Playa — Lightweight HLS Proxy

A lightweight HLS proxy server with subtitle injection. Routes streaming manifests and segments through a proxy, rewrites URLs, and supports subtitle injection.

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/makhembu/playa
cd playa
npm install
npm run dev
# Proxy running at http://localhost:3000

API

Proxy a stream manifest

GET /proxy/manifest?url=https://example.com/stream.m3u8

Returns the m3u8 with segment URLs rewritten to proxy through playa.

Serve segments

GET /proxy/segment?url=https://example.com/segment-001.ts

Proxies individual TS segments. Used by the rewritten manifest.

Inject subtitles into manifest

GET /proxy/with-subtitles?manifestUrl=<url>&subtitleUrl=<vtt>&subtitleLang=en

Injects an #EXT-X-MEDIA:TYPE=SUBTITLES track into an HLS manifest.

Convert SRT to WebVTT

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/convert/srt-to-vtt \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d '1\n00:00:01,000 --> 00:00:04,000\nHello world'

Demo

# Proxy a manifest
curl "http://localhost:3000/proxy/manifest?url=https://test-streams.mux.dev/x36xhzz/x36xhzz.m3u8"

# Check the server
curl http://localhost:3000

Why

• Bypass CORS restrictions on streaming sources
• Inject subtitles into existing HLS streams
• Rewrite segments for compatibility with different players
• Lightweight — no external player needed, works with any HLS.js player

Stack

• TypeScript
• Express.js
• HLS protocol handling
• Cloudflare Workers ready (uses standard Web API patterns)

Roadmap

• HLS manifest proxy with URL rewriting
• Segment proxy with streaming
• Subtitle injection into manifest
• SRT to WebVTT conversion
• Subtitle embedding into TS segments
• Bandwidth adaptation
• Cache layer (R2/Cloudflare Cache)
• DASH support

License

MIT