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What is TUS?

tus is an open protocol for resumable file uploads over HTTP(S), purpose-built for large files like videos. It lets clients pause, resume, and recover uploads reliably after network interruptions or app restarts.

⚔️ tus vs HTTP Multipart Uploads (Side‑by‑Side)

Feature tus (Resumable Upload Protocol) HTTP Multipart / S3‑style Uploads
Primary goal Resumable, reliable uploads for large files General‑purpose file uploads
Resumable by design ✅ Yes — resumes from exact byte offset (Upload-Offset) ⚠️ Only with custom logic/SDKs (e.g., S3 Multipart)
Tolerance to network drops ✅ High — pause/retry built in ⚠️ Varies — often restart or rebuild state manually
Chunking ✅ Native & offset‑addressed ✅ Via multipart parts or range PUTs
Client recovery ✅ Automatic with HEAD/offset checks 🔧 Manual bookkeeping (part numbers, ETags)
HTTP methods POST (create), PATCH (upload), HEAD (query), OPTIONS POST/PUT (form/multipart or single PUT)
Server statefulness Works with stateless app + external metadata store Often requires session and temporary state
Browser support Via tus-js-client (robust resume) Forms/Fetch work; resumability requires custom code/SDK
Simplicity to start 🟡 Needs a tus server implementation 🟢 Easiest for simple/small uploads
Best for Very large videos, mobile/spotty networks, creator apps Small/medium files; direct cloud storage APIs
Typical storage flow App receives chunks, can stream to storage; resume anytime App or SDK assembles parts and completes upload

Quick take: Use tus when reliability and resumability matter (e.g., video ingest). Use multipart for simple, small, or existing cloud‑native flows when you don’t need seamless resume.

📦 Example: tus Workflow (Simplified)

# 1) Create an upload
POST /files
Upload-Length: 1073741824
→ 201 Created
→ Location: /files/abc123

# 2) Upload first chunk
PATCH /files/abc123
Upload-Offset: 0
Content-Type: application/offset+octet-stream
(binary chunk...)

# 3) Resume later from server-reported offset
HEAD /files/abc123
→ Upload-Offset: 1048576

PATCH /files/abc123
Upload-Offset: 1048576
(next binary chunk...)

☁️ Example: S3 Multipart Upload (Conceptual)

  1. CreateMultipartUpload
  2. Upload parts (e.g., 5–15 MB each), track part numbers and returned ETags
  3. CompleteMultipartUpload with the part list

Resumability is possible but you must persist and reconstruct multipart state in your app or rely on the cloud SDK to do it for you.

🎯 Summary

📚 References