Media stack

A complete, self-hosted Plex/Jellyfin-adjacent media pipeline — Sonarr and Radarr for the library, a downloader behind a VPN, Prowlarr for indexers, Seerr for requests, Bazarr for subtitles, and Profilarr for quality. Read the pillar guide first for how the pieces fit together, then follow the series in order.

What Sonarr, Radarr, Prowlarr, qBittorrent, SABnzbd, Bazarr and Seerr do, how they fit together, and the folder layout to get right first.

March 2, 20266 min read

Media stackPart 2 / 8

Part 2: Sonarr and Radarr

Install Sonarr and Radarr first, get the library structure and naming right, before a single downloader or indexer exists (Media Stack Part 2).

March 9, 20264 min read

Media stackPart 3 / 8

Part 3: qBittorrent + SABnzbd

qBittorrent that cannot leak outside its VPN tunnel, and SABnzbd for Usenet: the compose file, the settings everyone gets wrong, wired into Sonarr/Radarr.

March 16, 20265 min read

Media stackPart 4 / 8

Part 4: Prowlarr

Stop configuring indexers per app. Prowlarr holds them once and syncs to Sonarr/Radarr. The pipeline runs end to end for the first time.

March 23, 20263 min read

Media stackPart 5 / 8

Part 5: Seerr

Nobody else is opening Sonarr. Seerr gives a Netflix-style request search, wired to Plex for who's-allowed and to the arrs for fulfilment.

March 30, 20263 min read

Media stackPart 6 / 8

Part 6: Bazarr

Bazarr piggybacks on Sonarr and Radarr to fetch subtitles for the exact releases in your library. Set the language profile once and stop thinking about it.

April 6, 20262 min read

Media stackPart 7 / 8

Part 7: Profilarr

Default quality profiles just grab a resolution. Profilarr syncs curated custom formats so 'best release' means best encode, not biggest file.

April 13, 20264 min read

Media stackPart 8 / 8

Part 8: An AI Agent

Giving an AI assistant real, API-key-backed access to query and manage Sonarr/Radarr in plain language, plus three MCP traps nobody documents.

August 6, 20265 min read