Introduction to Prowlarr

This post is part of the entire series on how to get multimedia content. In the previous post, we saw how to set up a BitTorrent client to download torrent files.

In this post, we’re going to look at a way to centralize the configuration of our apps to define where to search for these files.

1 - What is Prowlarr?

Prowlarr is a manager for indexes or torrent trackers.

When we want to download content, we’ll do it via torrent, but it’s not as simple as just entering the content you want and downloading it. To do this, we need to configure where to search.

You can do this manually or through Prowlarr, which has the following features:

1. Prowlarr includes features like statistics, access to over 400 torrent trackers, and support for newznab.
2. And the most important feature for me is automatic synchronization with other -arr apps (the ones we’ll see in this post).
3. This synchronization means that if you configure something in Prowlarr, it will be propagated to the other apps.
   • For example, imagine you want to start getting content in English, you go to Prowlarr, add a new torrent tracker, and it will be synced to the other applications. If Prowlarr didn’t exist, you’d have to add it to each app one by one.

2 - Installing Prowlarr

The first step is to install the Prowlarr application on our system, or better yet, to configure it with Docker. All you need is the following code in your docker-compose or in Portainer:

prowlarr:
  image: linuxserver/prowlarr:develop
  container_name: torrentIndexer-prowlarr
  restart: unless-stopped
  ports:
  - 9696:9696
  volumes:
  - D:\Server-config\prowlarr:/config
  environment:
    TZ: Europe/Dublin

As you can see, the information required is minimal. Now, the app will be available if you go to http://{ip-server}:9696

In Prowlarr we can do two things: add indexers and sync applications.

3 - Adding indexers to Prowlarr

When you enter the page, the first thing you’ll see is a button to start adding indexers:

After clicking it, you’ll get a large list of elements. In our case, just filter and choose the one you want.

Then, click save.

• Note: It’s always easier to find content in English.

Now you’ll have an indexer, which will be propagated to the other -arr applications.

Unfortunately, we don’t have any other application configured yet, but I’ll explain how to set them up in the next section (come back here once you've configured them).

4 - Configuring apps with Prowlarr

Prowlarr works as the central hub for your indexers, holding the configuration and propagating it, but for it to be synced, you need to configure the apps.

For this, go to Settings -> Apps and you’ll see the Applications section. This is where you’ll configure the applications.

When you click the + button, a list of apps compatible with Prowlarr will appear. For this example, we’ll only configure one, Radarr, but the process is the same for all of them.

Go to the Radarr section and a window like this will open:

The only fields you need to modify are:

• Prowlarr Server: Here you should enter your current system’s URL, but use the Docker container’s name instead of the server IP, since the communication is internal.
• Radarr Server: Radarr’s URL, and again, you should indicate the internal URL, not the external one.
• ApiKey: This is the key that allows Prowlarr to modify elements in Radarr, and you can get it inside the Radarr app at /settings/general. Just copy and paste it, click test, and then save.

With this configuration, Radarr (or whichever app you’ve set up) will be able to search for torrents.

Of course, don’t forget to repeat this process for every app you want to use.