Why MediaLit
Object storage such as AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 is cheap and reliable, but it only stores bytes. To use it for uploads in a real app, you also need presigned URLs, bucket policies, CORS, a CDN, thumbnails, a database of what you stored, and a way to clean up files nobody uses. MediaLit is that layer, already built.
One place for agents, apps and humans
Most file tools are built for one kind of user. MediaLit gives the same files three ways in:
Apps use the REST API, the Node.js SDK and the React uploader.
Agents use the MCP server, so Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor can save a file and hand you a link. Agents that run in a terminal, such as Claude Code or Codex, can also run the CLI.
Humans use the dashboard to browse, preview and share, and the same CLI to upload and manage files from a terminal or a CI job.
An agent can create a report, you can check it in the dashboard, and your app can serve it from the same URL.
What you don't have to build
You need | With plain object storage | With MediaLit |
|---|---|---|
Uploads from the browser | Presigned URLs, CORS rules, a policy per bucket | A signature route and a drop-in component |
Resumable uploads | Multipart upload logic | Built in |
Cleaning up abandoned uploads | A database of what is used, and a job to delete the rest | Unsealed uploads are deleted after 24 hours |
Public and private files | Bucket policies, signed URLs |
|
Listing files with their details |
| Paginated listing, filtered by group or access |
Thumbnails | A processing pipeline | Generated for images and videos |
Upload size and storage limits | Your own accounting | Enforced on every upload |
Open source, and portable
All of MediaLit is open source, including what runs medialit.cloud. Start on the hosted service, and if you outgrow it or need your data elsewhere, run the same API yourself on AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, MinIO or any S3-compatible storage. Point MEDIALIT_ENDPOINT at your server and your code keeps working, because the API is the same.
MediaLit only uses storage features that S3-compatible providers have in common, so you can also move between storage providers.