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Beyond the Record Button: A Guide to Managing and Using Your Meeting Recordings

· 5 min read
Bob Teng
Bob Teng
Developer Advocate
Jibon L. Costa
Jibon L. Costa
Founding developer

For many platforms, the "record" button is the end of the story. You get an MP4 file, and that's it. But what if your recordings could be more? What if they could be a structured, searchable, and accessible content library for your students, your team, or your customers?

With Plug-N-Meet's powerful API, your recordings aren't just video files; they are programmable assets.

This guide will show you how to move beyond simply recording a meeting and start building a true content management system using the Recordings API. We'll cover how to find your recordings, enrich them with metadata, and even attach subtitles.

The Goal​

By the end of this guide, you will be able to programmatically manage your entire recording lifecycle, turning a simple list of video files into a rich, queryable content library.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Plug-N-Meet server.
  • Basic familiarity with making API calls (we'll use cURL for the examples).
  • Your Plug-N-Meet API_KEY and API_SECRET.

Step 1: Enable Cloud Recording​

First, you need to ensure your meetings are being recorded. You can do this on a per-room basis when you create it. In your createRoom API call, include the recording_features block and set is_allow_cloud to true.

For a "record by default" experience, you can also enable enable_auto_cloud_recording.

{
  "room_id": "my-recorded-session",
  "metadata": {
    "room_features": {
      // ... other features
      "recording_features": {
        "is_allow": true,
        "is_allow_cloud": true,
        "enable_auto_cloud_recording": true
      }
    }
  }
}

Step 2: Find Your Recordings​

After your meetings are over, the first step is to get a list of your available recordings. You can do this using the recording/fetch endpoint. You can fetch recordings for one or more specific rooms by providing their IDs in the room_ids array.

This call will return a paginated list of all recordings for the specified room(s).

# The raw JSON body as a string
BODY='{"room_ids":["room01"],"from":0,"limit":20,"order_by":"DESC"}'

# Your API credentials
API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
SECRET="YOUR_API_SECRET"

# Generate the HMAC-SHA256 signature
SIGNATURE=$(echo -n "$BODY" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt key:"$SECRET" | awk '{print $2}')

# Make the POST request
curl -X POST https://YOUR_SERVER_URL/auth/recording/fetch \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "API-KEY: $API_KEY" \
  -H "HASH-SIGNATURE: $SIGNATURE" \
  -d "$BODY"

The response will give you a list that includes the record_id, room_id, file_size, and creation_time for each recording—the essential building blocks for your content library.

Step 3: Make Your Recordings Discoverable with Metadata​

A filename like rec_123.mp4 isn't very helpful. To make your recordings useful, you need to add context. The recording/update-metadata endpoint allows you to add a descriptive title, a detailed description, and even your own custom data.

Let's say you just finished a "Q4 Marketing Sync" and you want to tag it appropriately.

# The raw JSON body as a string
BODY='{"record_id":"f031a270-20ab-433d-96e9-aed34db97c0a-1761814595173","metadata":{"title":"Q4 Marketing Sync - Final Strategy","description":"A detailed review of the Q4 marketing plan, including budget allocation and final campaign targets.","extra_data":{"department":"Marketing","quarter":"Q4-2025","is_public":"true"}}}'

# Your API credentials
API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
SECRET="YOUR_API_SECRET"

# Generate the HMAC-SHA256 signature
SIGNATURE=$(echo -n "$BODY" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt key:"$SECRET" | awk '{print $2}')

# Make the POST request
curl -X POST https://YOUR_SERVER_URL/auth/recording/update-metadata \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "API-KEY: $API_KEY" \
  -H "HASH-SIGNATURE: $SIGNATURE" \
  -d "$BODY"

Now, when you fetch this recording, it will come with rich, structured data. You can use the extra_data field to build powerful filtering and search features in your own application (e.g., "show me all recordings from the Marketing department").

Step 4 (Bonus): Attach Subtitles and Summaries​

If you used the AI Meeting Assistant during your meeting, you can link the generated transcription file directly to your recording's metadata.

  1. First, use the artifacts/fetch API to get the URL of the VTT subtitle file.
  2. Then, call recording/update-metadata again, this time adding a subtitles map.
# The raw JSON body as a string
BODY='{"record_id":"f031a270-20ab-433d-96e9-aed34db97c0a-1761814595173","metadata":{"subtitles":{"en":{"label":"English","url":"https://YOUR_SERVER_URL/path/to/your/transcript.vtt"}}}}'

# Your API credentials
API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
SECRET="YOUR_API_SECRET"

# Generate the HMAC-SHA256 signature
SIGNATURE=$(echo -n "$BODY" | openssl dgst -sha256 -mac HMAC -macopt key:"$SECRET" | awk '{print $2}')

# Make the POST request
curl -X POST https://YOUR_SERVER_URL/auth/recording/update-metadata \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "API-KEY: $API_KEY" \
  -H "HASH-SIGNATURE: $SIGNATURE" \
  -d "$BODY"

By linking these assets together, you create a far more valuable piece of content. Your users can now watch the recording with closed captions, improving accessibility and comprehension.

Conclusion​

Stop thinking of your recordings as a simple archive. With Plug-N-Meet's API-first approach, you have the tools to build a sophisticated, searchable, and accessible content management system.

By programmatically fetching, enriching, and linking your recordings with other assets, you can transform a simple folder of MP4 files into a powerful knowledge base for your organization.

Ready to build your content library?