Prowlarr (Core Service)¶

Prowlarr is an indexer manager for the Arr ecosystem. It centralizes indexer configuration and syncs them to Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, and Whisparr.

Service Relationships¶

Configuration in dumb_config.json¶

"prowlarr": {
  "instances": {
    "Default": {
      "enabled": false,
      "process_name": "Prowlarr",
      "repo_owner": "Prowlarr",
      "repo_name": "Prowlarr",
      "release_version_enabled": false,
      "release_version": "latest",
      "clear_on_update": false,
      "exclude_dirs": [],
      "platforms": [],
      "suppress_logging": false,
      "auto_update": false,
      "auto_update_interval": 24,
      "pinned_version": "",
      "port": 9696,
      "config_dir": "/prowlarr/default",
      "config_file": "/prowlarr/default/config.xml",
      "log_file": "/prowlarr/default/logs/prowlarr.txt",
      "command": [],
      "env": {}
    }
  }
}

Key Configuration Fields¶

• port: Web UI port (default 9696).
• pinned_version: Optional version pin for Prowlarr updates.
• repo_owner / repo_name: GitHub repo used for releases or branch builds.
• release_version_enabled / release_version: Use GitHub releases (e.g., latest, nightly, prerelease, or a tag).
• clear_on_update: Clear the install directory before updating.
• exclude_dirs: Directories to preserve when clearing.
• platforms: Build platforms (auto‑defaults to ["dotnet"] when using branches).
• config_dir, config_file, log_file: Paths for config and logs.

Repo-based installs and updates¶

Prowlarr now supports the same repo‑based controls as other DUMB services.

• GitHub releases: Set release_version_enabled: true with a valid repo_owner/repo_name.
• Default updater: Leave release_version_enabled: false to use the standard Arr updater.

GitHub sources take priority when enabled and are not a fallback. pinned_version only applies to the traditional Arr updater.

Integration with DUMB¶

• Connect Prowlarr to Sonarr/Radarr/Lidarr/Whisparr via their API keys and base URLs.
• Prowlarr can share indexers across all Arr instances to keep setups consistent.

Automated Arr sync¶

DUMB can auto-configure Prowlarr applications for enabled Arr instances. It reads each Arr API key from the Arr config_file, waits for the services to come up, and creates the matching Prowlarr app entries (full sync). Apps are created using the Arr process_name.

Requirements:

• Prowlarr instance is enabled.
• Arr instances are enabled with a valid port and readable config_file.
• Prowlarr API key is available in its config_file.

Core-service tags¶

DUMB tags Prowlarr application entries when the Arr instance has core_service set (single value or list):

These tags are created automatically if they do not exist.

Indexer routing via tags¶

Prowlarr uses tags to decide which indexers sync into which Arr apps. DUMB links each Arr app to the tag matching its core service(s), so Decypharr and NzbDAV indexers stay separated.

When you add custom indexers in Prowlarr, make sure the correct tag is applied so they sync to the intended Arr apps.

Custom indexer sync (Decypharr)¶

When Decypharr is enabled, DUMB also syncs custom indexer definitions and creates indexers:

• Zilean (Torznab) with a base URL that prefers the local Zilean instance when enabled, and defaults to https://zileanfortheweebs.midnightignite.me otherwise. You can override the URL in Prowlarr after it is created.
• StremThru (Torznab) using the hosted endpoint

If Decypharr is enabled, DUMB automatically enables the public StremThru indexer.

Custom definitions are pulled from the Prowlarr-Indexers repository and stored in <prowlarr_config_dir>/Definitions/Custom (or <prowlarr_config_dir>/indexer/Definitions/Custom when present).

Other custom indexers in the definition repository are available to add manually in Prowlarr.

Accessing the UI¶

• Navigate to: http://<host>:9696

Resources¶

• Prowlarr Website
• Prowlarr GitHub