Roadmap

What's coming after the v1.0.0 beta. Priorities may shift based on user feedback.

V2 — Payments and polish

Stripe integration

Self-serve checkout via Stripe. Manual Pro upgrades (hi@aldrickb.com) are replaced by POST /billing/create-checkout-session. Webhooks handle subscription lifecycle (activation, renewal, cancellation, expiry).

Webhooks

Pro users can register a URL to receive POST callbacks when a conversion completes or fails. Eliminates polling for long-running jobs.

One-shot upload

POST /v1/convert — a synchronous multipart endpoint that accepts a file, converts it, and returns the output binary in a single request. Useful for quick scripts that don't want to manage presign/poll/download.

Sandbox keys

ff_test_… keys that hit a sandbox environment with stripped-down rate limits. For development and integration testing without burning real quota.

SDKs

Generated client libraries for Node.js and Python that wrap the presign → finalize → convert → poll → download flow.

Email notifications

Resend-powered emails: conversion-done alerts, expiry warnings, and admin error summaries.

Privacy Policy

A dedicated page covering data collection, retention, and processing practices. Required before any non-trivial public launch.

Future

MCP (Model Context Protocol) support

FileForge will expose a native MCP server so AI agents can discover and call conversion endpoints without managing API keys or HTTP clients directly.

The MCP server will advertise tools like:

• convert_file — upload a file, specify source/target format and preset, return the converted result.
• list_formats — return the tier-filtered format matrix.
• get_conversion_status — poll a running conversion.
• download_result — retrieve a completed output.

This enables integration with any MCP-compatible agent framework (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.) where the agent can convert files on demand as part of a larger workflow — for example, a research agent that downloads a dataset in XLSX, converts it to CSV, and feeds it into a Python analysis tool.

MCP support will share the same auth, rate-limiting, and tier-gating as the existing Public API (/v1/*), so Free-tier agents still get 5 conversions/day and Pro-tier agents unlock unlimited access and bulk.

x402 protocol support

FileForge will implement the x402 protocol to enable internet-native, per-request payments using stablecoins. Instead of managing API keys and monthly subscriptions, an agent or script can pay per conversion with zero accounts, zero KYC, and zero friction.

How it will work:

1. Client sends a conversion request without an API key.
2. FileForge responds with HTTP 402 Payment Required, including the payment amount, wallet address, and asset details.
3. Client pays via x402 (stablecoin transfer) and retries the request with the payment proof.
4. FileForge verifies the on-chain payment and processes the conversion.

This opens FileForge to a broader ecosystem:

• AI agents using x402 can pay per conversion without pre-provisioning API keys or managing subscriptions.
• x402 Bazaar integration — FileForge will register its conversion endpoints on the CDP Bazaar, making them discoverable by any x402-compatible agent. The Bazaar indexes payable APIs with semantic descriptions, pricing metadata, and quality signals derived from on-chain activity. Agents can search for "file conversion" or "image resize" and find FileForge alongside other paid APIs.

x402 support will coexist with the existing ff_live_… key auth — the Public API will accept either an API key or an x402 payment proof on every request, giving developers flexibility in how they pay.

Other future items

• Anti-abuse — Cloudflare Turnstile, IP-quota, email verification gate. Added reactively if abuse appears.
• Bulk UX improvements — drag-drop folder upload, ZIP export of all outputs, email-when-ready.
• AI-enhanced conversions — image upscaling (Real-ESRGAN), background removal (rembg), Whisper transcription.
• Distributed MinIO — when single-node disk pressure shows up.
• CI/CD — GitHub Actions → GHCR → SSH deploy.
• Off-site backups — Backblaze B2 weekly.
• Team accounts — shared quota and centralized billing.
• Mobile app — thin wrapper around the Public API.