Show HN: Bsub.io – zero-setup batch execution for command-line tools
I built bsub because I was tired of wiring up Docker images, Python environments, GPUs, sandboxing, and resource limits every time I needed to run heavy command-line tools from web apps. I wanted: send files -> run job in the cloud -> get output -> done.
bsub lets you execute tools like Whisper, Typst, Pandoc, Docling, and FFmpeg as remote batch jobs with no environment setup. You can try them locally via the CLI or integrate via a simple REST API.
Example (PDF extraction):
bsubio submit -w pdf/extract *.pdf
Technical details: - Each job runs in an isolated container with defined CPU/GPU/RAM limits. - Files are stored ephemerally for the duration of the job and deleted after completion. - REST API returns job status, logs, and results. - Cold start for light processors (Typst, Pandoc) is low; Whisper/FFmpeg take longer due to model load/encoding time. - Backend scales horizontally; more workers can be added during load spikes.
Current processors:
SST/Whisper -- speech-to-text
Typography -- Typst, Pandoc
PDF extraction -- Docling
Video transcoding -- FFmpeg
Looking for testers! CLI is open source: https://github.com/bsubio/cli. Installers available for Linux/macOS; Windows testing is in progress. Free during early testing; pricing TBD.
If you’re on Windows, feedback is especially helpful: contact@bsub.io
If you try it, I’d appreciate feedback on API design, latency, missing processors, or anything rough around the edges.
This _sounds_ really neat, and I'm very curious about this!
If it helps, I wanted to give you my stream-of-consciousness as I explored your post and site as a _total_ newcomer. I am a bit confused about what it can dop, and I bet it's really easy to make me unconfused through some site tweaks, and you seem eager for feedback:
My thoughts:
"Woah, this sounds neat. I wonder how it is different from Modal...I wonder if I could build it with modal...I love the idea of making batch stuff easier from the command line... <Now on homepage https://www.bsub.io/> Cool - there is that pdf example again! What does "extracting" the pdf do I wonder? What is "-w"? I guess these are local pdf files. I remember the poster saying that it would upload the files, so that is cool... But what is the output? Where is the output? I presume I can add my own commands cause he said "command-line tools" but maybe he meant that he exposed canned tools on the command line? What else can I do? Oh look - Video, Audio, and LLM are all mentioned! I will click on those to see other examples. <they aren't clickable> <Clicking on "see docs"> Scrolling to find _any_ other examples of any other commands... <Scrolling through rest of docs to try to understand, and failing>
"I bet if I installed it and ran it with --help, it would give me some more examples, but I'm not sure..."
This is a great feedback! You can play with it some more if you Login. I have put a playground for users who'd like to try it out without installing.
But it's a good point--perhaps I need to add more examples to the page so that you can see right away what it's all about.
Looks cool. Also looks like it's not self-hostable. Is that correct? For a tool like this I want to deploy it where I need it and (at least for me) a SaaS option is a deal breaker.
The only thing I've found similar to this as of late is AutoKitteh [0]. This looks like it is somewhat in the same competitive space, but with less features / flexibility. How would you say you compare and did it not fulfill the problem you originally had?
[0] https://autokitteh.com/
Great idea! Congrats on shipping! It'll be weeks at least before I have time to play w it, but bookmarked and wishing you luck.
Thanks! Perhaps you can test new upcoming workers. There'll be more tools for document processing and rendering, with some examples of what can be done with them.
Love the idea! I will try it!
Thanks! Any feedback is appreciated!