Cinephage

Self-hosted media management. Everything in one app.
One app that actually replaces your entire media stack
_{Node.js 22+ · Svelte 5 · SQLite · TypeScript}

Cinephage — from Greek cine (film) + phage (to devour). A film devourer.

What is Cinephage • Quick Start • Documentation • Community

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What is Cinephage?

Cinephage is a single app for your whole media setup. Instead of running multiple services that don't talk to each other, you get one tool that handles everything.

One database. All your movies, TV shows, live TV channels, subtitles, and indexer configs live together. No sync issues, everything stays together.

One interface. Browse, search, monitor, and manage everything from a single UI that works on desktop and mobile.

One configuration. Set up your indexers, download clients, and preferences once. They work across movies, TV, and streaming.

One place. Whether you're downloading a BluRay remux, streaming via .strm files, or watching live TV, it's all in Cinephage.

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What It Replaces

Cinephage brings together functionality you'd typically find across multiple applications:

• Radarr & Sonarr — Movie and TV series management
• Prowlarr — Indexer management with supported trackers
• Bazarr — Multi-provider subtitle management
• Overseerr — Content discovery and smart lists
• FlareSolverr — Built-in Cloudflare bypass (no external service needed)
• Plus — Live TV/IPTV management, usenet streaming, and more

The *arr projects are fantastic at what they do. We just took a different path — one unified codebase instead of separate services that need to sync with each other.

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Key Features

Stream without downloading

Create .strm files that point to online sources and watch instantly. No disk space, no waiting for downloads, no seeding. Works with Jellyfin, Emby, Kodi, or any player that supports .strm files.

Built-in Cloudflare bypass

Camoufox integration handles Cloudflare challenges automatically. No separate FlareSolverr container to maintain, no configuration headaches. It just works.

Usenet streaming

Stream directly from NZBs without downloading the entire file first. Unique seekable stream implementation with adaptive prefetching and segment caching.

Live TV with portal discovery

Connect Stalker portals and automatically discover working MAC addresses. Full EPG support, channel management, and HLS streaming.

Smart quality scoring

50+ scoring factors including codec efficiency (x265/AV1), HDR formats, audio quality, and release group reputation. Custom format creation for personalized scoring rules.

Smart lists

Dynamic content discovery with auto-add to library. Import from IMDb, Trakt, TMDb lists, or create custom queries. "Automatically add all 2024 movies rated 7.5+" — fully automated.

Everything else you'd expect

• File watching and auto-import
• Multi-indexer search with deduplication
• 6 subtitle providers, 80+ languages
• 7 automated monitoring tasks
• Jellyfin/Emby notifications
• TRaSH Guides-compatible naming

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Requirements

• TMDB API Key — Free at themoviedb.org/settings/api
• Download Client (optional) — qBittorrent, SABnzbd, NZBGet, Real-Debrid, or TorBox
  • Or use streaming mode — no download client needed
  • Real-Debrid and TorBox accept torrent releases, materialize ready files directly into the resolved library destination, and can optionally remove provider items after a durable import.

Quick Start

Cinephage runs on port 3000 by default.

Docker (Recommended)

1. Download the docker-compose.yaml and .env.example into a directory:

mkdir cinephage && cd cinephage
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MoldyTaint/Cinephage/main/docker-compose.yaml
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MoldyTaint/Cinephage/main/.env.example
cp .env.example .env

1. Edit .env — at minimum set BETTER_AUTH_SECRET (generate one with openssl rand -base64 32).

2. Update the volume mounts in docker-compose.yaml to point to your media and download directories.

3. Start it:

docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:3000 and follow the setup wizard.

Image tags: latest (stable) · X.Y.Z/X.Y/X (stable semver) · dev and dev-YYYYMMDD-RUN (preview)

Note: Persistent data lives in ./config (created automatically). Logs go to container stdout/stderr. Never mount /app — it contains application code.

If you later access Cinephage through a hostname or reverse proxy, update BETTER_AUTH_URL in .env to that public URL. You can also set the External URL in the UI under Settings > System.

Bare Metal

Prerequisites: Node.js 22+ · npm · git · ffmpeg (optional, for media info)

git clone https://github.com/MoldyTaint/Cinephage.git
cd Cinephage
npm ci
npm run build
cp .env.example .env

Edit .env — set at minimum:

BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=<your-secret>
ORIGIN=http://localhost:3000
BETTER_AUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000

Then start:

npm start

Data is stored in ./data by default (no /config mount needed on bare metal).

Running as a systemd service

Create /etc/systemd/system/cinephage.service:

[Unit]
Description=Cinephage Media Manager
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=cinephage
WorkingDirectory=/opt/Cinephage
EnvironmentFile=/opt/Cinephage/.env
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node server.js
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo useradd -r -s /bin/false cinephage
sudo chown -R cinephage:cinephage /opt/Cinephage
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now cinephage

Adjust User, WorkingDirectory, and the node binary path to match your setup.

Configuration

All environment variables are documented in .env.example. Key ones:

Variable	Required	Description
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET	Yes	Session signing and API key encryption
ORIGIN	Recommended	Trusted origin for CSRF protection
BETTER_AUTH_URL	Recommended	Base URL for auth callbacks and redirects
TZ	No	Timezone for scheduled tasks (default: UTC)

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Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available at docs.cinephage.net.

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Community

• Discord — Chat and support
• GitHub Issues — Bug reports and feature requests
• Contributing — Development guidelines

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Contributors

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to Cinephage!

View all contributors →

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Acknowledgments

Cinephage draws inspiration from the excellent Radarr, Sonarr, Prowlarr, and Bazarr projects, with UI patterns influenced by Overseerr. Quality scoring data comes from Dictionarry. Metadata powered by TMDB.

See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md for complete attribution.

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AI Disclosure

This project was built with AI assistance. As a solo developer learning as I go, AI helps bridge the gap between ambition and experience. We believe in being upfront about how this is built.

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Legal Notice

Cinephage is a media management tool. It does not host, store, or distribute any media content. All content comes from external sources you configure. Live TV/IPTV functionality depends entirely on third-party services.

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License

Cinephage - Self-hosted Media Management Copyright (C) 2025 Cinephage Contributors

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Full text: GNU General Public License v3.0