Radarr is an automated movie collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It monitors your watchlist (from Trakt, IMDb, etc.), scans configured indexers for releases, and sends matches to your download client. After download, it renames and organizes files into your movie library and notifies your media server.

Project Details

Project Repository: https://radarr.video/
Container Image: ghcr.io/hotio/radarr
Reverse Proxy Port: 7878

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:7878 in your browser. Do these in order: the qBittorrent download client and Prowlarr need to be connected before you add movies.

Create the admin account. On first boot Radarr shows an Authentication Required dialog. Set Authentication Method to Forms (Login Page), choose a username and password, click Save, and sign in.
Copy Radarr's API key. Go to Settings → General → Security and copy the API Key. Prowlarr needs it in step 4.
Add the root folder. Go to Settings → Media Management → Add Root Folder and choose /media/movies. Under Importing, turn on Use Hardlinks instead of Copy (click Show Advanced at the top if you don't see it).

Connect Prowlarr. This step is done in Prowlarr (http://localhost:9696), not Radarr. Go to Settings → Apps → + → Radarr and fill in:

Field	Value
Name	`Radarr`
Sync Level	`Full Sync`
Prowlarr Server	`http://prowlarr:9696`
Radarr Server	`http://radarr:7878`
API Key	the key from step 2
Sync Categories	leave the defaults (Movies, `2000`-range)

Click Test. A green check means both directions work. Click Save.

Then in Prowlarr, go to Settings → Apps and click Sync App Indexers. Back in Radarr, Settings → Indexers should now list every Prowlarr indexer, each named <indexer> (Prowlarr). Don't add or edit indexers in Radarr. Prowlarr owns them and overwrites changes on the next sync.

Add qBittorrent as the download client. In Radarr, go to Settings → Download Clients → + → qBittorrent:

Field Value

Name qBittorrent

Host qbittorrent

Port 8080

Username admin

Password QBT_PASS from the qBittorrent stack

Category prowlarr

Click Test, then Save. The category makes qBittorrent save Radarr's downloads to /media/downloads/prowlarr, which Radarr can see at the same path.
Add a movie. Click Add New, search for a title, pick the root folder /media/movies and a quality profile, tick Start search for missing movie, then Add Movie. Check progress under Activity → Queue.

Field	Value
Name	`qBittorrent`
Host	`qbittorrent`
Port	`8080`
Username	`admin`
Password	`QBT_PASS` from the qBittorrent stack
Category	`prowlarr`

Optionally connect a List (Trakt, IMDb, etc.) under Settings → Lists to auto-add movies from your watchlists.

If the Prowlarr test fails

"Unable to connect to Radarr": Prowlarr and Radarr must both be on the proxy network. Use container names, never localhost. Inside a container, localhost is the container itself.
"Unauthorized" or 401: the API key is wrong. Copy it again from Radarr's Settings → General.
Test passes but no indexers show up in Radarr: click Sync App Indexers in Prowlarr, and check that the indexers in Prowlarr support movie categories (2000-range).
Searches find nothing: check System → Status in both apps for indexer health warnings. A Cloudflare-protected indexer needs the flaresolverr tag in Prowlarr (see the Prowlarr README).

Download flow

qBittorrent downloads to /media/downloads/prowlarr → Radarr picks it up, renames the file, and moves it into <Root Folder>/Movie Name (Year)/

Environment Variable Notes

Variable	Description
`RADARR_IMAGE`	Container image (default: `ghcr.io/hotio/radarr:release`)
`RADARR_RESTART`	Restart policy (default: `unless-stopped`)
`RADARR_PORT`	Published port for the web UI (default: `7878`)
`VOL_PATH`	Base path for persistent data volumes (default: `/data`)
`RADARR_MEDIA`	Shared media root on the host (default: `/data/media`), mounted at `/media`. Must be the same folder qBittorrent, Sonarr and Jellyfin use
`TZ`	Container timezone (default: `America/Vancouver`)

Volume Notes

Volume	Purpose
`${VOL_PATH:-/data}/radarr/config`	Application configuration and database
`${RADARR_MEDIA:-/data/media}` → `/media`	Shared media library, kept separate from `VOL_PATH` since it's typically mounted into Sonarr, Radarr, Bazarr, and Jellyfin/etc.

Network Notes

Requires an external proxy network. Create it once with:

docker network create proxy

Docker Run

docker run -d \
  --name=radarr \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e UMASK=002 \
  -e TZ=America/Vancouver \
  -p 7878:7878 \
  -v ${VOL_PATH:-/data}/radarr/config:/config \
  -v ${RADARR_MEDIA:-/data/media}:/media \
  --network proxy \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/hotio/radarr:release

Additional Notes / Gotchas

One shared media folder. qBittorrent, Sonarr, Radarr and Jellyfin all use /data/media on the host. qBittorrent, Sonarr and Radarr mount it at /media, so a download has the same path in every container: no Remote Path Mapping needed, and imports can use hardlinks (instant, no extra disk space). Enable Settings → Media Management → Use Hardlinks instead of Copy.
Layout: /data/media/downloads/prowlarr (qBittorrent category prowlarr), /data/media/shows (Sonarr), /data/media/movies (Radarr). The shows/movies names match the Jellyfin stack's library mounts.
In the qBittorrent download client settings, set Category to prowlarr.

Dockhand Stack, Deploy from Git

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

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