# Prowlarr

Prowlarr is the indexer management layer for the *arr stack. It hosts the
indexer definitions and exposes them as Torznab feeds and downloads;
Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, and Readarr query those feeds and receive results.

**Host:** Dankserver — **Hostname:** `prowlarr.dankserver.local` — **Docs:** https://wiki.servarr.com/prowlarr

## Facts

| Item | Value |
|------|-------|
| Image | `lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest` |
| Port | 9696 (host) → 9696 (container) |
| Min RAM | 256 MB |
| Auth | Forms (web UI) + API key (`/api/v1/...` and feed routes) |

## Live wiring (verified end-to-end 2026-08-30)

Indexer queries flow **through** Prowlarr; a grab hands off to the querying
app's own qBittorrent download client. Feeds are per-indexer:

```
http://prowlarr:9696/{indexerId}/api?apikey={GLOBAL_KEY}&t=caps|search|tvsearch|movie|music|book&...
http://prowlarr:9696/{indexerId}/download?link=...&file=...   (torrent handoff)
```

| App | Indexer row | Prowlarr id | Categories | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radarr | Prowlarr-YTS | 7 | [2000] | ✅ grabbed + imported 2160p Dark Knight 2026-08-30 |
| Sonarr | Prowlarr-Nyaa | 4 | [5000] | ✅ connection validated (202) |
| Lidarr | Prowlarr-Nyaa | 4 | [3000] | ✅ connection validated (202) |
| Readarr | Prowlarr-Byrutor | 3 | [7000] | indexer valid; download client parked |

The global API key is in `config.xml` (`<ApiKey>`); per-application keys are
only used by Prowlarr's own sync calls, NOT by the feeds. The arr download
clients authenticate to qBittorrent with the permanent WebUI password stored
in `/home/dank/.qbpass` (mode 600) on Dankserver.

**Readarr caveat:** Readarr is abandoned upstream (last release 0.4.x); its
qBittorrent client cannot authenticate against qB 5 (`Authentication
failure` on the connection test while Sonarr/Lidarr/Radarr pass with the
same credentials). The books pipeline is parked pending a Readarr successor;
the indexer row itself is healthy.

## Docker Compose

```yaml
prowlarr:
  image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest
  container_name: prowlarr
  restart: unless-stopped
  environment:
    - PUID=1000
    - PGID=1000
    - TZ=America/New_York
    - UMASK_SET=022
  volumes:
    - /opt/prowlarr/config:/config
    - /mnt/media/downloads:/downloads:ro
  ports:
    - "9696:9696"
  networks: [appnet]
```

## Gotchas (all verified live 2026-08-30)

- **The feed route is `/{indexerId}/api`.** There is no `/torznab/{id}/feed`
  — that path (and any other unmatched path) hits the Forms-auth catch-all
  and gets `302 → /login?returnUrl=…`. An arr following the redirect parses
  the login HTML and fails with a cryptic
  `'/' is an unexpected token … Line 54` XML error that looks like an auth
  problem. It is a path typo. Source: `NewznabController`
  (`[HttpGet("{id:int}/api")]` + absolute
  `/api/v1/indexer/{id}/newznab`).
- **The arr's Torznab joiner is `TrimEnd(baseUrl,'/') + apiPath` with NO
  separator.** `baseUrl="…/7/" + apiPath="api"` silently becomes `…/7api`.
  Either keep the leading slash on `apiPath` (`"/api"`) or end the baseUrl
  with `/api`.
- Categories in the indexer row must be a subset of what the feed's `caps`
  advertises; extras log "does not support the following categories" and
  some feeds reject them.
- **A freshly created indexer row defaults to all-off.** If `enableRss`,
  `enableAutomaticSearch`, or `enableInteractiveSearch` aren't set, the
  app logs `Searching indexers for [X]. 0 active indexers` (Lidarr,
  verified). Search proves TV + music chains 2026-08-30: Sonarr returned
  76 live releases for an anime term, Lidarr 18 for YOASOBI – THE BOOK,
  all via the Prowlarr-Nyaa feed.
- The v1 API collection is `/api/v1/applications` (not `/api/v1/app`);
  GET responses carry `fields: []` — real settings values live in
  `prowlarr.db` → `Applications.Settings` JSON (read-only inspection).
- Instance name/`InstanceName=Prowlarr` in `config.xml` does NOT prefix the
  API/feed routes on this build (they answer at root; the `/Prowlarr/...`
  prefix 302s to the SPA).
- **Application auto-sync cannot manage these rows** (they carry
  `SyncLevel=2`): `POST /api/v1/applications/test` fails with
  `Unable to cast object of type 'NzbDrone.Core.Thing…'` — Prowlarr v1
  cannot deserialize Radarr 6.3's newer response types. The manual Torznab
  rows above are therefore the real integration; sync neither duplicates
  nor clobbers them.
- Prowlarr runs `AuthenticationMethod=Forms` + `AuthenticationRequired=Enabled`
  healthily — the DryIoc crash combo was `None`+`Enabled` only (see
  [[radarr]] auth notes).

## See Also

- [[ARR-Stack]] — full *arr stack documentation
- [[radarr]]
- [[sonarr]]
- [[lidarr]]
- [[readarr]]