PeerTube

PeerTube is a decentralized video hosting platform, similar to YouTube. For implementation code see the PeerTube compatibility guide.

Overview

Property	Value
Language	TypeScript (Node.js)
Database	PostgreSQL
License	AGPL-3.0
Repository	github.com/Chocobozzz/PeerTube
Documentation	docs.joinpeertube.org (ActivityPub)
Latest release	v8.3.1 (2026-09-28)

ActivityPub Implementation

The JSON below is trimmed from a live PeerTube 8.3.1 server.

Actor Types

• Person — an account, at /accounts/{name}
• Group — a video channel, at /video-channels/{name}, with attributedTo pointing to the owning account and a playlists collection
• Application — the instance actor, used for server-to-server follows

{
  "type": "Group",
  "id": "https://peertube.example/video-channels/tech_reviews",
  "preferredUsername": "tech_reviews",
  "name": "Tech Reviews",
  "attributedTo": ["https://peertube.example/accounts/alice"],
  "inbox": "https://peertube.example/video-channels/tech_reviews/inbox",
  "playlists": "https://peertube.example/video-channels/tech_reviews/playlists"
}

Video Object

{
  "type": "Video",
  "id": "https://peertube.example/videos/watch/6a19252f-e799-404f-913f-1014c3a52fb6",
  "uuid": "6a19252f-e799-404f-913f-1014c3a52fb6",
  "name": "Introduction to ActivityPub",
  "duration": "PT15M30S",
  "attributedTo": [
    { "type": "Person", "id": "https://peertube.example/accounts/alice" },
    { "type": "Group", "id": "https://peertube.example/video-channels/tech_reviews" }
  ],
  "content": "In this video we explore...",
  "mediaType": "text/markdown",
  "category": { "identifier": "15", "name": "Science & Technology" },
  "licence": { "identifier": "2", "name": "Attribution - Share Alike" },
  "language": { "identifier": "en", "name": "English" },
  "commentsPolicy": 1,
  "downloadEnabled": true,
  "state": 1,
  "views": 1500,
  "url": [
    { "type": "Link", "mediaType": "text/html", "href": "https://peertube.example/w/e6TjfMBXc5jAsLs1co4zHh" },
    { "type": "Link", "mediaType": "video/mp4", "href": "https://peertube.example/static/web-videos/70d78e59-…-1080.mp4", "height": 1080 },
    { "type": "Link", "mediaType": "application/x-mpegURL", "href": "https://peertube.example/static/streaming-playlists/hls/6a19252f-…/", "tag": ["…per-resolution Link entries…"] }
  ],
  "likes": "https://peertube.example/videos/watch/6a19252f-…/likes",
  "dislikes": "https://peertube.example/videos/watch/6a19252f-…/dislikes",
  "shares": "https://peertube.example/videos/watch/6a19252f-…/announces",
  "comments": "https://peertube.example/videos/watch/6a19252f-…/comments"
}

Notes on the real format:

• Video files are Web Videos under /static/web-videos/; HLS playlists are under /static/streaming-playlists/hls/, with one Link per resolution in the playlist's tag. .torrent and magnet links are still published under /lazy-static/torrents/.
• category, licence and language are {identifier, name} objects mapped to schema.org terms.
• commentsPolicy replaces the old commentsEnabled (1 = enabled, 2 = disabled, 3 = requires approval; see the compatibility guide).
• preview holds storyboard images, not a thumbnail; thumbnails are in icon.

Comments

Comments are Notes whose inReplyTo is the video or a parent comment.

Supported Activities and Objects

From PeerTube's ActivityPub docs:

Activities	Objects
Create, Update, Delete, Follow, Accept, Reject, Announce, Undo, Like, Dislike, Flag, View, ApproveReply	Video, CacheFile (redundancy), Playlist, PlaylistElement, Actor, Note (comment), WatchAction

View Activity

PeerTube sends a View to the origin server each time a user watches a video, so it can count views. A View carrying expires means the user is still watching, and may be sent repeatedly (docs).

Federation

• A video is created by the account and announced by the channel; following a channel (Group) delivers its videos.
• Mastodon users can follow channels and accounts; replies from Mastodon become comments.
• Instances can follow each other (via their Application actors) to share their video catalogues.

See Also

• PeerTube Compatibility Guide
• PeerTube ActivityPub docs
• Server Software Overview