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Launch Rail
Launch Rail: Media Service

One API for Every File in Your Product.

An enterprise-ready media platform for SaaS products. Direct-to-cloud uploads, secure delivery, built-in processing pipelines, malware scanning, retention policies, legal hold, and granular usage analytics — shipped as a production-ready Go microservice via REST, gRPC, and native MCP server.

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REST APIgRPCMCP Server

The Problem: Media Infrastructure is an Engineering Sink

Most SaaS teams stitch together S3, a CDN, a custom upload handler, a virus scanner, an OCR queue, a transcription job, and an audit table — all maintained separately. Every new media feature means gluing another service together. Security reviews find hardcoded bucket URLs. Compliance teams ask for retention policies you don't have. The result: months of platform engineering work that still doesn't feel production-ready.

The Solution: A Complete Media Platform in One Service

The Launch Rail Media Service ships as a single Go microservice that covers the entire file lifecycle: upload, processing, secure delivery, governance, and billing metrics. One well-typed ConnectRPC API — REST and gRPC, zero ceremony.

  • Presigned direct-to-cloud uploads, no backend bottleneck
  • Async OCR, transcription, video transcode, moderation
  • Retention, legal hold, WORM, malware scan out of the box
  • Quota, egress, and processing billing metrics per tenant

Core Architectural Capabilities

Engineered for the full file lifecycle — from the first byte uploaded to the last compliance record retained.

Direct-to-Cloud Uploads

Generate presigned upload URLs for S3 or GCS so file bytes go directly from the client to cloud storage — never through your backend. Eliminates OOM crashes, timeout failures, and upload bottlenecks on large files.

Resumable & Multipart Transfers

Support stable uploads for files from 1 MB to 1 TB. Resume interrupted transfers from the exact byte offset — not from the beginning. Critical for video-heavy and document-heavy SaaS products on unreliable networks.

Built-In Processing Pipelines

Async processing jobs for OCR, transcription, thumbnails, video transcoding, watermarking, moderation, and AI auto-tagging run automatically after upload. No third-party glue code required — everything flows through one API.

Enterprise Governance Layer

Retention policies, legal holds, WORM-style immutability, malware scanning, data residency awareness, and immutable audit logs are first-class primitives — not afterthoughts bolted on later for compliance audits.

Built for High Throughput

A clean, stateless architecture that scales horizontally. Decoupled inputs and outputs ensure zero-downtime operations.

REST / gRPC

ConnectRPC Gateway

MCP Server

AI Agent Interface

Service Logic

Domain Engine

PostgreSQL

ACID Compliant Storage

NATS / CloudEvents

Async Broadcasting

Secure Delivery by Default

Private files stay private. Every access URL is generated server-side after permission checks pass.

Short-Lived Signed URLs

Download and playback URLs are generated on demand after permission checks pass. No hardcoded bucket paths, no permanent URL exposure.

Governed Share Links

Create Dropbox-style external share links with expiry, password, max-download limits, bandwidth caps, and geo/IP restrictions.

Streaming Playback Sessions

Generate controlled playback sessions for video and audio assets. Supports adaptive streaming, captions, and multiple rendition qualities.

Processing Pipelines Built In

Every media type gets the right async processing — no separate jobs infra to maintain.

Images
  • ›Thumbnails & responsive sizes
  • ›Format conversion (WebP)
  • ›On-the-fly transforms
  • ›Dynamic watermarking
  • ›Moderation & AI tagging
Video
  • ›HLS/DASH transcoding
  • ›Adaptive streaming renditions
  • ›Thumbnail extraction
  • ›Subtitle generation (VTT)
  • ›Frame-level annotations
Audio
  • ›Transcription (SRT/VTT)
  • ›Speech-to-text indexing
  • ›Waveform metadata
  • ›Streaming playback session
  • ›Secure download links
Documents
  • ›Page preview generation
  • ›OCR text extraction
  • ›Searchable PDF output
  • ›Version history
  • ›Annotation overlays
Enterprise Governance

Compliance Built Into Every File

Retention policies, legal holds, WORM-style immutability, malware quarantine, and access audit trails are first-class primitives — ready for GDPR, HIPAA, and enterprise trust requirements without custom engineering.

Malware scanning & quarantine
Legal hold & WORM immutability
Configurable retention policies
Immutable access audit logs
Per-tenant quota enforcement
Webhooks for every file event

Usage & Billing Metrics

Track the numbers that matter for SaaS pricing — not just bytes stored, but the full cost picture.

Storage consumption
Per tenant, per media kind, per folder
Egress bandwidth
Download traffic per tenant / share link
Processing minutes
Video transcode, AI, OCR job time
Request volume
API calls, upload sessions, download events

Implementation Examples

Developer-first by design. Access full-featured gRPC, REST, and MCP endpoints out of the box. Our services use ConnectRPC for lightweight, production-grade communication.

