Search Providers

Search providers tell Comicarr where to look for releases. Comicarr supports Newznab (Usenet indexers) and Torznab (torrent indexers via Prowlarr, Jackett, or a native Torznab API).

Provider entry format

Both EXTRA_NEWZNABS and EXTRA_TORZNABS hold a list of provider records, flattened into one line of comma-space separated fields. Each record is 6 fields, or 7 when Comicarr has assigned it a provider id.

Fields cannot contain , (comma-space), because that is the delimiter. This is why categories use #.

Torznab providers

Add, edit, enable, and remove Torznab indexers under Settings → Search → Torrent indexers (since v0.33.0), or hand-edit extra_torznabs using the record format above. Either way, a Torznab provider is only searched when all four of these are true. Missing any one of them is the usual reason a correctly-typed provider appears to do nothing:

Worked example: one Prowlarr indexer

[Torrents]
enable_torrents = True
enable_torrent_search = True

[Torznab]
enable_torznab = True
extra_torznabs = Prowlarr, http://prowlarr:9696/1/api, 1, YOUR_PROWLARR_API_KEY, 7030, 1

Reading that extra_torznabs line field by field: name Prowlarr, host http://prowlarr:9696/1/api, verify TLS 1, API key YOUR_PROWLARR_API_KEY, category 7030, enabled 1.

The host is the complete Torznab feed URL that Prowlarr or Jackett gives you, not the application's base URL. Copy it from the indexer's Torznab Feed / Copy Torznab Feed button:

Worked example: two indexers

Both records go on the same line, one after the other, with no separator beyond the usual , :

[Torznab]
enable_torznab = True
extra_torznabs = Prowlarr, http://prowlarr:9696/1/api, 1, KEY_ONE, 7030, 1, Jackett, http://jackett:9117/api/v2.0/indexers/all/results/torznab, 1, KEY_TWO, 7030#8020, 1

That is 12 fields, or two 6-field records. The second entry searches two categories, 7030 and 8020, joined with #.

Torznab settings

When an entry carries no category at all, Comicarr falls back to 8020. Set it explicitly. That fallback is a legacy default carried forward, and nobody chose it for you.

Legacy TORZNAB_* settings

config.ini may still contain single-provider keys under [Torznab]: torznab_name, torznab_host, torznab_apikey, torznab_category, torznab_verify. They were retired years ago and are not read by the search code. Populating them by hand does not configure a provider.

Since v0.29.1, Comicarr no longer ignores them silently. On every startup:

Newznab providers

Newznab is the standard API for Usenet indexers such as NZBgeek, DrunkenSlug, and NZBFinder. The easiest path is Settings → Search → Usenet indexers, which adds, edits, enables, and removes indexers without touching config.ini. Indexer changes there are saved with their own Save indexers button, separately from the rest of the page.

The equivalent config.ini form uses the same record layout:

[Newznab]
newznab = True
extra_newznabs = NZBgeek, https://api.nzbgeek.info, 1, YOUR_API_KEY, 1#7030, 1

Category IDs

Comicarr's defaults are the standard Newznab/Torznab book categories: 7030 (Books/Comics) for Newznab, 8020 for Torznab. Prowlarr and Jackett both map their indexers onto the same standard numbering, so 7030 is the right starting point for comics on either.

Ask your indexer what it actually supports. Every Torznab endpoint answers a capabilities query:

curl 'http://prowlarr:9696/1/api?t=caps&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY'

The <categories> block in the response lists every id the indexer will accept. Manga is frequently under a different id than comics on trackers that separate them.

API keys and encryption

Write API keys in plaintext when hand-editing. On the next config write Comicarr encrypts them in place, so afterwards the field reads as a Fernet token beginning with gAAAAA. That is normal and means the key was picked up. See Credential Encryption.

The GET /api/config/providers endpoint and the Settings UI never return provider API keys; they report only whether a key is set. Changing a provider's host to a different origin requires re-entering the key, so a stored credential is never redirected to a new server.

Usenet retention

Provider priority

PROVIDER_ORDER is maintained by Comicarr, not hand-authored. It is rebuilt on every startup from the providers that are currently enabled: newly enabled providers are appended to the end, and providers you disable are dropped. Reorder by editing the position numbers; do not add names for providers that are not enabled elsewhere.

Search tiers

Comicarr uses a tiered search strategy to reduce unnecessary API calls.

Checking your work

• Settings → Acquisition reports whether any search route is actually usable, and names what is missing when none is.
• After editing config.ini, restart Comicarr and check the log for [CONFIG] lines. A rejected provider list or an absorbed legacy entry is reported there.
• Raise the log level to 2 · Debug in Settings → Logs and run a search; the provider name and the URL Comicarr builds are logged per query. See Logging.
• Pack and bundle releases (common for manga torrents) are rejected unless Allow packs is enabled on the series. See Downloading.
• A series with Allow packs on sends one extra bare-title query to Torznab indexers only (since v0.36.0), because pack titles carry no issue number for the numbered queries to match. See The bare-title pack pass.