Video Thumbnail Service

A lightweight microservice that generates JPEG thumbnails from video URLs using ffmpeg.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+
• ffmpeg installed on the system

Environment Configuration

Set environment variables in your shell, process manager, or deployment platform.

Variable	Default	Description
PORT	3100	HTTP port used by the service

Local Run

npm install
PORT=3100 npm start

Docker

Build and run the service with Docker:

docker build -t vthumbs:local .
docker run --rm -p 3100:3100 -e PORT=3100 vthumbs:local

Usage

GET /thumbnail?url=https://example.com/video.mp4

Returns a JPEG image extracted at 1 second.

Health Check

GET /health

Returns JSON:

{"status":"ok"}

Client Configuration

Configure your client app with the base URL where this service is deployed.

Example:

THUMBNAIL_SERVICE_URL=https://your-thumbnail-service.example.com