[HN Gopher] Show HN: Bsub.io - zero-setup batch execution for co...
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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.
https://www.bsub.io 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 Works like running the
tool locally, but the compute and isolation happen in the cloud.
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 More coming; suggestions welcome for
tools that are painful to set up locally. 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.
Author : wkoszek
Score : 14 points
Date : 2025-11-17 15:34 UTC (7 hours ago)
| mestor wrote:
| Love the idea! I will try it!
| wkoszek wrote:
| Thanks! Any feedback is appreciated!
| chrisweekly wrote:
| 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.
| wkoszek wrote:
| 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.
| TheTaytay wrote:
| 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..."
| wkoszek wrote:
| 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.
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(page generated 2025-11-17 23:01 UTC)