alpha2 rendersthe same everywhere

A portable media engine: one timeline project, rendered on the GPU, identically in browsers, on servers and in Rust.

Open Studio Read the docs

Watch alpha2 render live

reel.jsonStarting the engine

Backend: Loading
Canvas: 960 × 540
Frame: 30 of 210
Ticks: 120,000

Saturation, Coast1.15

Coast into Forest

00:00:01:00/ 00:00:07:00

Coast, gradedWipeForestFadeBoathouse

It grades , blurs ,
glows and cuts

A street wall at night, warmed and lifted by the color controls — Color controls

Commuters' feet on a station platform, blurred — Gaussian blur

A boathouse at night, its lights glowing — Glow

A circle opening from the coast onto the forest — Circle open, halfway through the cut

Eleven effects and thirty transitions are built in and run on the GPU, the same in the browser and natively. Register your own WGSL shaders at run time with RuntimeEffectRegistry.

Read the package guide

It runs on WebGPU, WebGL2, Vulkan, Metal and Direct3D 12; on Linux, macOS and Windows; in browsers, Node.js and Rust.

The reel from the top of this page, exported by alpha2-host on Vulkan: 210 frames in 0.70 s.

Pick the package
for your target

Packages

You are building	Use	Install
Videos from Python: build and render projects	alpha2	`pip install alpha2`
A browser app that previews and exports	alpha2	`npm install alpha2`
A browser editor with undo and export	@alpha2-sh/editor	`npm install @alpha2-sh/editor`
A React canvas over the player	@alpha2-sh/react	`npm install @alpha2-sh/react`
MP4 export from Node.js or Electron	@alpha2-sh/node	`npm install @alpha2-sh/node`
MP4 export from any other language	alpha2-host	`cargo install alpha2-host`
A Rust program	alpha2	`cargo add alpha2`

Platforms

Platform	GPU	Hardware decode and encode
Browser	WebGPU, or WebGL2	Decoded by your app
Linux x64 and arm64	Vulkan	Vulkan Video
macOS on Apple silicon	Metal	VideoToolbox
Windows x64	Direct3D 12	D3D12VA

Other languages drive alpha2-host serve through its stdio protocol.

Meet the web editor
based on alpha2

Studio's editor: media bin, program viewer, inspector and a timeline of video, title and audio clips

α2 Studio is one application built on alpha2 and @alpha2-sh/editor: a timeline editor that runs in a browser tab and keeps its projects there.

Open α2 Studio

Questions

Does the preview match the export?

Yes. Every target runs the same rendering code, so one project draws the same frame in a browser preview, in a server export and in a Rust program. The live frame at the top of this page and the exported film beside the platforms come from one document.

Who decodes the media?

In the browser, your application does, with WebCodecs or the decoders in alpha2/mediabunny, and the engine names the exact source time each frame needs. Natively, alpha2-host decodes and encodes with FFmpeg 8.

Which GPUs does it use?

WebGPU in the browser, or WebGL2 where a canvas has no WebGPU. Vulkan on Linux, Metal on Apple silicon and Direct3D 12 on Windows, where native exports also encode on the GPU wherever the device and codec allow it.

Can I drive it from Python or Go?

From Python, pip install alpha2: it builds and validates projects and renders them with alpha2-host, which it installs too. From any other language, run alpha2-host serve and talk to it over standard input and output; the host protocol describes every message. Node.js and Electron get the same host through @alpha2-sh/node.

What does it cost?

Nothing. alpha2 is available under the MIT License, copyright Alpha2 contributors, and its third-party components are listed in the notices.

npm install alpha2cargo add alpha2

View on npmorView on crates.io

The same engine either way, MIT licensed, with its source on GitHub.