Prowlarr

TAS Score: S3/3 — D5/5 — A3 / T2

Brief Description

Indexer manager for the *arr stack. Centralizes indexer configuration — add your Usenet and torrent indexers once in Prowlarr, and it syncs to Radarr, Sonarr, and other *arr applications automatically. Replaces Jackett with native *arr integration.

Architectural Role

Applications/media layer: the index broker. Sits between your *arr applications and content indexers. Instead of configuring indexers separately in each *arr app, configure once in Prowlarr and sync everywhere.

Technical Autonomy

• ✅ Works without internet (cached indexer configs remain)
• ✅ Stores data locally (SQLite database)
• ✅ Does not require external accounts
• ✅ Allows data export (database backup)
• ⚠️ Needs internet to search indexers

Philosophical Assessment (whose.world criteria)

Criterion	Status	Comments
Pause	✅	Stop container, *arr apps fall back to their own cached indexer configs.
Exit	✅	Remove Prowlarr, configure indexers directly in Radarr/Sonarr.
Recoverability	✅	SQLite backup. Indexer configs are simple.
Visibility	✅	GPL-3.0, fully auditable.
External Dependencies	✅	Self-hosted. Indexer connections are user-configured.

Configuration (Minimal)

services:
  prowlarr:
    image: linuxserver/prowlarr
    container_name: prowlarr
    ports:
      - "9696:9696"
    volumes:
      - ./config/prowlarr:/config
    environment:
      - TZ=UTC
    restart: unless-stopped

Related Recipes

• Media Server recipe (planned)

Alternatives

Alternative	Autonomy	Notes
Jackett	A3 / T2	Older indexer proxy. No native *arr sync — uses Torznab/Newznab API.

---

Trajectory

Direction: stable.

Built by the *arr team as the official replacement for Jackett. GPL-3.0, actively maintained, growing indexer support.

Signal assessment:

Signal	Status	Evidence
License	✅	GPL-3.0, unchanged.
Feature gating	✅	No paid tier.
Self-hosting	✅	Docker-first.
Governance	✅	Part of *arr ecosystem, community-driven.

Signal key: ✅ opening · ➖ neutral · ⚠️ closing

---

Sources

• Website: prowlarr.com
• Repository: github.com/Prowlarr/Prowlarr
• Docker image: linuxserver/prowlarr