Key Concepts
Before diving into MediaMoth, familiarize yourself with these core concepts. This page provides quick definitions to help you understand the terminology used throughout the documentation.
Media
Media represents the metadata for your video files—not the files themselves. When you create a media entry, you store information like:
- Title
- Media type (video)
- Resolution, year, chapters
- Tags for organization
- Creation and update timestamps
Think of media entries as catalog records that describe what MediaMoth is processing, separate from the actual video file storage.
Pipelines
Pipelines are user-defined workflows that describe how to transform media. They define the sequence of processing steps needed to convert, enhance, or modify your files.
Pipelines are directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)—they flow forward without loops. They can branch to allow parallel processing, but each node waits for all its dependencies to complete before starting.
A pipeline is the blueprint for processing—it defines what should happen.
Nodes
Nodes are individual steps within a pipeline. Each node represents a single operation like transcoding, audio extraction, or thumbnail generation.
Every node:
- Corresponds to a service that performs the work
- Can have zero or more previous nodes as dependencies
- Has parameters that configure its behavior
Nodes are the building blocks you connect together to create pipeline workflows.
Services
Services are the actual executors that perform processing work. Each service specializes in specific operations.
For example:
- The Video Conversion Service handles transcoding via FFmpeg or HandBrake
- Custom services can be built for specialized tasks (audio enhancement, watermarking, AI processing)
When you add a node to a pipeline, that node type corresponds to a registered service. MediaMoth routes the work to the appropriate service when execution happens.
Jobs
Jobs are execution instances of pipelines. When you want to process media using a pipeline, you create a job.
The distinction:
- Pipeline = The recipe (defines what operations to perform)
- Job = Following that recipe (actually executing the work on specific media)
Jobs track progress through each node, success or failure of steps, and overall execution state.
How They Connect
Here's the relationship in a nutshell:
- Media entries describe your video files
- Pipelines define processing workflows by connecting nodes
- Each node type corresponds to a service that does the actual work
- Jobs execute pipelines on specific media
- MediaMoth coordinates everything—running nodes in the correct order, parallelizing branches, tracking completion
Next Steps
- Getting Started - Install and run MediaMoth
- Pipelines - Deep dive into pipeline design
- Service Nodes - Available node types and capabilities
- Jobs & Execution - Understanding the job lifecycle