Assets and recordings

An asset is a video or audio file you can play on demand: a replay, a trailer, a lesson, a highlight. It is the on-demand side of Vabu Streams. Assets have ids that start ast_.

Add an asset

There are two ways in.

From a link. Give a public HTTPS address of a video file.

POST /v1/streams/assets
Idempotency-Key: replay-2026-10-11

{
  "url": "https://cdn.example.com/kasarani-night.mp4",
  "playback_policy": "signed",
  "generated_subtitles": "en",
  "external_id": "replay-kasarani-1011",
  "metadata": { "show": "Friday night" }
}

From a browser upload. Create an upload, then let your user's browser send the file straight to Vabu.

POST /v1/streams/uploads
Idempotency-Key: upload-1011

The response holds a one-time url. PUT the file to it. Anyone who holds that address can upload, so treat it as a secret and set cors_origin to your site. When the file arrives the upload's asset is filled in and its status becomes asset_created.

Status

A new asset has status: "preparing" while the video is processed. It becomes ready when it can be played, or errored with an error message when it cannot. You get an event for each: streams.asset.ready and streams.asset.errored. Do not offer an asset to viewers before it is ready. A playback request for an asset that is not ready is refused with 409 asset_not_ready.

Field	Meaning
source	Where the asset came from: upload, url or clip. recording will mark replays of live streams. Ignore values your code does not know.
duration	Length in seconds, once the asset is ready.
audio_only	true for sound with no picture.
playback_ids	How the asset is played. See signed playback.
external_id, metadata	Your own id and key and value pairs. Filter lists with status, source, external_id and metadata[key].

Clips

A clip is a short piece cut from a ready asset. It becomes an asset of its own, with source: "clip", and you play it like any other.

POST /v1/streams/assets/ast_.../clips
Idempotency-Key: clip-1011-a

{ "start_time": 10, "end_time": 40.5 }

Times are seconds from the start of the asset. end_time must be after start_time and inside the asset. Fetch a clip with GET /v1/streams/clips/{id}.

Play an asset

Give the customer an entitlement for the asset, with resource type ast, and open a session exactly as for a live stream. See paid access and playback and sessions.

Replays of live streams

Today you add a replay yourself: record the show at the venue, or save it from your encoder, and add the file as an asset. Replays recorded automatically from a live stream, with chapters, are on What's coming.