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What is OMSS?

OMSS (Open Media Streaming Specification) is an open standard that defines a unified API for streaming media backends. It enables any frontend to work seamlessly with any OMSS-compliant backend through standardized endpoints, schemas, and data formats.

Read the Specification

Read the full specification in the reference tab for details on endpoints, schemas, and error handling.
The specification was born out of a real problem: streaming backends that scrape third-party providers return wildly inconsistent data — missing quality information, unlabeled audio tracks, ephemeral signed URLs, CORS-restricted sources, and incomplete metadata. OMSS standardizes the output of these backends, not how they scrape.

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Design Philosophy

OMSS is built around four guiding principles:

Source-focused

OMSS standardizes streaming sources, not media metadata (ratings, descriptions, posters). Use the TMDB API for metadata.

Pragmatic

OMSS is designed for real-world backends that work with incomplete, scraped data.

Progressive Disclosure

Required fields are minimal; optional fields unlock enhanced functionality.

HTTP-First

OMSS uses HTTP status codes, headers, and semantics correctly and meaningfully.

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Scope

OMSS covers:
  • API endpoint definitions for source retrieval
  • Standardized source and subtitle schemas
  • Error handling patterns
OMSS does not cover:
  • Access control or authentication
  • Media metadata (ratings, descriptions, posters) — use the TMDB API directly
  • Search functionality — use the TMDB API
  • Provider-specific scraping logic
  • Video player implementation

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TMDB as the Primary Identifier

OMSS uses TMDB (The Movie Database) as the universal identifier for all media content. The frontend is responsible for fetching media metadata from TMDB; the OMSS backend is solely responsible for returning streaming sources and subtitles for a given TMDB ID. This keeps responsibilities cleanly separated and avoids the maintenance burden of supporting multiple unstable third-party identifier APIs.
Last modified on July 27, 2026

Related topics

Introduction to OMSS v1.1IntroductionOMSS v1.1 Specification