Home

Hydra Download Manager Wiki

How-to guides and troubleshooting for Hydra on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Website · Download · README · Issues

---

Hydra Download Manager (HDM) is an open-source download accelerator. It splits each file across several connections and mirrors, moves work away from slow connections while the download runs, and verifies the result. You can use it as a desktop app with browser integration, or as a wget/curl-compatible command (hydra, or hya for short).

Installation, CLI usage and benchmarks are in the README. This wiki covers setup that depends on your platform, plus fixes for common problems.

Guides

Guide	Read it when
macOS Permissions Guide	Hydra on macOS can't write to your download folder, can't read browser cookies, or doesn't start at login.
Safari Extension (Developer Mode)	You want Safari to send downloads to Hydra.
FFmpeg Integration	You download video streams (HLS/DASH) and want MP4 files with the audio and subtitles merged in.

Quick start

1. Install Hydra. Use the one-line installer, Homebrew, Flathub, the Ubuntu PPA, Fedora COPR, the AUR, or an AppImage. See Installation.
2. Add the browser extension from the Chrome Web Store (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Vivaldi, Opera, Arc) or Firefox Add-ons. The Safari extension ships inside the macOS app; see the Safari guide.
3. On macOS, grant the permissions in the macOS Permissions Guide.
4. For video streams, install FFmpeg. See FFmpeg Integration.

Common problems

• macOS says the app is "damaged" or from an "unidentified developer". The app isn't notarized yet, so macOS quarantines it. Run xattr -cr /Applications/Hydra\ Download\ Manager.app, then open the app again.
• The browser extension shows "Hydra unreachable". Make sure the desktop app is running. If it still happens, reinstall with the GUI bundle, which registers the native-messaging host. Safari users should also check the Safari troubleshooting section.
• A stream downloaded as .ts, or the MP4 has no sound. Hydra didn't find FFmpeg. See FFmpeg troubleshooting.
• apt install hydra installed something else. On Ubuntu, hydra is THC-Hydra, a different program. Hydra's package is called hydra-download-manager.

For developers

• Contributing Guide: workspace layout, build and pre-submit checks, and which license applies to each crate.
• Embedding libhydra: the C ABI, plus build guides for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android and iOS.
• API docs on docs.rs: the Rust library crates.

Get help

• Bugs and feature requests: open an issue. Tell us your OS, your Hydra version (Help → About Hydra, or hydra --version), the steps that reproduce the problem, and the log from Help → Logs if you have it.
• Security vulnerabilities: please report them privately through a security advisory, not in a public issue.
• Wiki fixes: if a page is wrong or out of date, open an issue that links to the page.