Radarr

TAS Score: S3/3 — D5/5 — A3 / T2

Brief Description

Automated movie collection manager. Monitors for new releases, searches indexers, downloads via Usenet or BitTorrent clients, and organizes your library with proper naming and metadata. Part of the *arr stack ecosystem.

Architectural Role

Applications/media layer: the automated librarian for movies. Integrates with download clients (qBittorrent, SABnzbd), indexers (via Prowlarr), and media servers (Jellyfin, Plex). Watches for movies you want, grabs them when available, renames and sorts them.

Technical Autonomy

✅ Works without internet (manages existing library offline)
✅ Stores data locally (SQLite database, config)
✅ Does not require external accounts
✅ Allows data export (database backup, API access)
⚠️ Needs internet to search indexers and download new content

Philosophical Assessment (whose.world criteria)

Criterion	Status	Comments
Pause	✅	Stop container, existing library stays. Queue pauses.
Exit	✅	Media files are standard video files. Config is SQLite.
Recoverability	✅	Backup SQLite database. Media files are independent.
Visibility	✅	GPL-3.0, fully auditable.
External Dependencies	✅	Self-hosted. Indexer connections are user-configured.

Configuration (Minimal)

services:
  radarr:
    image: linuxserver/radarr
    container_name: radarr
    ports:
      - "7878:7878"
    volumes:
      - ./config/radarr:/config
      - /path/to/movies:/movies
      - /path/to/downloads:/downloads
    environment:
      - TZ=UTC
    restart: unless-stopped

Media Server recipe (planned)

Alternatives

Alternative	Autonomy	Notes
Manual downloads	—	Full control but no automation.
Plex	A1 / T0	Has its own watchlist but cloud-dependent.

Trajectory

Direction: stable.

Part of the *arr ecosystem. Actively maintained, GPL-3.0, regular releases. Community-driven development with a clear scope.

Signal assessment:

Signal	Status	Evidence
License	✅	GPL-3.0, unchanged.
Feature gating	✅	No paid tier.
Self-hosting	✅	Docker-first, well documented.
Governance	✅	Community-driven, multiple maintainers.

Signal key: ✅ opening · ➖ neutral · ⚠️ closing

Sources

Website: radarr.video
Repository: github.com/Radarr/Radarr
Docker image: linuxserver/radarr