Your private Netflix at home. Plug a USB stick into a mini PC, follow a 5-minute wizard, and you have your own streaming server on the TV. No technical skills needed.
Homebrew, free, MIT. This is a side project. The work is done for free, the website runs on a homelab. Funded only by VPN/hardware affiliate commissions (you pay the same) and optional donations. Landing: https://gecko.nubul.art
Three ways to install:
- Gecko OS — bootable USB image. Flash, boot a spare mini PC, done. (The recommended path for non-technical users.)
- Desktop installer (Windows) — native
.exeinstaller that runs Gecko as a Windows service. Best if you already have an always-on PC. - Desktop installer (macOS) — native
.pkg(Apple Silicon or Intel) that runs Gecko as a launchd daemon.
All three share the same web UI and the same Docker stack.
A complete media stack, pre-wired:
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Jellyfin | Media server — stream movies, series, music |
| Radarr | Movie automation |
| Sonarr | Series automation |
| Lidarr | Music automation |
| Prowlarr | Indexer manager (you add your own — see legal note below) |
| qBittorrent | Download client |
| Bazarr | Subtitle manager — 3 language profiles pre-built |
| Jellyseerr | Media request portal |
| Gluetun + autoheal | WireGuard VPN tunnel (ProtonVPN, Mullvad, or any of ~30 providers). Auto-recovers when the tunnel drops |
Everything but indexers comes pre-configured.
- Download
gecko-os.img.xzfrom Releases - Flash to a USB stick with Etcher
- Plug into a mini-PC, plug HDMI to your TV, power on
- Follow the wizard (3 minutes)
Windows: download Gecko-Setup-x64.exe (~25 MB), run, follow the install
wizard. Gecko runs as a Windows service. Open the Start Menu → "Gecko" to
launch the UI in your browser.
macOS: download Gecko-arm64.pkg (Apple Silicon) or Gecko-x86_64.pkg
(Intel), open, accept the admin prompt. Open http://localhost:3000.
Requires Docker Desktop on Windows/macOS.
Full guides live in docs/ and on the website:
- Getting Started — from buying to streaming, the 5-minute path
- Hardware Guide — which mini PC to buy + what to avoid
- Troubleshooting — symptom → cause → fix
- AI Helper Prompt ★ — paste into ChatGPT/Claude for Gecko-specific help
- Extending Gecko — Home Assistant, Pi-hole, Vaultwarden, Immich…
- User Journey — the full product flow
- FAQ
Minimum for a smooth experience:
- 4-core x86_64 CPU (Intel N100 or better)
- 4 GB RAM (8 GB if you'll enable optional features)
- 100 GB free storage for media
- HDMI output if you want kiosk mode on a TV
Tested mini-PCs (links pending — being audited per region in roadmap Phase 1):
- Beelink S12 Pro — N100, 16 GB RAM, ~€130 EU
- GMKtec NucBox — N97, 16 GB RAM, ~€110 EU
NOT recommended:
- Raspberry Pi 3 or any ARM with < 4 GB RAM (transcoding suffers)
- Anything with an Intel Atom CPU older than 2018
Gecko ships with no indexers configured. We're a media server, not a content source. Users add their own indexers — public, private, or Usenet — exactly as they would with vanilla Prowlarr. The same legal rules that apply to any *arr stack apply here.
We collect no telemetry, no analytics. Your installation is yours.
Requires Node 20 and Docker.
npm install
# Dev mode — Vite hot-reload + tsx watch in parallel
npm run start:dev
# Production server (after build)
npm run build
npm run start
# Lint
npm run lint
# Build the Windows installer (must run on Windows with NSIS installed)
npm run build:installer:win
# Build Gecko OS image (must run on Linux, see gecko-os/build.sh)
sudo gecko-os/build.shStack: React 19 · TypeScript · Vite 5 · Tailwind 4 · Express · esbuild
The architecture is one server (src/server.ts) and one React bundle
(src/). Native installers wrap them as platform services. See
gecko-os/docs/DESKTOP_STACK_DECISION.md for why we ditched Electron.
If Gecko saves you time, consider buying me a coffee ☕
MIT © Dani Pardo