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Frank 52600b28ab fix(jellyfin): refuse a library that indexes files but fetches nothing

The Movies library had indexed 2,571 films and had never asked a provider
for a single one: no TMDb id, no plot, no rating, no poster. Nothing was
broken in the provider chain — the plugin is core in 12.4 and active, its
key is set, image.tmdb.org answers the container — and nothing was broken
in the write path: the overlay view has been read-write since the 2026-10-31
cutover, and movie.nfo lands on the NVMe upper layer today.

The state was two settings in the per-library option file,
config/root/default/<Library>/options.xml (Jellyfin 12 renamed it from
library.xml; the database stores none of these options, so a census that
greps for the old name and then queries the DB concludes nothing is
configured and goes hunting elsewhere):

  <EnableInternetProviders>false</EnableInternetProviders>
  <TypeOptions><ImageFetchers />   (empty, beside a populated
                                    <MetadataFetchers> and a fully
                                    populated <ImageFetcherOrder>)

With the internet switch off every refresh answers 204, stores nothing and
logs nothing, so the item count reads like a healthy scan — this passed the
deploy health gate, the Playwright suite and three agent audits. Order is
not enablement: the fetcher ORDER stays populated while the ENABLED set sits
empty, and the populated metadata list beside it makes the library look well.

verify now audits every library's options.xml and fails with `SILENT INDEX
<Library>: <what>` on providers-off or on a type whose image fetchers are
empty while its metadata fetchers are named; an options.xml that never
carried the switch (BoxSets, written before the property existed) is the
vendor default and stays accepted.

Vault: the page claimed artwork is a sidecar like movie.nfo. It is not — no
image saver is bound for any library, so art goes to the internal store and
Plex never reads it. The claim is corrected, and the RemoteImages diagnostic
that separates a provider fault from a library fault is written down with
the 12.x API shape traps (Items needs UserId; MetadataRefreshMode has no
Full/ValidationFailure, ReplaceAllMetadata=true is what re-runs providers).

2026-11-01 10:31:42 -08:00

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type, title, description, tags, timestamp

type

title

description

Jellyfin

Jellyfin is the free media server on Dankserver — a podman quadlet service (jellyfin.service, generated from dankserver/jellyfin/quadlet/jellyfin.container) serving music, movies, and shows over LAN. It replaced the earlier research brief; it runs alongside Plex, which remains the primary server for some clients.

Host: Dankserver (192.168.0.235) — Access: http://192.168.0.235:8096 public vhost jelly.franksdank.cloud behind the Anubis guard chain → Authentik outpost (post-auth route proxies localhost:8096).

Facts (the repo quadlet — deployed as the live unit on 2026-10-31)

Item	Value
Unit	`~/.config/containers/systemd/jellyfin.container` → `jellyfin.service` (user manager), `Restart=always`, `RestartSec=5`
Image	`ghcr.io/jellyfin/jellyfin:latest`
Network	`dankserver_appnet`; publishes 8096/tcp, 8920/tcp, 7359/udp, 1900/udp
Data roots	`/home/dank/Containers/jellyfin/config:/config`, `/home/dank/Containers/jellyfin/cache:/cache`
Media	`Volume=/var/lib/media-meta/view:/data` — the Media Metadata View overlay, writable, live since the 2026-10-31 cutover: sidecars land on the NVMe and the Entropy Volume array underneath stays untouched
GPU	none — no `AddDevice`; CPU decode only (jellyfin-ffmpeg path)
Env quirks	`DOTNET_SYSTEM_IO_DISABLEFILELOCKING=true`, `LD_PRELOAD=libjemalloc.so.2`, `MALLOC_TRIM_THRESHOLD_=131072` kept verbatim from the compose-era container (zero-drift cutover)
Health	`curl -f http://localhost:8096/health` every 30 s

Data layout

/home/dank/Containers/jellyfin/config   -> /config   (JELLYFIN_DATA_DIR)
/home/dank/Containers/jellyfin/cache    -> /cache    (JELLYFIN_CACHE_DIR, XDG_CACHE_HOME)
/var/lib/media-meta/view                -> /data     (git: the overlay view)
/mnt/entropy                             -> /data     (the overlay's lower layer; also the rollback bind)

Library folders point at /data paths: stable across container recreation and identical to the raw array layout below. Which side of that path the container sees is the Media Metadata View overlay, live since the 2026-10-31 cutover: /var/lib/media-meta/view:/data, read-write.

