MediaDock

A private, password-protected video downloader in the style of SaveFrom: paste a YouTube, Instagram, Facebook or TikTok link, pick a quality, get an MP4 (H.264/AAC — plays everywhere) or MP3. For personal use only: one password, no accounts, no ads.

Live deployment: https://mediadock.vercel.app (password in your notes — it is not in this repo).

What works where

Platform	On Vercel (cloud)	Running at home	Notes
Instagram	✅	✅	Public reels and video posts. Private accounts, stories and photo posts aren't supported.
Facebook	✅	✅	Public videos, reels, fb.watch and share links. Facebook often serves VP9, which is re-encoded to H.264 (slower: ~1–2 min for a 1-min 1080p clip on Vercel).
TikTok	✅	✅	Videos incl. vm.tiktok.com / vt.tiktok.com / tiktok.com/t/ share links. H.264 qualities are offered so nothing has to be re-encoded.
YouTube	✅ via your home PC helper	✅	YouTube blocks every cloud/datacenter server ("Sign in to confirm you're not a bot"), so the live site hands YouTube links to a helper on your own PC. Works whenever that PC is on. See YouTube on the live site.

Quality options come from what the platform actually offers (e.g. MP4 1080p / 720p / 480p / 360p / MP3); sizes are the platform's own estimates, never made up. Finished files are deleted automatically after FILE_TTL_MINUTES (default 60).

How it works

Browser ──► Next.js app ──► yt-dlp (metadata, download) ──► FFmpeg (merge / remux / convert) ──► file link

• yt-dlp reads the link and downloads the best streams for the chosen quality, preferring H.264 + AAC so the MP4 is just remuxed (original quality, seconds instead of minutes).
• FFmpeg merges video + audio, re-encodes only what isn't H.264/AAC, and extracts MP3 at a bitrate sized to the source. Every output is re-inspected before it is offered.
• The pipeline (packages/core/src/media) is shared by both deployment modes:

Mode	Where	How a conversion runs	Use it for
Standalone (MEDIADOCK_MODE=standalone)	One Next.js app — Vercel, or npm run dev at home	A streaming /api/convert request downloads + converts and sends live progress; the file goes to Vercel Blob (or a local temp folder)	The live site; easiest setup
Self-hosted (MEDIADOCK_MODE=proxy)	Web + Fastify API + BullMQ worker + Redis + R2/S3 (Docker / Render)	Background jobs with retries, polling, signed links; also "convert a file you own" uploads	Long videos, uploads, heavier use

Path	Role
apps/web	Next.js UI. In standalone mode it also hosts the API routes (lib/server/*, app/api/convert).
apps/api, apps/worker	Self-hosted mode: REST API and the BullMQ/FFmpeg worker.
packages/shared	Browser-safe contract: URL allowlist + platform detection, types, schemas, error catalogue.
packages/core	yt-dlp + FFmpeg pipeline, platform adapters, config, auth tokens, storage, queue.

Run it at home (YouTube works)

Needs Node ≥ 22.12, FFmpeg and yt-dlp on your PATH (or set YTDLP_PATH).

npm install
cp apps/web/.env.example apps/web/.env.local   # set ACCESS_PASSWORD
npm run build -w @vd/web && npm run start -w @vd/web    # or: npm run dev:web

Open http://localhost:3000. To reach it from your phone while away, put a tunnel in front of it (e.g. ngrok http 3000 or Cloudflare Tunnel) — the site stays password-protected.

Quick check of any links from the command line (same pipeline as the site):

npm run try -- "https://www.tiktok.com/@realmadrid/video/7707305867162570017" "https://youtu.be/…"

Deploy to Vercel (standalone)

1. Import the repo into Vercel. Root Directory: apps/web (leave "include files outside the root directory" on).
2. Storage → create a Blob store and connect it to the project (adds BLOB_READ_WRITE_TOKEN).
3. Environment variables:
   • MEDIADOCK_MODE=standalone
   • ACCESS_PASSWORD_HASH — from npm run hash-password (or ACCESS_PASSWORD for a quick test)
   • SESSION_SECRET — 32+ random characters (node -e "console.log(require('crypto').randomBytes(48).toString('base64url'))")
4. Deploy. The build downloads the official Linux yt-dlp and verifies its SHA-256 (apps/web/scripts/fetch-yt-dlp.mjs); FFmpeg comes from ffmpeg-static. Redeploy every few weeks (or when a site stops working) to pick up a newer yt-dlp.

Limits on Vercel (Hobby, all overridable via env): 300 s per conversion, input ≤ 400 MB, videos ≤ 30 min. Blob on Hobby includes limited free storage/transfer per month; files are deleted after an hour, so storage stays tiny.

YouTube on the live site

YouTube refuses requests from cloud servers (tested from Vercel with every yt-dlp client: all blocked). So for YouTube the live site uses a home helper: the same app running on your PC, reached through a permanent ngrok address.

phone/laptop ─► mediadock.vercel.app ──(YouTube link + shared secret)──► your PC (home internet) ─► YouTube
                         ▲                                                   │ yt-dlp + FFmpeg
                         └──────────── live progress ◄────────────────────── ┘ finished file ─► Vercel Blob ─► download link

This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