Files
siftlode/README.md
T
peter 688efb9ed6 feat(selfhost): license the repo, and make Plex actually usable on the public compose files
DX-10: the repo invited people to clone, build and self-host while carrying
no LICENSE at all — which legally means all rights reserved, so none of that
was permitted. Adds the verbatim GNU AGPL-3.0 text, the SPDX id in
package.json and a README section. AGPL rather than MIT deliberately: this is
a server application, so the case worth covering is someone running a
modified copy as a network service.

DX-12: .env.example documented PLEX_MEDIA_HOST_PATH -> /plex-media and the
README advertised the Plex library, but only the localdev and home compose
files carried the mount — on both PUBLIC files the module could read Plex's
catalogue and then fail to open a single file, because it streams the media
itself rather than proxying Plex. Both api and worker now mount it read-only
with an empty named volume as the fallback, and self-hosting.md gains the
section that explains the server URL/token, the path map and the mount
together (it had never mentioned Plex).

DX-15: the worker had no init: true on either public file, though localdev
and home both carry tini with the reason written out — without PID 1 reaping,
a watchdog hard-kill of a download's process group orphans its ffmpeg/yt-dlp
grandchildren.

Verified: 'compose config' resolves on both files, the Plex mount comes out
read_only: true on api and worker, and init lands on worker (not just the
bgutil-pot sidecar). Gate green: vitest 671, pytest 896.
2026-09-05 00:53:26 +02:00

6.4 KiB

Siftlode

Your YouTube subscriptions, the way a feed should work. Siftlode pulls every upload from the channels you follow into one clean, filterable feed — no algorithm deciding what you see, and no Shorts or livestream noise unless you want it. Self-hosted, multi-user, and private: your data stays on your own server.

Siftlode feed

Everything expensive (channels, videos, metadata) is fetched from YouTube once and stored locally, so filtering, searching and sorting are instant and don't burn API quota. Click a video to watch it in an in-app player that resumes where you left off — or open it on youtube.com so your own ad blocker and SponsorBlock keep working.

Features

  • A readable subscription feed — sort and filter by channel, tag, language, topic, length, upload date or watch state; hide channels without unsubscribing; save filter setups as named views.
  • Search all of YouTube from the feed — live results you can play, save or add to playlists like any other video; they stay temporary and out of your catalog unless you keep one.
  • Channel pages & a channel manager — per-channel stats and uploads, priorities, and your own tags to slice the feed by.
  • Playlists with two-way YouTube sync — build them locally, keep them in sync in both directions.
  • In-app player with resume, plus keyboard/scroll controls.
  • Download Center — save videos to the server with yt-dlp in a Plex-friendly layout (format presets, per-user storage quota), trim / crop / split & join them in a built-in editor, then save to your device, share with another user, or hand out a public watch link.
  • Plex library (optional) — point Siftlode at your own Plex server to browse and play its movies and shows alongside your feed, with watch state kept in sync.
  • Multi-user with per-user private state, a shared catalog, and a fair daily API-quota guard.
  • Self-hosted & private, with a first-run web setup wizard and the interface in English and Hungarian.

Quick start (self-hosting)

You don't need to build anything — Siftlode runs from a prebuilt public image, and all configuration (your admin account, Google sign-in, email) happens in a first-run web wizard. You need Docker with the Compose plugin.

1. Get the files and run the installer:

git clone https://git.b1fr0st.eu/peter/siftlode.git
cd siftlode
./install.sh          # Windows (PowerShell):  ./install.ps1

The installer generates a private .env (secrets), pulls the image, starts the app + database, and prints a one-time setup URL like http://localhost:8080/setup?token=….

2. Finish in your browser. Open that URL and follow the wizard:

  1. Admin account — the email + password you'll sign in with.
  2. Google sign-in (optional) — paste a Google OAuth client to enable "Sign in with Google" and pulling your YouTube subscriptions. Skip it to use email + password only.
  3. Email / SMTP (optional) — for verification/notification emails. Skip it and you (the admin) simply approve new accounts yourself.

Then sign in with your admin account. That's it. See docs/self-hosting.md for the full walkthrough.

Just trying it out? Press Enter at the installer's URL prompt to run on http://localhost:8080.

Build from source (alternative)

Prefer to build the image yourself instead of pulling it:

git clone https://git.b1fr0st.eu/peter/siftlode.git
cd siftlode
cp .env.example .env
# generate the two secrets and paste them into .env:
python -c "import secrets;print('SECRET_KEY='+secrets.token_urlsafe(48))"
python -c "import base64,os;print('TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY='+base64.urlsafe_b64encode(os.urandom(32)).decode())"
docker compose up --build -d      # builds from the included Dockerfile

Open http://localhost:8080 and finish in the setup wizard as above. (Set a POSTGRES_PASSWORD in .env too.)

HTTPS / public access

Port 8080 over plain HTTP is fine for a LAN or a quick trial. For public access put a reverse proxy (Caddy, Nginx, Traefik…) in front to terminate TLS, and set the public URL (the installer prompt, or OAUTH_REDIRECT_URL in .env) to your https://… address — this also marks the session cookie secure. Add that same …/auth/callback URL to your Google OAuth client's authorized redirect URIs. Behind a proxy, also set TRUSTED_PROXY_IPS so the rate limiters see the real client IP and can't be bypassed via a forged X-Forwarded-For — see docs/self-hosting.md.

Updating & backups

docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml pull   # or: docker compose pull
docker compose -f docker-compose.selfhost.yml up -d

That follows latest, which moves with every release. Set IMAGE_TAG=0.80.0 in .env to pin a version and upgrade on your own schedule; released versions are listed in CHANGELOG.md and in the app's Release Notes.

Back up before upgrading. Migrations run automatically on startup and are not undone by pulling the old image back. A backup is the database dump plus your .env — TOKEN_ENCRYPTION_KEY is what decrypts the Google, SMTP and Plex secrets stored in that database, so a dump restored without it is only half an instance. Use scripts/backup.sh (or backup.ps1 on Windows) and scripts/restore.sh; the equivalent one-liners, the pinning recipe and the rollback steps are in docs/self-hosting.md.

How it works

  • Shared catalog, private state. Channels and videos are stored once and shared; each user's subscriptions, tags, playlists and watch/save/hide state are private.
  • Cheap by design. Public reads are cached locally; a shared daily quota budget and a background scheduler keep unattended syncing within YouTube's free API limits. An optional API key lets backfill run without depending on a user's OAuth token.

Tech

FastAPI + PostgreSQL (SQLAlchemy, Alembic) backend; React + Vite + Tailwind + TanStack Query frontend; packaged as a single Docker image with Docker Compose.

License

GNU AGPL-3.0. You can run, study, modify and share Siftlode; if you modify it and let other people use it over a network, they are entitled to your modified source. Copyright © 2026 Siftlode contributors.

Note

This project is developed with AI assistance.