Membrane Core Files

New guides

Recently, we gathered some feedback on what parts of Membrane are confusing and could use more learning materials. Here are some new guides covering these parts:

• What are timestamps in multimedia and their role in Membrane. https://hexdocs.pm/membrane_core/timestamps.html
• Everything you need to know about Pads - the things that connect components into actual pipelines. https://hexdocs.pm/membrane_core/pads.html
• Demystifying manual demands - the way you handle flow control when auto-demands aren't enough. https://hexdocs.pm/membrane_core/manual_demands.html
• What are crash groups and how to use them to manage crashes in a controlled manner. https://hexdocs.pm/membrane_core/crash_groups.html
• How to integrate Membrane into existing Elixir applications. https://hexdocs.pm/membrane_core/running_membrane_in_elixir_application.html

Tasks for code generation

All the big dog libraries in Elixir have Mix tasks for generating starter code - project skeletons, module templates, etc - and now Membrane has them too. We added tasks for creating templates for all the component types in Membrane. For example, if you call

$ mix membrane.gen.filter My.Filter

a lib/my/filter.ex file will be created with a My.Filter filter template. This template will have all the code required for a minimal working Filter, alongside commented out sections for optional functionalities. See https://hexdocs.pm/membrane_core/Mix.Tasks.Membrane.Gen.html and other tasks for more.

AI skill

We've noticed that AI coding agents don't always use Membrane Framework correctly. They frequently reach for APIs from outdated versions, or miss out on recent improvements. The likely reason: today's models still draw heavily on training data scraped 3-4 years ago, when the Membrane Framework looked quite different.

To address this, we've shipped an official SKILL.md for AI agents, dedicated to anything involving the framework. If you use Claude Code, install it via the plugin system:

/plugin marketplace add membraneframework/membrane_core
/plugin install membrane-framework@membrane

For a cross-agent install, get it using $ npx skills add membraneframework/membrane_core -g. You can find more info about this topic in our README.

Membrane Actions upgrades

Version 1.3 provides the following improvements and upgrades in Membrane actions mechanism:

• new broadcast action - improved successor of forward. You can use it to send any type of a Membrane stream item, like buffer, event or stream format.
• now demand action also accepts buffers' timestamps. More info on how to use this functionality in the manual demands guide.

All changes

• Improve remove_link action docs by @mat-hek in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1048
• Timestamps guide by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1033
• Add section about support for Windows by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1049
• Add pads3.png guide asset by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1069
• Use Process.label() instead of Process.register(). by @varsill in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1071
• Handle removed pads properly in Membrane.Connector by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1075
• "Running Membrane in Elixir application" guide by @varsill in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1070
• Write the crash group guide by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1074
• Add skill.md describing how to use Membrane Core by @varsill in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1078
• Mix task for creating component templates by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1059
• Add task for downloading membrane demos by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1067
• Remove RTC engine from packages list by @mat-hek in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1107
• Add :broadcast action by @varsill in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1106
• Fix compilation warnings in test files by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1095
• Upgrade docs and skills for LLMs in Membrane Core by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1097
• Improve error messages by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1102
• Improve docs by @Noarkhh in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1103
• Fix bug in generated moduledocs by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1122
• Make demand action accept timestamps & write manual timestamps guide by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1079
• Bump version to 1.3.0 by @FelonEkonom in https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/pull/1129

Full Changelog: https://github.com/membraneframework/membrane_core/compare/v1.2.6...v1.3.0