Indexers

Written for highsea 0.1.0.

Indexers are where highsea looks for releases. The Indexers page lists the ones you've added, shows whether each is working and how much it's used, and adds new ones from highsea's catalog. highsea 0.1.0 searches torrent indexers.

Owners and Admins manage indexers. The catalog's own settings, in Settings › General, are the Owner's alone. Users never open the admin.

The catalogCopy Anchor Link

highsea's catalog is a signed collection of indexer definitions: what each indexer is, how to search it, and which settings it needs. It's released on its own, separately from highsea, and the page's header shows the installed version. What changed lists the recent versions and their notes.

By default, highsea installs new catalog versions on its own, checking each one before it's used. The Owner can change this in Settings › General, under Indexer catalog:

• Channel: Stable, or Beta to get new and changed definitions first.
• Install new versions automatically: with it off, a new version waits in What changed, with an Install button.
• Extra catalogs: definitions someone else publishes and signs.

See General.

Add an indexerCopy Anchor Link

Select Add indexer, or open the Catalog tab. Search by name, or narrow the list by privacy (All, Public, Semi-private, Private) and by language. Each card shows the indexer's name, privacy and description, then its language, definition version and licence.

Public indexersCopy Anchor Link

A public indexer that needs nothing filled in has an Add button. highsea tests it first and adds it only if the test passes, then says "added and tested". If the test fails, nothing is added, and highsea says why.

Private and semi-private indexersCopy Anchor Link

These need your account details, so they have Set up instead. The form shows the fields that indexer needs, such as a username and password or an API key, each with a note on where to find it.

1. Fill in each field.
2. Select Test and save.

highsea tests the indexer before saving anything. If the test fails, the form stays open with the indexer's own message, so you can correct the field and try again.

Passwords and keys stay on your server, sealed with the server's own key. When you edit an indexer later, its secret fields show empty; leave them empty to keep what's saved.

Prowlarr, Jackett and other Torznab feedsCopy Anchor Link

If you already run Prowlarr or Jackett, add its indexers through Torznab in the catalog:

1. Find Torznab and select Set up.
2. For Address, copy the indexer's Torznab feed from Prowlarr or Jackett, without /api at the end.
3. For API key, copy the key Prowlarr or Jackett shows in its settings.
4. Select Test and save.

Add each Prowlarr or Jackett indexer this way, one feed each.

For a tracker that offers a plain RSS feed of torrents, use Torrent feed and paste the feed's full address. Private feeds often carry your passkey in the address, so highsea keeps it sealed like a password.

Local definitionsCopy Anchor Link

A definition file placed in the definitions folder inside highsea's config folder (/config/definitions in the container) is loaded alongside the catalog and carries a Local badge. A local definition takes the place of a catalog definition with the same id. highsea checks each file when it starts; one that isn't valid is skipped, with a warning under System › Health and the details in the log.

Your indexersCopy Anchor Link

The Installed tab lists your indexers. Under each name are its privacy and priority. The columns show:

• Health: see Health and backoff.
• Queries 24h and Grabs 24h: how many searches highsea sent it, and how many of its releases highsea grabbed, in the last 24 hours.
• Response: how long it takes to answer.
• Success: the share of its queries that worked.
• Enabled: switch it off to stop using it without removing it. The change saves at once.

The menu at the end of each row has:

• Edit: the indexer's settings, plus its name, priority, tags and seeding rule.
• Test: checks it now, and says how long it took to answer.
• Remove: removes it.

PriorityCopy Anchor Link

Priority runs from 1 to 50, and new indexers start at 25. Lower is asked first, and wins ties: when two releases are equally good by your quality profile, the one from the indexer with the lower number is chosen. Priority never makes a worse release win.

TagsCopy Anchor Link

An indexer with tags is used only for films that share one of its tags, in searches and in RSS. With no tags, it's used for every film. Use this to keep an indexer for some films only, for example a tracker that specialises in one language. Tags are managed in Settings › Media management; see Media management.

Seeding rulesCopy Anchor Link

Private trackers often ask you to seed for a while after downloading. Under Seeding in Edit:

• Ratio: stop after uploading this much, divided by the size.
• Time, in hours: stop after seeding this long.
• Minimum, in hours: never stop before this, whatever the ratio. This is for trackers with hit-and-run rules.

Seeding stops at the ratio or the time, whichever comes first. An empty ratio or time uses the default from Settings › Download client; see Downloads. A torrent keeps the rule it was grabbed with.

Health and backoffCopy Anchor Link

highsea watches each indexer and stops asking one that's having trouble, so a broken indexer doesn't slow every search down.

• Healthy: answering normally.
• Backing off: it failed recently, so highsea is resting it. The reason and when highsea will try again are under the badge. Each failure in a row rests it longer: 5 minutes, then 15, 30, an hour, 3 hours, then 6 hours each time. If the indexer asks highsea to wait a particular time, highsea does, up to 6 hours. An indexer that's backing off is left out of searches and RSS.
• Failing: it has failed for 6 hours, or it refused your credentials. highsea still shows its releases, but won't take them. A failing indexer also shows up under System › Health. If your credentials were refused, update them in Edit.
• Disabled: switched off.

One success makes an indexer healthy again at once. Retry now, shown while an indexer is backing off, ends the rest and puts it back in rotation.

An indexer can also need your attention after a catalog update: "Needs a setting its new definition asks for", or "Its definition is gone from the catalog". highsea skips it until it's fixed; open Edit to fill in the new setting.

Until at least one indexer is enabled, highsea can't search, and the search buttons elsewhere in the admin are disabled with a note saying why.

Search resultsCopy Anchor Link

highsea searches on its own (see Wanted), but you can see what your indexers return for a film and choose a release yourself. Open the film and select Interactive search, which opens its Search tab. Movies covers the rest of the film's page.

highsea asks every enabled indexer that serves the film, and lists what came back:

• Release: the indexer it came from, with the release's name under it.
• Quality, Score (the custom format score), Size, Peers (seeders and leechers) and Age.
• Decision: Accepted by your quality profile, or Rejected, with the number of reasons.

Accepted releases come first, best first: by the profile's quality order, then a newer revision, then the custom format score. Ties go to the indexer with the lower priority number, then more seeds, then the size nearest the quality's preferred size.

Why a release was rejectedCopy Anchor Link

Every rejected release says why. Select its Decision to see the reasons, for example:

• "Bluray-1080p isn’t allowed in HD 1080p": the profile doesn't include that quality.
• "Too large" or "Too small", with the limit for the film's runtime, from Settings › Quality sizes.
• The format score is below the profile's minimum.
• It's in a language the profile doesn't want.
• The film's file already meets the cutoff, or the release isn't an upgrade on it.
• It has no seeders.
• "On this movie’s blocklist".
• The indexer is failing, so its releases can't be taken.

An accepted release's Decision opens what it matched, such as the quality and each custom format's score. Quality explains profiles, custom formats and sizes.

Grab a releaseCopy Anchor Link

• The download button at the end of an accepted release's row, Grab, starts the download. Follow it in Activity.
• On a rejected release the same button is Grab anyway, which overrides your profile for that release.

Show rejected shows or hides the rejected releases. Search again asks the indexers again. When an indexer didn't answer, the results say which and why.