Lidarr is a music collection manager for Usenet and BitTorrent users. It automatically monitors specified artists, searches for new releases (or upgrades to existing tracks), and sends them to your download client. After download, Lidarr renames and organizes the files into your music library and can notify your media server of the new content.

Project Details

Project Repository: https://lidarr.audio/
Container Image: ghcr.io/hotio/lidarr
Reverse Proxy Port: 8686

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:8686 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, Lidarr displays "No artists found". To populate your library:

Go to Settings → Media Management and add a Root Folder (e.g., /media/music) — this is where your organized music library will live
Click Add an artist and search by name — Lidarr fetches metadata, discography, and album art
Lidarr cross-references your Root Folder for any existing files and matches them to the artist's catalog

Download flow

qBittorrent downloads to /media/downloads/prowlarr → Lidarr picks it up, renames/tags the files, and moves them into <Root Folder>/Artist Name/Album/

Spotify playlist import

Lidarr doesn't natively import Spotify playlists. Use a community tool like SpotifyToLidarr or set up a List (Settings → Lists) from Last.fm or MusicBrainz to auto-add artists based on your listening habits.

Environment Variable Notes

Variable	Description
`LIDARR_IMAGE`	Container image (default: `ghcr.io/hotio/lidarr:release`)
`LIDARR_RESTART`	Restart policy (default: `unless-stopped`)
`LIDARR_PORT`	Published port for the web UI (default: `8686`)
`VOL_PATH`	Base path for persistent data volumes (default: `/data`)
`LIDARR_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
`${VOL_PATH:-/data}/lidarr/config`	Application configuration and database
`${LIDARR_MEDIA:-/data/media}` → `/media`	Shared media root: downloads in `/media/downloads`, library in `/media/music`

Network Notes

Requires an external proxy network. Create it once with:

docker network create proxy

Docker Run

docker run -d \
  --name=lidarr \
  -e PUID=1000 \
  -e PGID=1000 \
  -e UMASK=002 \
  -e TZ=America/Vancouver \
  -p 8686:8686 \
  -v ${VOL_PATH:-/data}/lidarr/config:/config \
  -v ${LIDARR_MEDIA:-/data/media}:/media \
  --network proxy \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/hotio/lidarr:release

Additional Notes / Gotchas

One shared media folder. qBittorrent, Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr 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/music (Lidarr root, Jellyfin's /music library).
In the qBittorrent download client settings, set Category to prowlarr.

Dockhand Stack, Deploy from Git

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

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