serverAppConfigs/serverAppConfigs-docs/FrankBook-Pro/prowlarr.md

type, title, description, tags, timestamp

type	title	description	tags	timestamp
reference	Prowlarr	Indexer management for the *arr stack: feed routes, the sync model, the API surface, and verified live gotchas.	prowlarr arr-stack frankbook-pro	2026-09-03T00:00:00Z

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: FrankBook-Pro (podman machine) — Access: direct port 9696 (no reverse-proxy vhost; the *arr stack is exempt by construction from the Anubis guard chain) — Docs: https://wiki.servarr.com/prowlarr

Facts

Item	Value
Image	lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest (runs v2.5.2 line)
Port	9696 (host) → 9696 (container)
Env	PUID=0, PGID=0, TZ=America/Los_Angeles, UMASK_SET=022
Config root	/Volumes/COMPLETE/prowlarr-data:/config
Min RAM	256 MB
Auth	Forms (web UI) + API key (/api/v1/... and feed routes)

Deployment (current)

Quadlet unit prowlarr.container from this repo (frankbook-pro/prowlarr/quadlet/), installed inside the podman machine at /home/core/.config/containers/systemd/prowlarr.service by the frankbook-pro handler in scripts/deploy-remote.sh:

[Container]
ContainerName=prowlarr
Image=lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest
Environment=PUID=0
Environment=PGID=0
Environment=TZ=America/Los_Angeles
Environment=UMASK_SET=022
Volume=/Volumes/COMPLETE/prowlarr-data:/config
PublishPort=9696:9696

[Service]
TimeoutStartSec=900
Restart=always

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, owner dank) on Dankserver — qBittorrent for why that password must be pinned in the conf file.

Readarr caveat: Readarr is abandoned upstream; its qBittorrent client cannot authenticate against newer qB Web-API versions (Authentication failure on the connection test while Sonarr/Lidarr/Radarr pass with the same credentials — root cause: qB ≥ 5's 204 empty-body login success, fixed fleet- wide by pinning qB to 4.6.7). The books pipeline is parked pending a Readarr successor; the indexer row itself is healthy.

Gotchas (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 model (v2): Applications are first-class rows in the Applications table; each of the four app rows (sonarr/radarr/lidarr/ readarr) carries the real baseUrl+apiKey with SyncLevel=FullSync. The earlier v1-era failure where POST /api/v1/applications/test threw Unable to cast object of type 'NzbDrone.Core.Thing…' (v1 could not deserialize Radarr 6.3's newer response types) is historical — it was the reason the manual Torznab rows were created in the first place.
• 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 · qBittorrent