Getting started

What is Smelter?

Smelter is a toolkit for real-time video processing built by Software Mansion.

With Smelter, you can:

• Combine multimedia from different sources into a single video or live stream.
• Enrich your content with text, custom shaders, and embedded websites.
• Do it all effortlessly with React components or directly via HTTP API.

Quick start

You can use Smelter in a few ways, however we recommend the TypeScript SDK as the best option to get started. If you are not sure what is the best choice for you check out this page for comparison of different setups.

TypeScript SDK

TypeScript SDK is a set of libraries that provide React components you can use to control how Smelter manipulates videos. Currently, we support running it in a Node.js environment and a browser.

You can generate a new starter project using the following command:

npm

npx create-smelter-app

pnpm

pnpx create-smelter-app

yarn

yarn create smelter-app

bun

bunx create-smelter-app

To learn more, explore TypeScript SDK documentation or check out step-by-step guides.

Standalone

You can use Smelter as a standalone multimedia server. The server can be started by:

• Building from sources github.com/software-mansion/smelter.
• Using binaries from GitHub releases.
• Using Docker ghcr.io/software-mansion/smelter.

Membrane Framework plugin

Membrane is a multimedia processing framework written in Elixir. You can use it with Smelter via membrane_smelter_plugin. It integrates a Smelter server into the Membrane pipeline.

• See membrane.stream/learn to learn how to get started with Membrane.
• Plugin documentation - membrane_smelter_plugin
• Core membrane documentation - membrane_core