Local metadata — save metadata to media folders — is enabled, and it is the reason the view exists: movie.nfo, tvshow.nfo and episode.nfo written once on the NVMe upper layer are files Plex can read too — and since the 2026-10-31 cutover that is what happens: Jellyfin is the fleet's only metadata writer, and every sidecar it saves is an SSD byte the array never sees. Artwork is not one of those sidecars. No image saver is bound for any library, so posters and fanart go to the internal store (config/metadata/library/<xx>/<item-id>/poster.jpg), which Plex never reads — movie art has never existed beside the media on either layer.

Library coverage is the first thing to check when a title is missing. The four libraries are movies → /data/Movies, tvshows → /data/TVShows, music → /data/Music, boxsets → /config/data/collections (GET /Library/VirtualFolders). /data/media-park is in none of them, so everything filed under it — the _unsorted release bundles and the extras/ folders the relayout wrote there — is invisible to Jellyfin by configuration, not by fault: a recursive refresh answers 204, burns CPU for minutes and indexes nothing, because it never looks there. Check coverage before re-scanning.

Failure signature: System.IO.IOException: Read-only file system : '/data/Movies/<film>/movie.nfo' means the container is binding the raw array instead of the view — always a fault on this host since the 2026-10-31 cutover. scripts/media-view.sh status says which: the quadlet drifted back to the raw array, or the mount died.

EnableInternetProviders false turns a library into a silent file index. Every refresh answers 204, stores nothing and logs nothing — no provider ids, no plot, no rating, no art — while the item count reads like a healthy scan. The switch lives in config/root/default/<Library>/options.xml, Jellyfin 12's name for the per-library option file: grepping for the old library.xml concludes "no per-library options exist", and the database holds none, so the trail dies there. Two more traps in the same file: TypeOptions/ImageFetchers is the enabled set, so an empty <ImageFetchers /> switches art off while ImageFetcherOrder stays fully populated — order is not enablement — and the populated <MetadataFetchers> built next to it makes the library look healthy.

RemoteImages is the call that separates a provider fault from a library fault. GET /Items/{id}/RemoteImages?Type=Primary returns the provider's real poster list even with every automatic pass switched off — plugin, key and CDN all proven by that one response — so a refresh that stores nothing beside it is a library-switch problem, never a provider problem. It is also the delivery door: POST /Items/{id}/RemoteImages/Download saves the chosen image to the internal store on a build where the automatic image pass will not run at all.

API shape on 12.x: /Items and /Items/{id} need UserId when authenticated by API key — without it the answer is 400 Error processing request, which reads exactly like an authentication failure. MetadataRefreshMode accepts Default (and Realtime) only; Full and ValidationFailure are rejected outright, and what forces the providers to re-run is ReplaceAllMetadata=true.

Ports & access

Port	Proto	Purpose
8096	TCP	Web UI + API (`JELLYFIN_PublishedServerUrl=http://192.168.0.235:8096`)
8920	TCP	DLNA/UPnP root device control
7359	UDP	service discovery (client auto-discovery)
1900	UDP	SSDP discovery

Client access paths and the public-exposure policy (auth wall required before any public vhost; Plex-style claim tokens do not exist here — Jellyfin uses its own users/API keys) follow the fleet Authentik/Anubis chain pattern.

