> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://omss.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Introduction to OMSS

> An introduction to the Open Media Streaming Standard (OMSS)

## 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.

<Card title="Read the Specification" icon="file-code" href="/spec/latest/ref/introduction" cta="Read the Spec" horizontal arrow>
  Read the full specification in the reference tab for details on endpoints, schemas, and error handling.
</Card>

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.

## Design Philosophy

OMSS is built around four guiding principles:

<CardGroup>
  <Card title="Source-focused">OMSS standardizes streaming sources, not media metadata (ratings, descriptions, posters). Use the TMDB API for metadata.</Card>
  <Card title="Pragmatic">OMSS is designed for real-world backends that work with incomplete, scraped data.</Card>
  <Card title="Progressive Disclosure">Required fields are minimal; optional fields unlock enhanced functionality.</Card>
  <Card title="HTTP-First">OMSS uses HTTP status codes, headers, and semantics correctly and meaningfully.</Card>
</CardGroup>

## 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

## 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.


## Related topics

- [Introduction to OMSS v1.1](/spec/latest/ref/introduction.md)
- [Introduction](/core/explanation/introduction.md)
- [OMSS v1.1 Specification](/spec/latest/ref/spec.md)