Sharing setup with Cloudflare R2

Reelbird has no server. Share links point at a storage bucket that you own. Reelbird uploads a small viewer page and the video to it, and anyone with the link can watch in a browser. Nothing goes through us.

Cloudflare R2 is the recommended host because it doesn’t charge for downloads (egress), so a popular video costs the same as an unwatched one. Any S3-compatible service works too (see Other S3-compatible services).

Setup takes about ten minutes, once.

What Reelbird puts in the bucket

Each share gets a random short ID and lives under one prefix (default r/):

r/<id>/index.html       the viewer page (the link you send)
r/<id>/  and  r/<id>    copies of the viewer page, so the link works on hosts that don't serve index.html
r/<id>/meta.json        title, duration, chapters, which files to play
r/<id>/card.jpg         title card for link previews
r/<id>/hls/             the stream uploaded while you record (playlist + 2-second segments)
r/<id>/video.<n>.mp4    the polished version, after you edit and choose Update link
r/<id>/poster.<n>.jpg   preview image for link unfurls
r/<id>/captions.<n>.vtt captions, if you made them

<n> goes up by one with every update, so browsers and caches never show a stale video. Reelbird deletes the previous revision’s files after an update.

The link is https://<your public URL>/r/<id>/. It never changes, even when you update the video.

Cloudflare R2

You need a Cloudflare account. R2 needs a payment method on file even if you stay inside the free tier.

1. Create a bucket

1. In the Cloudflare dashboard, open R2 object storage.
2. Select Create bucket.
3. Name it, for example reelbird. Leave the location on Automatic unless you need data to stay in a jurisdiction (EU, for example). Note: a bucket in a jurisdiction uses a different endpoint, shown in step 3.
4. Select Create bucket.

2. Give the bucket a public URL

Viewers need to read the files without credentials. Pick one:

Custom domain (recommended). Needs a domain whose DNS is on Cloudflare, in the same account.

1. Open the bucket, then Settings.
2. Under Custom Domains, select Add.
3. Enter a subdomain such as video.example.com, select Continue, review the DNS record, then Connect Domain.
4. Wait until the status changes from Initializing to Active (usually a few minutes).

Your public URL is https://video.example.com. A custom domain also gets Cloudflare’s cache, so repeat views are fast.

r2.dev URL (quick start). No domain needed, but Cloudflare rate-limits it and says it is meant for development, not production. Fine for trying Reelbird or occasional links to a few people.

1. Open the bucket, then Settings.
2. Under Public Development URL, select Enable.
3. Type allow to confirm, then select Allow.
4. Copy the URL shown, which looks like https://pub-<long id>.r2.dev.

You can switch from r2.dev to a custom domain later. Links you already sent keep using the old URL, so leave r2.dev enabled until you no longer need them.

3. Create an API token for Reelbird

1. Go back to R2 object storage → Overview.
2. Under Account Details, select Manage next to API Tokens.
3. Select Create Account API token (it keeps working if your user ever leaves the account).
4. Name it Reelbird.
5. Under Permissions, choose Object Read & Write.
6. Limit it to the bucket you created (choose to apply the token to specific buckets, then select it). Reelbird then can’t touch anything else in your account.
7. Leave the TTL at forever, or pick an expiry if you prefer to rotate keys.
8. Create the token. Cloudflare shows the Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key. Copy the secret now: Cloudflare never shows it again.

The endpoint is https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com. Buckets in a jurisdiction use https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.eu.r2.cloudflarestorage.com (EU) or the matching jurisdiction endpoint. Your account ID is on the R2 overview page.

4. Connect Reelbird

Click the Reelbird icon in the menu bar, choose Settings…, then Sharing, and fill in:

Field	Value
Endpoint	https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com
Bucket	reelbird (your bucket name)
Region	auto
Access key ID	from step 3
Secret access key	from step 3
Public URL	your custom domain or https://pub-….r2.dev
Prefix	r (default)

Choose Test Connection. Reelbird uploads a small test file, reads it back with your keys and through your public URL, then deletes it. If both work, choose Save.

The secret key is stored in your macOS Keychain. The other fields are saved in ~/Library/Application Support/Reelbird/share.json. The reelbird command line tool uses the same settings.

CORS

Not needed. The viewer page, playlist and video are all served from the same origin (your public URL), so the browser never makes a cross-origin request. You only need a CORS rule if you embed Reelbird videos on a different website. In that case, add a rule in the bucket’s Settings → CORS Policy that allows GET and HEAD from that site.

