Hoardline

A self-hosted media downloader and converter that never makes you learn a flag.

Hoardline wraps yt-dlp and HandBrake in a clean web app: paste a link, pick the outcome you want ("plays anywhere", "smallest file", "archive original"), and Hoardline chooses the right formats, codecs, and containers behind the scenes. One container, one SQLite file, no external services.

Features

• Outcome-based downloads — six recipes (Universal MP4, Audio Only, Archive Original, Mobile, Plex/Jellyfin, Custom) instead of format codes. Real per-recipe size estimates from the actual format list before you commit.

• Playlists — playlist URLs fan out into one queue job per video, each with its own progress, retries, and destination.

• Clean library layout — everything saves to {location}/{channel}/{title}. The library view groups by channel automatically.

• HandBrake conversions — convert downloads automatically (always / only-when-needed) or batch-convert files already on your server. Built-in profiles plus custom ones. Smart planning: files already matching a profile are copied or losslessly remuxed, not re-encoded. Outputs are ffprobe-verified (streams + duration tolerance) before any source retention runs — sources are never overwritten.

• Watched folders — drop files in, converted files come out.

• Subscriptions — follow channels/playlists; new uploads download automatically, with optional backfill of the last N videos.

• Network storage — add SMB/NAS locations with live credential verification; downloads stream to the NAS. Local disk works out of the box.

• One live queue — downloads and conversions together, with stages (inspecting → downloading/encoding → verifying → moving), fps/speed/ETA, reordering, bulk actions, and one-click clear of finished jobs. Updates over SSE.

• Auth built in — local login (forced password change on first run), API keys (SHA-256 at rest, shown once), and optional OIDC single sign-on.

• An MCP server — point Claude or any MCP client at /mcp with an API key and your AI can run the whole thing: analyze, download, convert, manage the queue and subscriptions, and report on storage. 17 tools.

• Human error messages — "This website currently requires authentication — add cookies in Settings", not ExtractorError.

Related MCP server: arrstack-mcp

Quickstart

git clone https://github.com/mitchboulay/hoardline.git
cd hoardline
docker compose up -d --build

Open http://localhost:8090, sign in with admin / hoardline — you'll be required to set a real password immediately. That's the whole install: yt-dlp, ffmpeg, HandBrakeCLI, and a JS runtime are baked into the image.

Prebuilt images are no longer published; build from source as above. (The last ghcr.io/mitchboulay/hoardline images stay up but won't receive updates.)

Configuration

Everything is configured in the UI (Settings, Storage) and stored in SQLite under /data. Environment variables:

Storage locations — Storage → Add location. SMB/CIFS shares are verified (auth + writability) before saving; credentials are stored in the app database and used server-side only. Downloads land at {location}/{channel}/{title}.

YouTube cookies — some videos (age-restricted, "playback disabled on other websites") need a logged-in session. Settings → YouTube cookies: export with a browser extension like Get cookies.txt LOCALLY and paste.

Single sign-on — Settings → SSO: enable, then supply your OIDC provider's issuer URL, client ID, and secret (redirect URI: https://your-host/api/auth/sso/callback). Works with Authentik, Keycloak, Authelia, or any OIDC provider. Local login remains as a fallback.

API

Every UI action is a REST call under /api (OpenAPI at /docs). Authenticate with an API key from Settings → API keys:

curl https://your-host/api/jobs -H "X-API-Key: hl_…"
# or
curl https://your-host/api/jobs -H "Authorization: Bearer hl_…"

Live queue updates: GET /api/events?token=hl_… (SSE).

Keys have full API access except: managing keys, changing the password, and reading secrets — those require a browser session.

MCP (AI assistants)

Hoardline ships an MCP server at POST /mcp (streamable HTTP, stateless).

claude mcp add --transport http hoardline https://your-host/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer hl_…"

Then ask your assistant things like "download this playlist as audio", "why did that job fail?", "convert everything in /incoming to H.265 and delete the originals once verified", or "subscribe me to this channel and grab the last 10 videos".

Security model

Designed for a single admin user on a trusted network behind your own reverse proxy. Notably:

• SMB credentials and OIDC client secrets are stored in the SQLite database in plaintext (they must be replayed to the NAS/IdP). Protect /data.

• API keys are stored hashed; the plaintext is shown once.

• There is no multi-user support, and none planned — one household, one admin.

• Don't expose it to the public internet without SSO/forward-auth in front.

Legal

Hoardline is a frontend for tools you run on your own hardware. Download only content you have the right to download, and respect the terms of the sites you use it with. The authors do not condone copyright infringement.

License

MIT (see LICENSE). The Docker image bundles yt-dlp (Unlicense), FFmpeg (LGPL/GPL), and HandBrakeCLI (GPLv2) — Hoardline invokes them as separate processes; their licenses and sources are available at the linked projects and via the Debian packages in the image.