Mave Core

Your videos. Your storage. From upload to playback.

Mave Core is an open-source video platform with a dashboard, a programmable encoding pipeline, an embeddable player, and built-in analytics. Upload, process, and publish videos — with your media in S3-compatible storage that you control.

Get started · Self-hosting guide · Contribute

One place for your videos

• Manage: organize videos into folders, invite your team, and replace a video without changing its public embed.
• Publish: resumable uploads, adaptive HLS, posters, subtitles, and customizable player settings.
• Integrate: embed with web components, iframe, React, or Vue; automate with the video API and signed webhooks.
• Understand: see views, drop-off, and viewing sources in your dashboard, backed by your own ClickHouse instance.

Self-hosted quickstart

You need Docker with Compose 2.24.4 or newer. Start with 4 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM, and 20 GB free disk; allow more for your media.

From this repository:

docker compose up

Wait for “Mave is ready” in your terminal, then open its setup link. Your one-time code is filled in automatically; enter your email to create your first workspace. You can also open localhost:4000 and paste the code manually. To show the welcome message again:

docker compose logs welcome

The first build takes a while: it includes the application, FFmpeg, and storage. Subsequent starts reuse the build cache. Databases, media, and generated secrets live in persistent Docker volumes; ordinary stops and restarts keep them intact. You do not need to copy an environment file or install Elixir, Node.js, or OpenSSL.

The default installation is accessible only from your machine. First login is immediate; configure SMTP for later email logins and team invitations, or use the owner recovery command shown in the setup form. For development with live reload and a local email inbox, see Contributing.

The bundle includes Core, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, MinIO, tusd, and Caddy. Browser components load from Mave's hosted CDN by default; no local components build is needed, but the browser needs internet access.

See the self-hosting guide for public hosting, HTTPS, email, ports, storage, and upgrades. The existing scripted installer is also supported. Applications embedding Core manage their own startup configuration.

From upload to playback

Each upload runs through a versioned DAG: a dependency graph that inspects the source, encodes renditions, packages HLS, and generates visual assets. Steps record their status and outputs, making processing inspectable and retryable. Media is published at versioned S3 paths through a player manifest.

Core uses Elixir, Phoenix, Oban, and FFmpeg. The graph fixes the workflow and output addressing; it does not guarantee bit-for-bit identical encoding. Contributor references are in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Make Core your own

See private playback for per-video access controls, local MinIO support and deployment adapter integration.

• Your storage: use a compatible hosted S3 provider or run your own storage. MinIO is the bundled default, not a requirement. Other providers need matching storage, upload, and public-media configuration; see the storage requirements.
• Your pipeline: choose renditions and combine built-in steps into your own versioned encoding pipeline through the flow APIs.
• Your steps: implement MaveCore.Flow.Step.run/2 in an Elixir module, register it in StepRegistry, and use it in your pipeline. New step implementations require rebuilding Core; see contributing for local development and tests.
• Analytics at scale: prepare playback sessions in bounded background batches, then enable the reader for selected spaces. See prepared analytics operations for backfill, activation, resource budgets and capacity checks.

Prefer managed hosting?

Self-hosting means managing your services, storage, email, capacity, updates, and backups. If you would rather focus on your videos, Mave offers managed hosting.

Contributing and security

See CONTRIBUTING.md to develop and test locally. Report vulnerabilities privately as described in SECURITY.md.

License

Copyright (c) mave.io B.V. Mave Core offers two licensing options for Mave-authored code and documentation:

• Open source: AGPL-3.0-or-later, the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 or, at your option, any later version. Commercial use, including hosting, is permitted subject to its source-sharing and other terms.
• Commercial: a separate commercial agreement with mave.io B.V. for use or integration under alternative terms. Contact us to discuss commercial licensing.

Without a separate commercial agreement, the AGPL applies. Third-party code, media, and marks retain their own terms under either option; see Third-party notices.