Go Code
1resp, err := client.InitiateUpload(ctx, connect.NewRequest(
2    &mediav1.InitiateUploadRequest{
3        TenantId:         tenantID,
4        OwnerId:          userID,
5        OriginalFileName: "contract-v2.pdf",
6        FileSizeBytes:    fileSize,
7        MimeType:         "application/pdf",
8        Title:            "Service Agreement v2",
9        Tags:             []string{"contract", "legal"},
10        EntityRef: &mediav1.EntityRef{
11            EntityType: "ticket",
12            EntityId:   ticketID,
13        },
14    },
15))
Native MCP Server

AI Agents Talk to Media Natively

Every Launch Rail service ships with a built-in MCP server. Your AI agents can discover tools, read resources, and execute actions—no wrappers, no custom integrations.

MCP Tools

Actions agents can execute

upload_file

Initiate, execute, and complete a direct-to-cloud upload from an AI workflow

get_file_asset

Retrieve file metadata, lifecycle status, and processing state

generate_download_link

Issue a short-lived signed URL for secure file access

create_share_link

Create an externally shareable link with expiry and password controls

list_renditions

List available thumbnails, transcodes, and preview artifacts for an asset

get_transcript

Retrieve transcript text or VTT subtitles from a processed media asset

MCP Resources

Data agents can read

media://tenants/{id}/catalog

All file assets for a tenant with lifecycle status and metadata

media://tenants/{id}/folders

Folder hierarchy for a tenant

media://files/{id}/renditions

All derived outputs for a specific file asset

In Practice

What this looks like

AI Agent asks

“Find all invoices uploaded by user usr_abc in the last 30 days and generate a download link for each one.”

MCP Server responds

Calls list_file_assets with owner_id='usr_abc', media_kind='DOCUMENT', created_after=30d, then calls generate_download_link for each READY file — returns an array of short-lived signed URLs.

Command Line Interface

Manage your infrastructure from the Terminal.

  • One-command provisioning

    Create users, tenants, and roles without touching the UI.

  • Secure Key Management

    Easily rotate API keys and manage workspace secrets.

  • Environment Sync

    Synchronize permissions across staging and production.

launchrail-ctl — zsh
$
Connected: Staging-US-East-1Latency: 12ms

Build vs. Buy Launch Rail

Why spend 4 months building table structures and plumbing when you can start shipping features tomorrow?

Build it Yourself

The "Not Invented Here" approach

4+Months
High Opportunity Cost

Diving into low-level plumbing means your engineers aren't building your core product features. You risk security vulnerabilities and maintenance debt.

Buy Launch Rail

The "Speed of Light" approach

1Afternoon
Immediate ROI

Get the source code, deploy it in minutes, and focus on what makes your business unique. Zero technical debt, enterprise-ready from day one.

Feature ComparisonSelf-BuiltLaunch Rail
Presigned direct-to-cloud upload URLs
File metadata & version history
Lifecycle states (PROCESSING → READY)
Malware scanning & quarantine
OCR, transcription, AI auto-tagging
Governed share links with expiry
Secure playback sessions
Retention policies & legal hold
Per-tenant quotas & billing metrics
Webhooks & domain events
Multi-tenant isolation
Immutable access audit logs

Real-World Value: Media in Action

See how teams across industries use Media to ship faster, reduce costs, and deliver enterprise-grade experiences from day one.

B2B SaaS

Product File Management

Every product file — avatars, attachments, exports, generated reports — managed through one secure API with per-tenant isolation and quota enforcement. No more custom S3 glue code per team.

Financial Services

Enterprise Document Workflows

Contracts, invoices, and regulated records stored with version history, retention policies, legal hold, and immutable audit trails. Built for compliance teams and security reviews.

E-Learning & Media

Video & Audio Platforms

Course videos, support recordings, marketing assets — upload, transcode, subtitle, watermark, and deliver securely. Adaptive HLS/DASH streaming and VTT subtitle generation included.

Healthcare

Regulated File Workflows

Patient images, scan uploads, and medical records with WORM immutability, data residency support, access audit logs, and malware scanning. Built for HIPAA and enterprise trust requirements.

AI Products

AI-Powered Content Workflows

Feed OCR output, transcripts, and AI-generated tags directly into search indexes and LLM pipelines. ProcessingJobs expose extracted content through a typed API — no custom scraping.

Platform Engineering

Shared Media Infrastructure

Standardize file handling across all product teams with one shared media microservice — consistent upload flow, processing, governance, and billing metrics across the entire platform.

Why Buy the License? (The ROI)

Building a correct, multi-tenant media platform — direct uploads, processing queues, secure delivery, malware scanning, governance, and billing metrics — is a multi-month engineering project, not a sprint.

Buy the Launch Rail Media module today and get the complete, production-ready Go source code.

~4 months saved

Engineering time to build upload infrastructure, processing queues, secure delivery, and governance from scratch.

Zero security gaps

Presigned URLs, malware quarantine, short-lived access tokens, and audit logs — all correct from day one.

Enterprise-ready

Retention, legal hold, data residency, WORM, and per-tenant billing metrics — ready for your next enterprise deal.

Get the Source CodeRead the DocsAPI Reference
Frequently Asked Questions

Common Questions & Answers

Everything you need to know about integrating and hosting this Launch Rail service.

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