Authentik LDAP authentication (2026-09-25)

Jellyfin has no native external-auth, so it authenticates users through the LDAP-Auth plugin (jellyfin-plugin-ldapauth) against an Authentik LDAP provider. A user logs in with their authentik username + password; the plugin binds as a service account, searches the directory, and rebinds as the user to verify the password.

authentik side (on Dankclaw):

LDAP provider Jellyfin LDAP (Base DN dc=franksdank,dc=cloud, bind/search mode direct) + application Jellyfin.
LDAP outpost Jellyfin LDAP Outpost → container authentik-outpost-ldap (quadlet dankclaw/authentik/quadlet/authentik-outpost-ldap.container) publishing 389/636 on the Dankclaw host for cross-host binds.
Service account svc-jellyfin-ldap (DN cn=svc-jellyfin-ldap,ou=users,dc=franksdank,dc=cloud).
Access groups jellyfin_users (search filter (memberOf=cn=jellyfin_users,ou=groups,dc=franksdank,dc=cloud)) and jellyfin_admins (admin filter (cn=jellyfin_admins)). Add a user to jellyfin_users to grant them Jellyfin access; jellyfin_admins grants the Jellyfin admin role.

Jellyfin side (plugin config, set via admin → Plugins → LDAP-Auth):

Server 192.168.0.143:389 (plain LDAP over the trusted LAN), Base DN dc=franksdank,dc=cloud, bind user = the service-account DN, search attributes uid,cn,mail,displayName, uid attr uid, username attr cn CreateUsersFromLdap=true, all folders enabled.

Gotcha — the bind credential is a PASSWORD, not a token. The LDAP bind is verified by authentik's default authentication flow (standard-password backend). The service account must have a password set (admin → user → Recovery → Set password); an API/app token is not accepted as the bind password and the bind fails with flow error password: Invalid. The service-account password is stored only in the Jellyfin plugin config (the LdapBindPassword field) — it is never committed to this repo.

Verification (2026-09-25): ldapsearch bind + the jellyfin_users search both succeed from Dankclaw; a real user (alex, in jellyfin_users) logged into the web UI with their authentik password and the plugin created the matching Jellyfin user. Gotcha — the login endpoint changed in Jellyfin 12.1. The legacy POST /Users/Auth/Password route (and its LegacyEmbyRouteRewriteMiddleware) was removed; probing it now returns a silent 401 with no plugin log, which reads like an auth failure but is just a dead route. The web UI and modern clients use POST /Users/AuthenticateByName (with the Authorization: MediaBrowser Client=…, DeviceId=…, Device=…, Version=… header), which is where the LDAP plugin runs. Verified 2026-09-25: alex authenticates over AuthenticateByName (HTTP 200; full plugin flow logged — service bind, search, ldapUid, user bind, token).

Metadata providers and their keys (2026-10-30)

TMDb, OMDb, StudioImages and MusicBrainz are core plugins in Jellyfin 12 — no DLL, just a configuration file the running container owns under the data root. TVDB is not core (its metadata provider was removed in 10.9), so it is an official-catalog plugin.

Provider	Shape on disk	Key lives in
TMDb	`config/plugins/configurations/Jellyfin.Plugin.Tmdb.xml` → `<TmdbApiKey>`	`/home/dank/Containers/jellyfin/provider-keys` → `TMDB_API_KEY=` (mode 600)
TVDB	`config/plugins/thetvdb_24.0.0.0/` + `…Jellyfin.Plugin.Tvdb.xml` → `<ApiKey>`	the same file → `TVDB_API_KEY=`
OMDb	`…Jellyfin.Plugin.Omdb.xml`	not configured — its key is issued by email, 1 000 req/day, and its ToS forbids storing the returned data; ratings stay Jellyfin's own lookup

None of it is tracked in git. Those XML files belong to the container and hold credentials, and tests/jellyfin_providers.bats fails the suite if one is ever committed. The keys themselves sit in the per-service host env file that is the fleet's convention for container credentials (grafana, caddy, pihole, copyparty, romm, seerr): provider-keys, mode 600, beside the data root. scripts/jellyfin-providers.sh is the only thing that writes the XML:

scripts/jellyfin-providers.sh plan      # what would change; prints no key
scripts/jellyfin-providers.sh install   # plugin + keys, previous copy to trash
scripts/jellyfin-providers.sh verify    # plugin + key LENGTHS, never key bytes

