songs2vid/website/docs/intro.md

---
sidebar_position: 1
slug: /intro
---

# Introduction

**Songs2VID** turns a cover image and one or more audio files into YouTube-ready videos, then uploads them to your channel.

This documentation is for **self-hosted / open-source** deployments (`S2VID_EDITION=selfhosted`).

## What you can do

- Combine one image with multiple tracks in a batch
- Set per-video metadata (YouTube **video title**, on-video **song title** / **artist**, description, tags, privacy, resolution)
- Art-track layouts with blur backgrounds and fine-tuning (padding, title/artist gap, text offsets)
- Typography: curated or uploaded `.ttf` / `.otf` fonts shared by Layout Studio preview and FFmpeg
- Custom watermarks: Songs2VID badge, text, or logo — positions/offsets match the live preview
- Unique cover image per track
- Add uploads to YouTube playlists
- Use the REST API for automation

See [Video editing](./video-editing.md) for composition controls in the dashboard and API.

## Self-host

Follow [Getting started](./getting-started.md). Set `S2VID_EDITION=selfhosted` for unlimited video allowance, API access, and all layout features (the optional root Compose example sets this for you).

For local development, `npm run dev:all` starts the app (port 3000), worker, and this docs site (port 3001).

Going to a public URL? See [Production notes](./deploy.md) (OAuth redirect, worker, HTTPS). Docker/Caddy samples in the repo are optional.

## REST API

Programmatic uploads and job creation. Generate an API key under **Dashboard → Settings → API access**. Start with [API overview](./api/overview.md).

## Stack

- Next.js 15 (App Router, TypeScript, Tailwind)
- PostgreSQL + Prisma
- Redis + BullMQ
- NextAuth (Google OAuth with YouTube scopes)
- FFmpeg for encoding
- YouTube Data API v3