What it costs

R2 pricing as of October 2026 (Cloudflare R2 pricing):

Item	Free each month	Then
Storage (Standard)	10 GB	$0.015 per GB-month
Writes (Class A: uploads)	1 million	$4.50 per million
Reads (Class B: views)	10 million	$0.36 per million
Egress (data sent to viewers)	unlimited	free

In practice storage is the only number that matters. The stream uploaded while you record uses roughly 30 MB per minute, and a polished update adds the size of your export (both are kept, so the link still plays if the polished file is ever missing). The free 10 GB holds a few hours of shared video. Past that, 100 GB costs about $1.35 a month. Uploads while recording are one write per 2-second segment (about 30 per minute), so a month would need around 550 hours of recording to use the free million. Delete old shares to keep storage down.

Command line and CI

The CLI reads the settings you saved in the app. To configure it from a terminal instead:

reelbird config share \
  --endpoint https://<ACCOUNT_ID>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com \
  --bucket reelbird \
  --access-key <ACCESS_KEY_ID> \
  --public-base https://video.example.com \
  --test

It prompts for the secret access key (or reads it from stdin with --secret-stdin) and stores it in the Keychain. reelbird config show prints the current settings without the secret.

On a CI machine without a Keychain, set environment variables instead. They take precedence over saved settings:

Variable	Value
REELBIRD_S3_ENDPOINT	endpoint
REELBIRD_S3_BUCKET	bucket name
REELBIRD_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID	access key ID
REELBIRD_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY	secret access key
REELBIRD_S3_PUBLIC_BASE_URL	public URL
REELBIRD_S3_REGION	optional, default auto
REELBIRD_S3_PREFIX	optional, default r

Other S3-compatible services

Reelbird signs requests with AWS Signature Version 4, so anything that speaks the S3 API works. You need the same seven values: endpoint, bucket, region, access key ID, secret, public URL and prefix. The bucket (or at least the prefix) must be publicly readable but not publicly listable.

AWS S3

• Endpoint: https://s3.<region>.amazonaws.com, for example https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com. Region: the bucket’s region, for example us-east-1.
• Public URL: https://<bucket>.s3.<region>.amazonaws.com, or a CloudFront distribution in front of the bucket.
• Public read: turn off “Block all public access” for this bucket only, and add a bucket policy that allows s3:GetObject on arn:aws:s3:::<bucket>/r/* for everyone. Don’t grant s3:ListBucket publicly.
• Credentials: an IAM user (or role) limited to this bucket with s3:PutObject, s3:GetObject, s3:DeleteObject and s3:ListBucket.
• Cost: S3 charges for egress, so every view costs money. Check current AWS pricing.

Backblaze B2

• Endpoint: the S3 endpoint shown on the bucket, for example https://s3.us-west-004.backblazeb2.com. Region: the part after s3., for example us-west-004.
• Public URL: https://<bucket>.s3.<region>.backblazeb2.com, or a CDN in front of it.
• Public read: set the bucket to Public.
• Credentials: create an Application Key that can only access this bucket, with read and write. The key ID is the access key ID and the application key is the secret.
• Cost: check B2’s current storage and egress terms.

MinIO (self-hosted)

• Endpoint: your server, for example https://minio.example.com. Region: us-east-1 unless you configured another.
• Public URL: the same server plus the bucket, https://minio.example.com/<bucket>, behind HTTPS so links work everywhere.
• Public read: mc anonymous set download <alias>/<bucket>/r.
• Credentials: a user or access key with a policy limited to this bucket.

Privacy

• Links are unlisted, not secret. Anyone who has a link can watch the video and forward the link. The random ID makes links impossible to guess, and R2 public URLs don’t list the bucket’s contents, but there’s no password or login. Don’t share anything through a link that you wouldn’t be comfortable seeing forwarded.
• Sharing while recording uploads as you go. If “Share while recording” is on, segments leave your Mac during the recording. If you discard the take, Reelbird deletes everything it uploaded for it.
• Deleting a share. In Reelbird, open the recording, click Copy Link in the editor toolbar and choose Stop sharing (or run reelbird unshare PROJECT). Reelbird deletes every file under r/<id>/ and the link stops working. You can also delete the r/<id>/ folder in the Cloudflare dashboard (R2 object storage → your bucket → select the folder → Delete).
• Caches and copies. With a custom domain, Cloudflare’s cache may keep serving a deleted file for a short time. Anyone who already downloaded the video keeps their copy.
• Captions and titles are generated on your Mac. They’re uploaded only as part of a share you publish.
• What viewers load. The viewer page, video and captions all come from your bucket. While a share has only the live stream, browsers without built-in HLS (Chrome, Firefox) also load the hls.js player from jsDelivr, pinned to one version and integrity-checked. Once you update the link, viewers get a plain MP4 and nothing else.
• Your keys stay on your Mac. The secret key lives in the macOS Keychain and is only sent to your storage endpoint, as a request signature, never in plain text.