docker-compose-cookbooks/prowlarr

Prowlarr

Overview

Prowlarr is an indexer manager and proxy for the *arr ecosystem. It centralizes your torrent tracker and Usenet indexer configuration — add them once in Prowlarr and they sync automatically to Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, and Readarr. It's a modern replacement for Jackett with a unified API and built-in sync.

Project Details

• Project Repository: https://prowlarr.com/
• Container Image: ghcr.io/hotio/prowlarr
• Reverse Proxy Port: 9696

Getting Started

Open http://localhost:9696 in your browser.

1. Create the admin account — on first boot Prowlarr shows an Authentication Required dialog. Set:

   • Authentication Method: Forms (Login Page)
   • Authentication Required: Enabled (or Disabled for Local Addresses if you trust your LAN)
   • Username / Password: your admin credentials

   Click Save. You'll be sent to the login page — sign in with the account you just created.

2. Add an indexer — go to Indexers → Add Indexer (the + button):

   1. Filter the list by Protocol (torrent / usenet), Language, or Privacy (public / semi-private / private), or type the tracker name into the search box
   2. Click the indexer to open its settings
   3. Public trackers (e.g. 1337x, The Pirate Bay, YTS) usually need no extra settings
   4. Private trackers need credentials from your account on that site — typically an API key, passkey, or cookie / username + password (the form tells you which field it needs; the tracker's profile/security page has the value)
   5. Usenet indexers (e.g. NZBgeek, DrunkenSlug) need the API key from your indexer account page. Usenet providers (the server you download from) are not added here — they go in SABnzbd/NZBGet
   6. Leave Sync Profile as Standard and Tags empty unless you need them
   7. Click Test — a green check means Prowlarr can reach and authenticate with the indexer — then Save

   Repeat for each indexer. If a tracker is behind Cloudflare and the test fails with a Cloudflare/challenge error, set up FlareSolverr (step 3) and tag that indexer with flaresolverr.

3. Add FlareSolverr as an indexer proxy — this stack runs a FlareSolverr container that solves Cloudflare challenges for Prowlarr. Go to Settings → Indexers → + → FlareSolverr:

   • Name: FlareSolverr
   • Tags: flaresolverr (only indexers with this tag are routed through it)
   • Host: http://flaresolverr:8191/
   • Request Timeout: 60

   Click Test, then Save. Then edit each Cloudflare-protected indexer, add the flaresolverr tag, and Test again.

4. *Connect your arr apps — go to Settings → Apps → + and pick Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, etc.:

   • Prowlarr Server: how the *arr app reaches Prowlarr, e.g. http://prowlarr:9696
   • Sonarr/Radarr Server: how Prowlarr reaches the app, e.g. http://sonarr:8989 / http://radarr:7878 (container names work since they share the proxy network)
   • API Key: from the *arr app under Settings → General → Security
   • Sync Level: Full Sync (Prowlarr adds, updates, and removes indexers in the app)

   Click Test, then Save. Prowlarr pushes all configured indexers to the app automatically — don't add indexers directly in Sonarr/Radarr.

5. Verify — use Search in Prowlarr to run a test query across all indexers, and check System → Status for indexer health warnings.

Download flow

Prowlarr does not handle downloads. It only provides indexer search results to your *arr apps — they in turn send downloads to qBittorrent, SABnzbd, etc.

Environment Variable Notes

Variable	Description
PROWLARR_IMAGE	Container image (default: ghcr.io/hotio/prowlarr:release)
PROWLARR_RESTART	Restart policy (default: unless-stopped)
PROWLARR_PORT	Published port for the web UI (default: 9696)
FLARESOLVERR_IMAGE	FlareSolverr image (default: ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest)
FLARESOLVERR_RESTART	FlareSolverr restart policy (default: unless-stopped)
FLARESOLVERR_LOG_LEVEL	FlareSolverr log level (default: info; use debug when troubleshooting)
TZ	Timezone for FlareSolverr (default: America/Vancouver)
VOL_PATH	Base path for persistent data volumes (default: /data)

Volume Notes

Volume	Purpose
${VOL_PATH}/prowlarr/config	Indexer configurations, app sync settings, database

Network Notes

Requires an external proxy network. Create it once with:

docker network create proxy

FlareSolverr sits on the stack's internal network only — it is not published to the host or the proxy network. Prowlarr joins both and reaches it at http://flaresolverr:8191/.

Docker Run

docker network create prowlarr-internal

docker run -d \
  --name=flaresolverr \
  -e LOG_LEVEL=info \
  -e TZ=America/Vancouver \
  --network prowlarr-internal \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/flaresolverr/flaresolverr:latest

docker run -d \
  --name=prowlarr \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e UMASK=002 \
  -p 9696:9696 \
  -v ${VOL_PATH:-/data}/prowlarr/config:/config \
  --network proxy \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/hotio/prowlarr:release

docker network connect prowlarr-internal prowlarr

Additional Notes / Gotchas

• FlareSolverr only helps tagged indexers — untagged indexers bypass it. Don't tag everything; it's slow (spins up a headless Chromium per request).
• Some challenges still fail — Cloudflare changes often. If tests keep failing, pull the latest FlareSolverr image and set FLARESOLVERR_LOG_LEVEL=debug to see why.

Dockhand Stack, Deploy from Git

• Cookbooks Repository
• stackname: prowlarr
• Compose file path: prowlarr/compose.yaml
• Additional env file (optional): prowlarr/sample.env

Load prowlarr/sample.env into the Environment variables in Dockhand, then create the Stack.