arr-barr

Self-hosted media management and automation.

Movies, TV, music, books, audiobooks, and games.

🌐 arrbarr.com · Get Started · How It Works · Docs

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One command sets up 15 services. Add a movie, and minutes later it's streaming on your TV — organized with perfect names and artwork, subtitles included. Repeat for TV shows, music, books, audiobooks, and games.

New here? Visit arrbarr.com for visual guides, an interactive architecture tour, and a step-by-step walkthrough designed for non-technical users.

What You Get

	What	How
🎬	Movies & TV	Add anything. It searches 12 indexers, picks the best quality, and appears in Jellyfin ready to stream.
🎵	Music	Full albums in lossless quality, organized by artist. Stream through Jellyfin or your favorite music app.
📖	Books & Audiobooks	Ebooks managed by Kavita (read in your browser). Audiobooks in Audiobookshelf (with chapter support and progress sync).
🎮	Games	Search and manage PC games. Auto-imported to your library every 15 minutes.
🔒	VPN Privacy	All traffic routed through an encrypted WireGuard tunnel. Kill switch prevents unprotected connections.
🤖	Fully Automated	Quality scoring picks the best release from dozens of options. Upgrades happen automatically when something better appears. Zero manual work.

🚀 Get Started

First time? Read the full walkthrough at arrbarr.com/guide — it covers prerequisites, VPN setup, and your first request with screenshots and explanations.

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/TrashedPandai/arr-barr.git
cd arr-barr

# Setup (creates everything, installs the CLI, pulls images)
arr setup

# Launch
arr start

That's it. The setup wizard walks you through VPN configuration, creates all directories, and pulls every container. First launch takes a few minutes for image downloads, then you're live.

After setup, open these in your browser:

What	URL	For
🎬 Jellyfin	http://your-server:8096	Watch movies, TV, listen to music
🔍 Seerr	http://your-server:5055	Request new media

That's all most people need. The other 13 services work behind the scenes.

⚡ The arr CLI

Every operation is one command:

arr dashboard     # Live dashboard — library counts, downloads, disk, health
arr status        # Quick pulse — are all 15 services alive?
arr downloads     # Live download monitor with progress bars
arr vpn           # VPN tunnel status and public IP
arr request       # Search & add content from the terminal
arr start         # Launch the stack (animated sequence)
arr stop          # Shut it down (visual shutdown sequence)
arr update        # Pull latest code + images
arr backup        # Snapshot all configs
arr doctor        # Diagnose and auto-fix common issues
arr logs <svc>    # View service logs
arr help          # Full command reference

The CLI features animated launch/shutdown sequences, color-coded service groups, live progress bars, and a 33fps render loop for buttery-smooth terminal animations.

🔧 How It Works

  You request "Dune"
       │
       ▼
  Jellyseerr ──▶ Radarr ──▶ Prowlarr (searches 12 indexers)
                    │
                    ▼
              Best release scored (48 custom formats)
                    │
                    ▼
          ┌─── VPN Tunnel (WireGuard) ───┐
          │  Transmission  ·  SABnzbd    │
          │  Kill switch · Network privacy │
          └──────────────────────────────┘
                    │
                    ▼
         Hardlinked to library (0 extra disk space)
         Renamed · Artwork fetched · Subtitles queued
                    │
                    ▼
           Jellyfin ──▶ Ready to watch

Key architecture decisions:

• Single mount (/data) — downloads and media on the same filesystem so hardlinks work. A 50GB movie uses 50GB total, not 100GB.
• Split networking — download traffic goes through VPN, streaming stays fast on the local network.
• Quality scoring — 48 custom formats in Radarr, 44 in Sonarr (from TRaSH Guides). Every release is scored and ranked automatically.

Deep dive into the architecture at arrbarr.com/docs — interactive network topology, hardlink diagrams, quality pipeline, and more.

📦 The 15 Services

🟢 Network & Downloads

Service	Role
Gluetun	WireGuard VPN tunnel with kill switch
Transmission	Torrent client (runs inside VPN)
SABnzbd	Usenet client (runs inside VPN)

🟡 Indexers

Service	Role
Prowlarr	Manages 12 indexers (8 torrent + 4 usenet), syncs to all arr apps
FlareSolverr	Cloudflare bypass for protected indexer sites

🔵 Media Managers

Service	Role
Radarr	Movies — search, organize, upgrade
Sonarr	TV shows — seasons, episodes, anime
Lidarr	Music — albums, artists, lossless preferred
Bazarr	Subtitles — automatic matching, timing sync

🟣 Streaming

Service	Role
Jellyfin	Media server — stream to any device, hardware transcoding
Jellyseerr	Request interface — friends search and request here

🔷 Books & Audio (optional profiles)

Service	Role
LazyLibrarian	Book & audiobook library management
Kavita	Ebook reader in the browser
Audiobookshelf	Audiobook server with chapters, bookmarks, mobile apps

🩷 Gaming

Service	Role
QuestArr	Game library management via Prowlarr indexers

Meet every service visually at arrbarr.com/crew

🔄 Staying Updated

arr update

Pulls latest code and Docker images, restarts only changed containers. Your media, configs, and settings are never touched.

📂 Directory Structure

DATA_ROOT/
├── config/          15 service databases & settings (auto-created)
├── downloads/
│   ├── torrents/    Completed torrents (keep for seeding)
│   ├── usenet/      Completed usenet (staging, disposable)
│   └── incomplete/  Active transfers
└── media/           Your organized library
    ├── movies/      → Jellyfin
    ├── tv/          → Jellyfin
    ├── music/       → Jellyfin
    ├── books/       → Kavita
    ├── audiobooks/  → Audiobookshelf
    └── games/       → GameVault

🛟 Troubleshooting

arr doctor          # Auto-diagnose and fix common issues
arr logs <service>  # Check a specific service's logs
arr vpn             # Verify VPN is connected

Problem	Fix
Downloads not starting	arr vpn — if tunnel is down, kill switch blocks traffic (by design). Check .env VPN credentials.
Permission denied	Check PUID/PGID in .env matches your file ownership. arr doctor can auto-fix.
Jellyfin can't play file	Enable hardware transcoding in Jellyfin → Dashboard → Playback → Transcoding.
Seerr crash loop	chown -R 1000:1000 $DATA_ROOT/config/seerr (Seerr runs as UID 1000 internally).

📚 Learn More

Resource	What's there
arrbarr.com	Visual homepage, animated terminal demo
The Guide	Step-by-step setup for non-technical users
The Crew	Visual roster of all 15 services
Costs	Hardware and running cost breakdown
Docs	Technical reference, quality scoring, CLI guide
learn/	In-repo architecture docs with Mermaid diagrams

⚖️ Legal

Every tool in this stack is 100% legal, open-source software designed for managing and automating personal media libraries. Users are responsible for ensuring their use complies with applicable laws in their jurisdiction. The VPN provides network privacy as a standard security practice.

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arr-barr · Pandai Technologies

Every crew needs a port.