StreamX

Self-hosted torrent streaming. Single static Rust binary serving a React UI. Search movies, TV, and music, paste a magnet link, and stream directly in the browser with HLS transcoding and adaptive bitrate.

Features

• Multi-source search: movies (YTS, Torrentio), TV (Torrentio, eztv), music + music videos (apibay, 1337x)
• Browser streaming: sequential BitTorrent download + on-the-fly HLS transcoding (fMP4/CMAF). Watch while it downloads.
• Adaptive bitrate: multi-variant HLS (360p / 720p / 1080p / source). hls.js handles quality switching automatically.
• Codec support: H.264 passthrough, HEVC/H.265 passthrough on capable devices, MKV/AC3/DTS transcoded to browser-safe H.264 + AAC.
• Surround audio preserved through transcoding (up to 8 channels).
• Music player: album browsing, per-track streaming while downloading, playlists, favourites, MediaSession integration (iOS lock screen controls), AirPlay, Web Audio EQ, shareable track links with OG previews.
• Shareable links: guest tokens let you share a specific stream with a single URL, without giving away your account.
• Multi-user: bcrypt + JWT auth, per-user search/watch history and favourites.
• GPU acceleration: FFmpeg auto-detects VAAPI / NVENC / VideoToolbox, falls back to CPU.
• Optional SOCKS5 proxy for torrent traffic.

Architecture

• Backend (Rust): Axum HTTP server, librqbit BitTorrent engine, FFmpeg for transcoding, SQLite for state. The release binary embeds the frontend.
• Frontend (TypeScript): React + Radix UI, hls.js for HLS playback, framer-motion for transitions. Built with Vite.
• Streaming pipeline: torrent peers → librqbit sequential download → FFmpeg (passthrough or transcode) → HLS master playlist → hls.js / Safari native.

Build

All tooling is pinned via Nix. Enter the dev shell, then build the frontend and the release backend (the release binary bundles the UI).

nix develop

# Frontend
cd ui && pnpm install && pnpm build && cd ..

# Backend (release build embeds the UI)
cargo build --release --manifest-path backend/Cargo.toml

# Run
./target/release/streamx
# Open http://127.0.0.1:8999

Configuration

Config lives at ~/.streamx/config.toml and is created with defaults on first run.

[server]
port = 8999
bind = "127.0.0.1"
# log_level = "info"

[torrent]
max_connections = 200
sequential = true

[transcode]
video_codec = "h264"
preset = "ultrafast"
crf = 23
hls_force_stereo = true   # set false to preserve surround in HLS tiers

[auth]
session_duration = "7d"
# jwt_secret auto-generated on first run if empty

# Movies: YTS has browse + search with rich metadata
[[providers]]
id = 1
kind = "movies"
url = "https://yts.bz"
api_url = "https://yts.bz/api/v2/list_movies.json"

# TV: Torrentio for structured season/episode search
[[providers]]
id = 2
kind = "tv"
url = "https://torrentio.strem.fun/providers=eztv,1337x,thepiratebay"
format = "torrentio"

# Music
[[providers]]
id = 4
kind = "music"
url = "https://apibay.org"
format = "apibay"
category = "101"

# Optional: route torrent traffic through a SOCKS5 proxy
# [vpn]
# socks5 = "socks5://user:pass@host:port"

Extra providers can be kept out of the main config in ~/.streamx/providers.toml (same [[providers]] format). That file is gitignored by default.

Provider formats

Format	Supports	How it works
yts	Movies (browse + search)	YTS JSON API. Rich metadata (posters, ratings, trailers).
torrentio	Movies, TV (search only)	Resolves text to IMDB IDs via Cinemeta, then fetches streams from Torrentio. No API key.
apibay	TV, Music (browse + search)	Pirate Bay JSON API.
eztv	TV (browse + search)	EZTV API. Structured season/episode data.
scrape	Music (browse + search)	Scrapes 1337x HTML.

Torrentio has no catalog (it is IMDB-ID based), so keep YTS as the movies provider if you want the home page populated.

Development

Hot reload with the Vite dev server proxying to a cargo run backend:

nix develop

# Terminal 1: frontend dev server (vite on :9000, proxies /api to :8998)
cd ui && pnpm dev

# Terminal 2: backend
cargo run --manifest-path backend/Cargo.toml -- --port 8998

Checks

cargo fmt --all --manifest-path backend/Cargo.toml
cargo clippy --manifest-path backend/Cargo.toml -- -D warnings
cargo check --manifest-path backend/Cargo.toml
cd ui && pnpm typecheck

Tests

# Rust unit + integration tests
cargo test --manifest-path backend/Cargo.toml

# Frontend component tests
cd ui && pnpm test

# End-to-end browser tests (requires a running backend on port 8999)
cd ui && pnpm test:e2e

CLI

streamx                                             # start the server (port 8999 by default)
streamx --port 9000                                 # custom port
streamx --admin-user <user> --admin-password <pw>   # create an admin user on first boot
streamx clean                                       # remove cache and downloads (keeps config + DB)
streamx wipe                                        # remove everything except config.toml

Credentials can also be passed via STREAMX_ADMIN_USER and STREAMX_ADMIN_PASSWORD env vars.

Project layout

backend/
  src/
    config.rs          configuration + env var expansion
    server/            HTTP routes, auth, image proxy, static asset serving
    torrent/           librqbit engine, provider dispatch, search formats
    transcode/         FFmpeg HLS pipeline (GPU detect, probe, multi-variant)
    db/                SQLite (users, history, downloads, favourites, playlists)
ui/
  src/
    pages/             Search, Browse, Player, Music, Favourites, etc.
    components/        VideoPlayer, AudioPlayerBar, ExpandedPlayer, Layout
    hooks/             useSearch, useStream, useAudioPlayer, useMediaSession
    api/               API client and types
flake.nix              Nix flake (dev shell + builds)

Troubleshooting

• Port in use: ss -tlnp | grep 8999 and kill the process, or pass --port.
• Frontend not showing: build the UI first (cd ui && pnpm install && pnpm build), then restart the backend.
• Nix flake not found: the flake file must be tracked by git (git add flake.nix).
• Safari HLS shows 401: the stream token is not attached to segment requests. Open the debug pane (user menu → Debug Mode) and check the last /api/stream/.../playlist.m3u8 response.
• Transcoding fails on GPU: FFmpeg automatically falls back to CPU. Pass --log-level debug and watch the backend logs to see which acceleration was tried.

Tooling

• docs/og-preview.png is produced by ui/tests/screenshot-og.spec.ts. Regenerate it against a running instance with:

  cd ui && npx playwright test tests/screenshot-og.spec.ts --config tests/live.config.ts

License

MIT