Storage Connections

Connect your organization's own storage so Genvid can read your media directly from it, instead of copying it into Genvid.

Overview

Storage Connections let your organization bring its own storage (BYOS) — an S3-compatible bucket you already control (AWS S3, MinIO, Cloudflare R2, and similar). Once connected, Genvid reads bytes from your bucket only when an operation actually needs them, using credentials supplied per call. Genvid never stores the credential itself — only a reference to where it lives in your own secret store.

Media that resolves through a storage connection is marked offsite throughout Genvid — see Image Editor § Offsite Media and Fixity for how offsite media appears and what its fixity status means.

Who Can Use This Feature

Storage Connections live on the Organization settings page, alongside your organization's AI model configuration. Only users with the Admin role can manage storage connections.

Key Concepts

Storage Connection: A registered link to a bucket your organization controls, plus a reference to the credential needed to read it
Secret Reference: A pointer to where the actual credential lives in your own secret store — Genvid never receives or stores the credential itself
Offsite Media: Media whose original file resolves through a storage connection rather than living in Genvid's own storage

Accessing Storage Connections

Log in to Genvid
Click the Account settings button in the top-right corner of the header (user icon)
Select Organization from the dropdown menu
Scroll to the Storage Connections section

Admin Access Required

Adding, editing, or removing storage connections requires the Admin role in your organization.

Adding a Storage Connection

In the Storage Connections section, click Add connection
Fill in the connection details:
- Name (required) — a label for this connection
- Bucket (required) — your bucket's name
- Region (optional) — for example us-west-2; not needed if your endpoint infers it
- Endpoint URL (optional) — leave blank for AWS S3; set this for MinIO, Cloudflare R2, or another S3-compatible provider (HTTPS only)
- Prefix (optional) — a key prefix marking the connection's root within the bucket (for example genvid/)
- Secret reference (required) — a reference to where the credential lives in your own secret store, not the credential itself
Click Add connection

<BrandName /> never sees your credential

The Secret reference field points to where your credential is kept in your own secret store. Genvid resolves and uses the actual credential only at the moment it needs to read a file, and never stores it.

Once added, the connection appears in the Storage Connections list showing its name, an Enabled/Disabled status, and its bucket coordinates (bucket, prefix, region, and endpoint if set).

Removing a Storage Connection

In the Storage Connections list, click the delete icon next to the connection
Confirm the removal

Media becomes unreadable

Once a storage connection is removed, Genvid can no longer read from that bucket. Any media that resolves through this connection becomes unreadable until the connection is reconnected.

Common Questions

Does Genvid copy my files when I connect storage?

No. Genvid reads bytes from your bucket only when an operation needs them (for example, displaying a proxy or verifying fixity) and does not make a persistent copy of your originals.

What storage providers are supported?

Any S3-compatible storage: AWS S3, MinIO, Cloudflare R2, and similar. Leave the Endpoint URL blank for AWS S3; set it to your provider's endpoint for anything else.

Where does the "Secret reference" come from?

It's a pointer into your own secret store (for example, a secret name or ARN) — however you manage credentials outside of Genvid. Genvid only stores the reference, never the credential.

What happens to media if I remove a connection?

Media that resolved through that connection becomes unreadable — its fixity status will show as unavailable — until you reconnect an equivalent connection. See Image Editor § Offsite Media and Fixity for what the fixity states mean.

Next Steps

Image Editor - See how offsite media and fixity status appear on your images
Content Provenance - Understand the difference between C2PA provenance and fixity verification