remotion-dev/remotion · error

shutDownStudio() is only available in the Studio

Error message

shutDownStudio() is only available in the Studio

What it means

shutDownStudio() is a Studio-only API that asks the Remotion Studio process to shut down. When called outside the Studio (e.g. inside a rendered video, preview in a regular browser tab, or plain web app), the environment check fails and the error is thrown.

Source

Thrown at packages/studio/src/api/shut-down-studio.ts:13

/**
 * @description Shuts down the Remotion Studio.
 * @see [Documentation](https://www.remotion.dev/docs/studio/shut-down-studio)
 */

import type {ShutdownStudioResponse} from '@remotion/studio-shared';
import {getRemotionEnvironment} from 'remotion';
import {callApi} from '../components/call-api';
import {getBrowserStudioOperations} from '../helpers/browser-studio-operations';

export const shutDownStudio = (): Promise<ShutdownStudioResponse> => {
	if (!getRemotionEnvironment().isStudio) {
		throw new Error('shutDownStudio() is only available in the Studio');
	}

	if (getBrowserStudioOperations() !== null) {
		throw new Error('shutDownStudio() is not supported in Browser Studio');
	}

	if (window.remotion_isReadOnlyStudio) {
		throw new Error('shutDownStudio() is not available in read-only Studio');
	}

	return callApi('/api/shutdown-studio', {});
};

View on GitHub (pinned to b2f4e34732)

Solutions

  1. Only call shutDownStudio() in code that runs inside Remotion Studio
  2. Guard the call with getRemotionEnvironment().isStudio
  3. Use window.remotion_isStudio (or equivalent check) before invoking
  4. Move the call out of shared video code into Studio-only UI modules

Example fix

// before
await shutDownStudio();
// after
import {getRemotionEnvironment} from 'remotion';
if (getRemotionEnvironment().isStudio) {
  await shutDownStudio();
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

import {getRemotionEnvironment} from 'remotion';
const canShutdown = getRemotionEnvironment().isStudio;

Type guard

const inStudio = (): boolean => getRemotionEnvironment().isStudio;

Try / catch

try {
  await shutDownStudio();
} catch (e) {
  if ((e as Error).message.includes('only available in the Studio')) {
    // ignore: not running in Studio
  } else { throw e; }
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling shutDownStudio() from a Remotion composition, a render environment, or any non-Studio page where getRemotionEnvironment().isStudio is false.

Common situations: Code shared between compositions and Studio UI; calling it from a Player-embedded app; accidentally importing the API into a normal React app; running a rendered video that includes Studio-only calls.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@b2f4e34732 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2869d8792b9162ed. Report an issue: GitHub.