Crate is a self-hosted music manager that connects metadata providers (MusicBrainz, Deezer, or your own custom gRPC provider) to slskd for automatic downloading via Soulseek. Watch artists and albums, let Crate score and download the best available files, and keep your library organized with configurable naming templates and embedded metadata tags.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/TheOutdoorProgrammer/crate/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Quickstart
Deploy Crate with Docker Compose and download your first track in minutes.
Configuration
All environment variables and UI settings explained with defaults and examples.
Core Features
Search providers, watch discographies, manage downloads, and configure quality tiers.
API Reference
Full REST API reference for every endpoint — integrate or automate Crate.
How Crate Works
Crate connects three things: a metadata provider (MusicBrainz or Deezer) to find artist and album information, a slskd instance to search Soulseek and download files, and a library directory where organized, tagged music lands.Search and Watch
Search for an artist by name. Crate queries your configured provider and returns their full discography. Click Watch to add albums or the full artist to your library.
Auto-Download
Crate queues wanted tracks, searches slskd for matching files, scores all results using format preference and source quality signals, and downloads the best match automatically.
Organize and Tag
Downloaded files are moved into your library folder using a configurable naming template, and ID3v2/Vorbis/RIFF tags are written with artist, album, track, year, and cover art.
Key Features
Pluggable Providers
Built-in MusicBrainz and Deezer providers, plus a gRPC interface to add any source.
Smart Download Scoring
Tier-based quality scoring, artist name matching, slot availability, and stale detection.
Quality Tiers
Priority-ordered format preferences (FLAC → MP3 320 → MP3 256) with auto-upgrade.
Library Organization
Configurable naming template with live preview and non-destructive file management.
Import Existing Library
Tag-based scan of on-disk collections; MusicBrainz-tagged files link automatically.
Navidrome & Music Assistant
Trigger library scans after downloads so new music appears immediately.
Lidarr API Shim
Manage your library from iOS apps like Helmarr as if Crate were Lidarr.
Mobile-First UI
Responsive layout with bottom navigation on mobile, sidebar on desktop.
Crate has no built-in authentication. If you expose it beyond localhost, put a reverse proxy with auth (e.g., Cloudflare Zero Trust, Authelia, or nginx basic auth) in front of it.