Sonarr is an automated media management tool that functions as a personal video recorder for television series. It monitors RSS feeds and indexers to track, download, and organize television episodes for personal media libraries.
The application integrates with Usenet and BitTorrent clients to automate the acquisition of content. It maintains library integrity by identifying missing episodes and searching for higher-quality versions of existing files, such as 1080p or 4K, based on user-defined criteria.
Beyond acquisition, the software handles the organization of media by renaming and sorting video files into a structured folder hierarchy derived from online metadata databases. It manages these tasks through a background processing engine that synchronizes library state and verifies file availability without requiring manual intervention.
The system exposes its management functions through a web interface and a standardized application programming interface for remote control. It is distributed as a self-hosted service that stores library state and history in a local relational database.
