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o51r15 edited this page Jul 11, 2026 · 1 revision

FAQ


What is this fork?

A community fork of bitmagnet-io/bitmagnet that applies stability fixes and adds features like Prowlarr integration, OMDb enrichment, and DB size management. Not affiliated with the upstream project. See Fork Changes for the full list.


Do I need a VPN?

Not required, but recommended for DHT crawling. The DHT crawler connects to thousands of peers on the BitTorrent network. A VPN provides privacy for this traffic. See Gluetun VPN Deployment.

You can run bitmagnet without a VPN — just include --keys=dht_crawler in the main container's command.


Do I need a TMDB API key?

Yes. bitmagnet uses TMDB for content classification — matching torrent names to movies and TV shows. Without it, torrents appear as unclassified entries with no poster art or metadata. Get a free key at themoviedb.org/settings/api.


What about OMDb?

Optional but recommended. OMDb adds Rotten Tomatoes scores, Metacritic ratings, awards, and box office data on top of TMDB classification. Free tier allows 1,000 requests/day. See OMDb Enrichment.


How does Prowlarr integration work?

bitmagnet polls your configured Prowlarr indexers on a schedule and imports discovered torrents into its local database. Torrents remain searchable even when the source indexer goes offline. See Prowlarr Integration.


Will my database grow forever?

By default, yes — bitmagnet keeps everything it discovers. The db_trim worker lets you configure automatic pruning of old and dead torrents per source. See DB Size Management.


Can I run multiple instances against the same Postgres?

Yes. bitmagnet's worker architecture communicates entirely through the database. You can run the DHT crawler in one container and the queue server + HTTP server in another. This is exactly how the sidecar deployment works.


What Prowlarr indexers work?

Only indexers that return torrent info_hashes are compatible. Public trackers like The Pirate Bay and 1337x work. Many private trackers and some public ones don't return hashes. See the compatibility list in Prowlarr Integration.


How do I update?

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Database migrations run automatically on startup.

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