Run ffmpeg, Premiere, or any program on files from another computer

May 2026

Your colleague has a 20 GB video file on their workstation. You need to run ffmpeg on it to extract a clip, check the codec, or transcode it. Or you want to open it in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere, or Blender. Normally you would wait for them to upload it, then download the entire file before you can start.

With KEIBIDROP, you connect to their machine and their files appear as a folder on yours. You run your tools directly on those files. The data streams from their computer as your program reads it.

Example with ffmpeg

$ ls ~/KeibiDrop/Mount/
raw-footage.mov   audio-mix.wav   project.prproj

$ ffmpeg -i ~/KeibiDrop/Mount/raw-footage.mov -ss 00:05:00 -t 00:00:30 -c copy clip.mp4
# ffmpeg reads from the virtual folder, streams the data from the peer
# Only the bytes ffmpeg actually needs get transferred

$ ffprobe ~/KeibiDrop/Mount/raw-footage.mov
# Shows codec info, duration, bitrate without downloading the whole file

ffmpeg reads the file sequentially or jumps to specific byte offsets depending on the operation. KEIBIDROP serves each read request by streaming the corresponding bytes from the peer. For an operation like ffprobe or extracting a short clip, only a small fraction of the file actually transfers.

Any application, any file type

The virtual folder works at the filesystem level. Your operating system sees a regular directory. Every program that reads files can use it:

ffmpeg, ffprobe, VLC, QuickTime, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Blender, Photoshop, GIMP, VS Code, vim, git, Python scripts, shell pipelines. If the program can open a file from a folder, it works with KEIBIDROP.

You only transfer what you use

If you run ffprobe on a 50 GB file, only a few megabytes transfer (the header and metadata). If you extract a 30-second clip from the middle, only the bytes for that segment transfer. If you open the file in a video editor and scrub through the timeline, each frame loads on demand.

This is different from syncing the whole file first. You start working immediately and the transfer footprint matches what you actually accessed.

Both directions

You can also write the output back. Run ffmpeg to transcode a file and save the result to the shared folder. It appears on the peer's machine. Both sides can share files and results at the same time.

Encrypted, direct, no server

The connection goes directly between the two machines, encrypted end-to-end. The encryption is quantum-resistant. No cloud storage is involved. The files never leave the two devices (unless a relay forwards the encrypted stream through firewalls).

Install guide · Source code