First Steps

Huntarr is installed and running. Here's how to get it working properly — from connecting your apps to your first successful hunt.

Step 1 — Connect Your Apps

Huntarr can't hunt anything until it knows where to look. Start by connecting your existing *arr apps.

1. Open the sidebar and click Apps → 3rd Party Apps.
2. Select the app type you want to add (Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr, or Whisparr).
3. Click Add Instance.
4. Enter a name, the URL (e.g., http://192.168.1.100:8989), and the API key from your app's settings.
5. Click Test Connection to verify, then Save.

Step 2 — Understand Your Dashboard

The Huntarr home page is your control center. Here's what you'll see:

• App cards — each connected *arr instance appears as a card showing its hunt status, last run time, and statistics (missing items found, upgrades triggered, completed this cycle)
• Grid view / List view — toggle between a visual card layout and a detailed activity log using the icons in the top-right of the Hunt Activities section
• Hunt status indicator — each card shows whether Huntarr is currently hunting, waiting for the next cycle, or paused
• Recent activity — a running log of what Huntarr searched for and whether it found anything

Step 3 — Configure Schedules

By default, Huntarr runs on a basic schedule. Tuning this properly is the most important step for long-term success — too aggressive and your indexers will rate-limit you; too conservative and your library fills slowly.

1. Go to Settings → Scheduling.
2. Select the app and instance you want to configure.
3. Set the hunt interval — how often Huntarr checks this instance (in minutes).
4. Set the missing items cap — maximum number of missing items to search per cycle.
5. Set the upgrade items cap — maximum quality upgrades to attempt per cycle.
6. Save and repeat for each connected app/instance.

Recommended starting settings:

Setting	Recommended Start	Why
Hunt Interval	30 – 60 minutes	Frequent enough to be useful; not so frequent indexers complain
Missing Items per Cycle	3 – 5	Small batches are polite to indexers; you can increase once things are stable
Upgrade Items per Cycle	1 – 3	Upgrades generate more API calls; start conservative
Queue Full Pause	Enabled	Huntarr pauses when your download queue is full — avoids piling up searches you can't download yet

Step 4 — Set Up Notifications

Huntarr can notify you whenever it grabs something, completes a cycle, or hits an error. This is optional but highly recommended — you'll know immediately when something new lands in your library.

1. Go to Settings → Notifications.
2. Click Add Connection.
3. Choose your provider (Discord, Telegram, Pushover, Email, Apprise, and more).
4. Configure the required credentials (webhook URL, bot token, etc.).
5. Click Test to send a test notification and confirm it works.
6. Choose which apps and instances trigger this notification — you can have different notification channels for different apps.

Step 5 — Set Up Backups

Huntarr stores all its configuration, database, and state in /config. Enable automatic backups so you don't lose your setup if something goes wrong.

1. Go to Settings → Backup & Restore.
2. Enable Automatic Backups.
3. Set your preferred backup frequency.
4. Optionally configure a backup retention limit.

Backups are stored inside /config/backups/ and can be downloaded or restored from the same page.

Step 6 — Watch Your First Hunt

Once you've connected apps and set a schedule, Huntarr will run its first hunt automatically. You can also trigger one manually:

1. Go to System → Hunt Manager.
2. Find the app instance you want to test.
3. Click Run Now to trigger an immediate hunt cycle.
4. Switch back to the home page or go to System → Logs to watch what Huntarr does in real time.

Step 7 — Explore Optional Modules (Optional)

Movie Hunt & TV Hunt

If you want to manage movies or TV shows independently of Radarr and Sonarr, Movie Hunt and TV Hunt are built-in alternatives. They include their own indexer configuration, download client support, and a visual library browser.

1. Navigate to Movie Hunt or TV Hunt in the sidebar.
2. Configure Indexers — add your Usenet or torrent indexers via Index Master.
3. Configure Download Clients — add SABnzbd, NZBGet, qBittorrent, NZB Hunt, or others.
4. Set up a Root Folder — where downloaded media lands on disk.
5. Create a Quality Profile — define preferred formats and cutoffs.
6. Start browsing and adding movies or shows to your library.

NZB Hunt (Built-in Usenet Client)

NZB Hunt replaces SABnzbd or NZBGet with a fully built-in Usenet downloader.

1. Navigate to NZB Hunt in the sidebar.
2. Go to Settings → Servers and add your NNTP server credentials (host, port, SSL, username, password, connection count).
3. Configure your download folder under Settings → Folders.
4. Tune advanced settings like Direct Unpack (on by default for new installs) and the encrypted RAR action (abort by default).
5. Connect NZB Hunt as a download client in Movie Hunt or TV Hunt under Indexers & Clients.

Requestarr (Media Requests)

Requestarr lets users discover and request movies and TV shows, which flow through an approval queue you control.

1. Navigate to Requests in the sidebar.
2. Configure which instances and apps receive approved requests.
3. Optionally invite other users with limited permissions — they can browse and request, but can't manage instances or settings.
4. Enable auto-approve for trusted users to skip the queue entirely.

Tips for a Healthy Setup

• Start conservative with caps — begin at 3–5 items per cycle and increase gradually once you confirm your indexer handles it without complaint
• Check the logs — if hunts aren't finding anything or are erroring, go to System → Logs for detailed output that usually tells you exactly what's wrong
• Use separate schedules — if you have multiple instances (e.g., 1080p Sonarr and 4K Sonarr), stagger their schedules by 15–30 minutes to avoid simultaneous indexer load
• Enable the queue full pause — this prevents Huntarr from searching for more content when your downloader is already at capacity
• Back up regularly — enable automatic backups in Settings → Backup & Restore before making major changes
• Use Docker volumes — if running via Docker, always map /config to a persistent host path, never use an anonymous Docker volume

Where to Go Next