Mux Video Platform

Comprehensive guide to building video applications with Mux, the developer-first video infrastructure platform. This skill covers video streaming, live streaming, player integrations, analytics with Mux Data, and AI-powered workflows. Whether you are building a video-on-demand platform, live streaming application, or integrating video into an existing product, this documentation provides the patterns and code examples needed to ship quickly.

Key Capabilities

• Video Hosting and Streaming: Upload, transcode, and deliver video content globally via adaptive bitrate streaming (HLS)
• Live Streaming: Real-time video broadcasting with RTMP/SRT ingest, low-latency options, and automatic recording
• Mux Player: Drop-in video player components for web (React, vanilla JS), iOS, and Android with built-in analytics
• Mux Data: Quality of experience analytics, engagement metrics, and real-time monitoring
• Content Security: Signed playback URLs, DRM protection (Widevine/FairPlay), and domain restrictions
• AI Workflows: Automatic chapter generation, video summarization, content moderation, and audio dubbing

Quick Start

Get streaming in five minutes:

1. Create an API Access Token in the Mux Dashboard with Video Read and Write permissions

2. Create a video asset from a URL:

curl https://api.mux.com/video/v1/assets \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -X POST \
  -d '{ "input": [{ "url": "https://muxed.s3.amazonaws.com/leds.mp4" }], "playback_policy": ["public"] }' \
  -u ${MUX_TOKEN_ID}:${MUX_TOKEN_SECRET}

3. Play the video using the returned playback ID:

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@mux/mux-player"></script>
<mux-player playback-id="YOUR_PLAYBACK_ID"></mux-player>

See examples/quickstart-stream-video.md for the complete walkthrough with SDK examples in Node.js, Python, Ruby, Go, and PHP.

Reference Documentation

Core Concepts

Foundational knowledge for working with Mux APIs and infrastructure.

Mux Player

Drop-in video player components with built-in analytics and adaptive controls.

Video Upload and Asset Management

Methods for getting video content into Mux and configuring assets.

Live Streaming

Real-time video broadcasting with global ingest and low-latency delivery.

Mux Data and Analytics

Quality of experience metrics, engagement tracking, and performance monitoring.

Player Monitoring Integrations

Integrating Mux Data with third-party video players.

Video Features and Tools

Additional video capabilities beyond basic playback.

Framework Integrations

Platform-specific guides for popular web and mobile frameworks.

CMS Integrations and SDKs

Connecting Mux with content management systems and backend services.

Pricing and Cost Management

Understanding and optimizing Mux costs.

Examples

Getting Started

Player Integration

Video Upload

Live Streaming

Analytics

Video Features

React Native

CMS Integration

AI Workflows

Important Notes

API Authentication

All Mux API requests require authentication using a Token ID and Token Secret. API requests must be made from a server environment – the API does not support CORS and credentials should never be exposed in client-side code.

Playback IDs vs Asset IDs

• Asset IDs are used to manage content via the API (api.mux.com)
• Playback IDs are used to stream content to viewers (stream.mux.com)
• An asset can have multiple playback IDs with different policies (public vs signed)

Webhooks vs Polling

Always prefer webhooks over polling to track asset status. Webhooks provide real-time notifications when assets are ready, live streams change state, or uploads complete. Configure webhooks per environment in the Mux Dashboard.

Video Quality Tiers

Mux offers different video quality tiers (basic, plus, premium) that affect encoding quality and pricing. Choose the appropriate tier based on your content type and quality requirements.

Stream Key Security

Live stream keys should be treated as secrets. Anyone with the stream key can broadcast to your live stream. Reset keys immediately if compromised.