. In this case, you need to install .

Frameworks

Guides

Example tasks

Dashboard

Migrations

Video processing with FFmpeg

Prerequisites

Adding the FFmpeg build extension

Compress a video using FFmpeg

Key Features

Task code

Testing your task

Extract audio from a video using FFmpeg

Key Features

Task code

Testing your task

Generate a thumbnail from a video using FFmpeg

Key Features

Task code

Testing your task

Local development

Frameworks

Guides

Example tasks

Dashboard

Migrations

​Prerequisites

​Adding the FFmpeg build extension

​Compress a video using FFmpeg

​Key Features

​Task code

​Testing your task

​Extract audio from a video using FFmpeg

​Key Features

​Task code

​Testing your task

​Generate a thumbnail from a video using FFmpeg

​Key Features

​Task code

​Testing your task

​Local development

Prerequisites

Adding the FFmpeg build extension

Compress a video using FFmpeg

Key Features

Task code

Testing your task

Extract audio from a video using FFmpeg

Key Features

Task code

Testing your task

Generate a thumbnail from a video using FFmpeg

Key Features

Task code

Testing your task

Local development