
# Directly Upload an Asset

To manually upload an asset to the Livepeer platform, your first need to request
for a direct upload URL and only then actually upload the contents of the asset.

This also allows your users to upload files directly to Livepeer, since the
upload URL is pre-signed with your credentials and is accessible from the
browser. The initial API call to get the upload URL must be done from a backend
though, from which an API token is available.

## Step 1: Create a new Direct Upload URL

First generate a URL to directly upload a video `Asset` to Livepeer on
`POST /api/asset/request-upload`:

```jsx
curl --location --request POST 'https://livepeer.com/api/asset/request-upload' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "name":"Example name"
}'
```

### Request body parameters

<Table
  data={[
    {
      parameter: <code>name</code>,
      type: <code>string</code>,
      description:
        "The name of the `Asset` containing a custom human-readable description or title.",
    },
  ]}
/>

### Response example

```jsx
{
    "url": "https://origin.livepeer.com/api/asset/upload/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdG9yYWdlLmdvb2dsZWFwaXMuY29tL2xwLW55Yy12b2QtbW9uc3Rlci9kaXJlY3RVcGxvYWQvNjI3OHQyZWlrY2JqZXUxNC9zb3VyY2U%2F...",
    "asset": {
        "id": "$ASSET_ID",
        "name": "Example name",
        "playbackId": "$PLAYBACK_ID",
        "userId": "$USER_ID",
        "createdAt": 1644595454248,
        "status": {
          "phase": "waiting",
          "updatedAt": 1644595454248
        }
    },
    "task": {
        "id": "$TASK_ID",
        "type": "import",
        "outputAssetId": "$ASSET_ID",
        "params": {
          "import": {
            "uploadedObjectKey": "directUpload/$PLAYBACK_ID/source"
          }
        },
        "createdAt": 1652813126031,
        "status": {
            "phase": "pending",
            "updatedAt": 1652813126031
        }
    }
}
```

You can use the returned `task` object to monitor the progress of processing the
asset after the contents have been uploaded. Check the
[Retrieve a Task](/docs/api-reference/vod/list-tasks#retrieve-a-task) API for
more information.

## Step 2: Upload the contents

Now upload (`PUT`) a video file on the exact URL in the `url` field of the
response above:

```jsx
curl --location --request PUT "${url}" \
--header 'Content-Type: video/mp4' \
--data-binary '@$VIDEO_FILE_PATH'
```

Notice that we only support mp4 files encoded with H264 video and AAC audio for
now. If you are unsure about these, try sending the file anyway and check any
returned errors!
