Readarr is an automated eBook and audiobook collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It monitors authors on your watchlist, scans configured indexers for new releases or upgrades, and sends them to your download client. After download, it renames and organizes files into your book library and can notify your media server.

Project Details

Project Repository: https://readarr.com/
Container Image: ghcr.io/hotio/readarr
Reverse Proxy Port: 8787

Getting Started

Prepare the shared media folder (once per host)

All media apps run as user 1000 and share /data/media. If Docker creates the folder itself it's owned by root, and the apps fail with "Folder '/media/' is not writable by user 'hotio'". Create it with the right owner before first start:

sudo mkdir -p /data/media/{downloads/prowlarr,movies,shows,music,books}
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /data/media
sudo chmod -R u+rwX,g+rwX /data/media

Check with ls -ln /data/media — the owner should be 1000 1000.

Open http://localhost:8787 in your browser and complete the initial setup wizard:

Choose your UI language
Add a download client — select qBittorrent, enter its host/port/credentials
Add an indexer — or connect to Prowlarr for automatic indexer sync

Once the wizard finishes, you'll see an empty library. To populate it:

Go to Settings → Media Management and add a Root Folder (e.g., /media/books) — this is where your organized book library will live
Click Add Author and search by name — Readarr fetches metadata, covers, and available editions
Optionally connect a List (Goodreads, etc.) to auto-import authors from your reading lists

Download flow

qBittorrent downloads to /media/downloads/prowlarr → Readarr picks it up, renames the file, and moves it into <Root Folder>/Author Name/Book Name/

Environment Variable Notes

Variable	Description
`READARR_IMAGE`	Container image (default: `ghcr.io/hotio/readarr:release`)
`READARR_RESTART`	Restart policy (default: `unless-stopped`)
`READARR_PORT`	Published port for the web UI (default: `8787`)
`VOL_PATH`	Base path for persistent data volumes (default: `/data`)
`READARR_MEDIA`	Shared media root on the host (default: `/data/media`), mounted at `/media`. Must be the same folder qBittorrent, Sonarr, Radarr and Jellyfin use
`TZ`	Container timezone (default: `America/Vancouver`)

Volume Notes

Volume	Purpose
`${VOL_PATH:-/data}/readarr/config`	Application configuration and database
`${READARR_MEDIA:-/data/media}` → `/media`	Shared media root: downloads in `/media/downloads`, library in `/media/books`

Network Notes

Requires an external proxy network. Create it once with:

docker network create proxy

Docker Run

docker run -d \
  --name=readarr \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e UMASK=002 \
  -e TZ=America/Vancouver \
  -p 8787:8787 \
  -v ${VOL_PATH:-/data}/readarr/config:/config \
  -v ${READARR_MEDIA:-/data/media}:/media \
  --network proxy \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/hotio/readarr:release

Additional Notes / Gotchas

One shared media folder. qBittorrent, Sonarr, Radarr, Readarr and Jellyfin all use /data/media on the host, mounted at /media, so a download has the same path in every container: no Remote Path Mapping needed, and imports can use hardlinks. Enable Settings → Media Management → Use Hardlinks instead of Copy.
Layout: /data/media/downloads/prowlarr (qBittorrent category prowlarr), /data/media/books (Readarr root, Jellyfin's /books library).
In the qBittorrent download client settings, set Category to prowlarr.

Dockhand Stack, Deploy from Git

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

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