A key never enters git, argv, or the tool's output. The installer reads that 600-perm file itself (a value in argv is world-readable through /proc/<pid>/cmdline) and refuses it when it is group- or world-readable — an exposed key is an error, not a warning. A key that shows up in a transcript or ps output has leaked: rotate it with the provider, rewrite provider-keys, re-run install.
The TVDB artifact is pinned three ways: sha256 6302fba3857bdde8d186dd099fac09ca43247041f531a528a2c788add70a5319, the official plugin guid a677c0da-fac5-4cde-941a-7134223f14c8, and version 24.0.0.0 (targetAbi 12.0.0.0, which fits the deployed 12.4.0). A sha match alone only proves the bytes are the bytes fetched — the guid check is what says it is the official plugin. Rollback: move thetvdb_24.0.0.0/ into the trash and revert the pin; a second thetvdb_* directory is a refusal, never a quiet second copy.
The homelab TVDB key is a licensed key (its JWT claims say community_supported: false), so it needs no PIN — the optional TVDB_PIN= line exists only for a subscriber-shaped key.
TVDB is installed and keyed but is not a metadata agent: TMDb still identifies everything. Enabling TVDB as a provider would re-fetch show metadata across the library, so it is a deliberate, separate change.
The deployer places the keys before it restarts jellyfin (ensure_provider_keys in scripts/deploy-remote.sh) and warns instead of failing when provider-keys is absent, so a host without it still deploys.
Keys and plugins are read at start-up: after a manual install the change is inert until ./scripts/deploy.sh dankserver --service jellyfin.
TMDb's terms are the reason this stays narrow: attribution required, no caching beyond 6 months, no derivative works. Fine for a personal homelab, and the reason no bulk enrichment pass runs against it.

Configuration workflow

Create libraries pointing at /data folders (movies, shows, audio).
Set metadata/language preferences (LANG=en_US.UTF-8 pinned in the unit).
Configure clients to use http://192.168.0.235:8096 or the guarded vhost.

Triggering a scan

The scan key lives in ~/.config/secrets/jellyfin (mode 600; the same value is JELLYFIN_API_KEY in the ignored dankserver/.env). It rides a mode-600 curl config, never a header argument, in the MediaBrowser form: 12.4 authenticates only Authorization: MediaBrowser Token="…" and refuses a bare X-Emby-Token for every key, valid or not. Before believing a 401, prove the key against the server's own table — select count(*) from ApiKeys where AccessToken = ? on jellyfin.db opened mode=ro&immutable=1. The backslashes below matter:

umask 077
{ printf 'header = "Authorization: MediaBrowser Token=\\"%s\\""\n' \
    "$(cat ~/.config/secrets/jellyfin)"
  echo 'url = "http://127.0.0.1:8096/Library/Refresh"'
  echo 'request = "POST"'; } >/tmp/jf.hdr
curl -s -K /tmp/jf.hdr -o /dev/null -w "jellyfin scan: %{http_code}\n"
shred -u /tmp/jf.hdr

204 is acceptance; anything else queued no scan, so re-issue the identical request instead of diagnosing. A 401 from a key that answers 200 on a hand-typed request is this block's quoting, not the server: bash printf collapses \" to ", curl ends the quoted value at that quote, and Jellyfin receives Authorization: MediaBrowser Token= with nothing after it (\\" answers 204, \" answers 401 — both run on this host).

One accepted refresh is the whole procedure. A second one while a scan runs moves Scan Media Library to Cancelling, and once the runner holds Cancelling every later 204 is accepted and then discarded — the status code stops meaning anything. The fix is systemctl --user restart jellyfin.service, one POST after health answers, and then believe ScheduledTasks State at 130 % CPU, not the response code.

A scan that must see a new folder has to be recursive. POST /Library/Refresh is the incremental pass, and inotify does not cross a rootless podman bind, so folders created on the host stay invisible to it. The move is POST /Items/{id}/Refresh?Recursive=true (204) per library, the id from GET /Library/VirtualFolders — its field is ItemId, not Id — and that same record's RefreshStatus is the progress read.

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