readarr

readarr is a self-hosted tool for managing and downloading audiobooks and ebooks. It monitors your library preferences, fetches metadata, and coordinates downloads from configured sources (e.g., Usenet/torrent indexers and download clients) while organizing content on disk.

Evaluated Mar 30, 2026 (29d ago)
Homepage ↗ Repo ↗ Infrastructure self-hosted media-automation ebooks audiobooks download-client-integration metadata library-management
⚙ Agent Friendliness
26
/ 100
Can an agent use this?
🔒 Security
44
/ 100
Is it safe for agents?
⚡ Reliability
38
/ 100
Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality
0
Documentation
30
Error Messages
0
Auth Simplicity
60
Rate Limits
0

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement
60
Auth Strength
50
Scope Granularity
10
Dep. Hygiene
50
Secret Handling
50

As a self-hosted web app, security largely depends on your deployment (HTTPS termination, reverse proxy hardening, and how credentials for indexers/download clients are stored). No concrete guarantees about TLS/auth/scopes/secret logging were included in the provided prompt data.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA
0
Version Stability
60
Breaking Changes
50
Error Recovery
40
AF Security Reliability

Best When

You want a local/home-lab automation service that integrates with your existing download ecosystem and storage, and you can run it reliably as a long-running process.

Avoid When

You need strict enterprise governance features, guaranteed uptime/SLA, or a fully documented third-party API for programmatic agent use.

Use Cases

  • Self-hosted audiobook/ebook library automation
  • Automatically adding new releases based on author/series preferences
  • Centralized management of ebook/audiobook metadata and file organization
  • Coordinating downloads via existing torrent/Usenet infrastructure

Not For

  • An agent-facing hosted API service (readarr is primarily an application)
  • No-trust environments where you cannot run third-party binaries/containers
  • Use cases requiring cloud-managed operations, SLA-backed uptime, or commercial support

Interface

REST API
No
GraphQL
No
gRPC
No
MCP Server
No
SDK
No
Webhooks
No

Authentication

Methods: Typically uses application login/session (web UI) when enabled; exact auth methods are not provided in the prompt data
OAuth: No Scopes: No

readarr is generally used as a self-hosted web application; programmatic agent friendliness depends on whether the instance is exposed and how its web/API authentication is configured. No explicit OAuth/scopes details were provided in the supplied content.

Pricing

Free tier: No
Requires CC: No

Self-hosted open-source application; costs are primarily infrastructure (CPU/RAM/storage) and the costs of any external download sources you configure.

Agent Metadata

Pagination
none
Idempotent
False
Retry Guidance
Not documented

Known Gotchas

  • readarr is an application primarily managed via its UI and internal configuration; unless a stable, documented external API is provided and authenticated properly, an agent integration may require brittle UI scraping or undocumented endpoints.
  • Running it exposed to the public internet without strong reverse-proxy controls can increase risk.
  • Operations that trigger downloads may not be naturally idempotent without careful deduplication logic on the caller side.

Alternatives

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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-30.

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