open source · MIT · zero telemetry

The Beacon Stack

TV, movies, and BitTorrent — each app works standalone, and all three share indexers, quality profiles, and settings through Pulse when you want them to. One docker compose up for the whole stack.

View on GitHub → Read the docs

beacon-stack/stack

$ docker compose up -d

4 apps in the stack

1 control plane

0 telemetry

The stack

Four apps, one config layer

Pilot, Prism, and Haul each run independently with local configuration. Pulse is the optional hub that makes all three share a single indexer list, one set of quality profiles, and a common settings namespace.

Pulse

control plane

Service registry and shared configuration layer. Beacon apps register here, but so can anything else — the Go SDK at pkg/sdk lets any service tap into shared indexers, profiles, and settings. Optional for a single install, essential the moment you run two.

:9696 Deep dive →

Pilot

TV series manager

Tracks a TV library via TMDB, polls indexers for new episodes, grabs through your download client, and files completed downloads into season folders. Dead-torrent detection and one-click Sonarr import included.

:8383 Deep dive →

Prism

Movie collection manager

Edition-aware release scoring, full release decision explainability, and a native Radarr v3 API so Overseerr and Jellyseerr connect without modification. Import from a running Radarr instance in one pass.

:8282 Deep dive →

Haul

BitTorrent client

Built on anacrolix/torrent. Accurate ETAs from exponential moving averages, three-level stall classification, and rename-on-complete using media metadata passed by Pilot or Prism. VPN-aware dashboard.

:8484 Deep dive →

How it connects

How Pulse connects everything

Each Beacon service registers with Pulse on startup and heartbeats periodically. Shared state — indexers, quality profiles, settings — flows outward from Pulse to every subscribed service. If you move Pilot to a new host, every other service picks up the new address on the next heartbeat.

Pulse isn't Beacon-only. Any Go service can join through the client SDK at pkg/sdk — register, discover peers, pull assigned indexers, and subscribe to shared config with one client instance.

heartbeat / register config push stall events

Registration

Register once, configured automatically

When Pilot starts, it registers with Pulse: name, URL, capabilities. Pulse returns a tailored config bundle — only the indexers tagged tv, the quality profiles this service subscribes to, and the shared settings relevant to its namespace.

Add a new indexer to Pulse and tag it movies. Prism picks it up on the next heartbeat. Tag it tv too and Pilot gets it. One API key to update, not three.

POST Pilot registers

/api/v1/services/register

{
  "name":         "pilot",
  "type":         "media-manager",
  "url":          "http://pilot:8383",
  "capabilities": [
    "supports_torrent",
    "supports_usenet"
  ]
}

200 Pulse responds

config bundle

{
  "indexers": [
    { "name": "NZBgeek", "tags": ["tv"] },
    { "name": "Prowlarr", "tags": ["tv"] }
  ],
  "quality_profile": {
    "name":   "HD-1080p",
    "managed_by_pulse": true
  },
  "config": {
    "media.library_root": "/tv",
    "download.preferred_protocol": "torrent"
  }
}

Architecture

One stack, four apps

Pilot TV series

Pulse Control plane

Prism Movies

Haul BitTorrent

Why it exists

Built for people who run their own stack

Register once, configure everywhere

Add an indexer to Pulse, tag it, and every subscribed service picks it up. One API key, one quality profile, one place to change things when they break.

Standalone or connected

Pilot, Prism, and Haul each run fine with local config. Pulse is purely additive — bring it in when you're ready for the shared layer.

Zero telemetry, MIT licensed

No analytics, no crash reporting, no update checks. Everything runs in your network and stays there. All four apps are MIT licensed and built in the open.

Getting started

Up in three commands

The full stack — Postgres, Pulse, Pilot, Prism, Haul, and a VPN container — lives in beacon-stack/stack. Point it at your media directories and run.

beacon-stack/stack →

terminal

# Clone and configure
$ git clone https://github.com/beacon-stack/stack
$ cp .env.example .env
# Set MEDIA_DIR, TV_DIR, MOVIES_DIR in .env

# Start everything
$ docker compose up -d