frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Show HN: Webtor – open-source torrent streaming engine

https://webtor.io
34•vintikzzzz•1y ago
Hi HN,

I built Webtor — an open-source engine that lets you stream .torrent and magnet links directly in the browser.

- No swarm exposure — all torrent traffic runs server-side

- In-browser playback via HLS

- Progressive download with resume support

- Lightweight JS SDK and public API

- Fully self-hostable via Docker

Demo: https://webtor.io

GitHub: https://github.com/webtor-io

SDK: https://github.com/webtor-io/embed-sdk-js

Self-hosted: https://github.com/webtor-io/self-hosted

API: https://rapidapi.com/paveltatarsky-Dx4aX7s_XBt/api/webtor

Would love feedback!

Comments

harvey9•1y ago
It looks like if I use your hosted service to stream then you become the distributor of any copyright material in that torrent. Is that correct, and if so aren't you likely to be taken down or blocked in jurisdictions where that is enforced?
angra_mainyu•1y ago
Popcorn time seems like the safer bet
vintikzzzz•1y ago
True, Popcorn Time was slick — but if I remember correctly, it runs as a local app and immediately connects you to the swarm. That means your IP is exposed and you’re technically distributing content while watching it.

Webtor works differently — all torrent traffic goes through the backend, and your browser just receives the stream over HTTPS. No swarm connection from the user side at all.

So it’s not as feature-rich maybe, but it’s built with privacy and accessibility in mind — especially for people who can’t or don’t want to touch P2P directly.

vintikzzzz•1y ago
That’s a valid concern, and I’m aware of the risks involved.

Webtor is a tool, not a content provider — it doesn’t index or host anything itself. Users supply their own torrent or magnet links, and the system processes them on demand, like a torrent client with a browser interface.

That said, if someone uses the hosted version to stream content that triggers a copyright complaint — yes, I may receive a DMCA notice, and in that case I’ll take the content down as required.

This is also exactly why the project is fully open-source and self-hostable — anyone can run it privately, with full control and different legal boundaries depending on their jurisdiction.

noman-land•1y ago
If this is a tool and doesn't host any content, what exactly will you be taking down upon receiving a DMCA?
KomoD•1y ago
> what exactly will you be taking down upon receiving a DMCA?

Content on the hosted instance...?

vintikzzzz•1y ago
Good question.

Even though Webtor doesn’t host or index any content itself, users can generate direct links like https://webtor.io/{infohash} to access specific torrents. Sometimes these links get shared publicly — on forums, blogs, or aggregators — and that’s usually how DMCA notices find their way to me.

When that happens, I remove access to that specific infohash from the hosted service. It’s not about removing stored files (since there’s no persistent storage), but about disabling further processing of that particular torrent.

toomuchtodo•1y ago
Looks like an open source version of put.io? Very cool! You might list hosters and jurisdictions where it’s friendly to host the remote torrent component and they’ll ignore IP claims and other copyright holder love letters.
doublerabbit•1y ago
Any documentation on how to self-host without Docker?

I use FreeBSD.

vintikzzzz•1y ago
There are currently around 14 individual components involved — torrent engine, HLS pipeline, subtitles, storage, APIs, etc.

It’s technically possible to run everything manually without Docker, but you’d need to wire all services together, manage configs, ports, and background jobs.

That’s why I strongly recommend the Docker setup — it’s the easiest way to get things running.

You can absolutely take a look at the Dockerfile (https://github.com/webtor-io/self-hosted/blob/main/Dockerfil...). It should give you a clear idea of how things are connected, if you want to replicate it manually on FreeBSD.

0manrho
•
1y ago
> or host anything itself.

It does, or there would be nothing to download.

> and the system processes them on demand > Webtor is a tool, not a content provider

By assembling the chunks into content it then provides via a link to download.

Is the implication here that the data is transient (eg time-gated or single use links) or something?

We're in the age of AI and Automation. Just because you aren't publishing an index of your content doesn't mean there aren't plenty of others searching, indexing, scraping, and aggregating it, nor does it mean the content isn't provided to the internet/public.

vintikzzzz•1y ago
The content is only partially downloaded to the servers, and only on demand. Storage is limited — old, inactive cached data is removed when space is needed for new requests.

There’s also the ability to revisit previously used content via direct links like https://webtor.io/{infohash} — this lets users bookmark a stream or return to it later. However, availability still depends on whether the content is cached or needs to be fetched again.

I actually experimented with making content indexable in the past, but many torrents turned out to be pirated — and eventually triggered DMCA notices. So I chose not to publicly expose anything on the hosted version.

Automation is possible: there’s a public API and a lightweight SDK for embedding content into external websites.

Show HN: Helios – what plug-in solar could generate for any address in Britain

https://helios.southlondonscientific.com/
81•ruaraidh•6h ago•27 comments

Show HN: Tiny-vLLM – high performance LLM inference engine in C++ and CUDA

https://github.com/jmaczan/tiny-vllm
176•yu3zhou4•22h ago•16 comments

Show HN: Ego lite – why our browser agent writes JavaScript not CLI commands

https://github.com/CitroLabs/ego-lite
9•Nicole9•1h ago•7 comments

Show HN: Open-source private home security camera system (end-to-end encryption)

https://github.com/secluso/core
103•arrdalan•19h ago•23 comments

Show HN: TV Explorer. Adding advanced UI to free online TV

https://tvexplorer.live
166•dtagames•1d ago•48 comments

Show HN: Zot – Yet another coding agent harness

https://www.zot.sh
90•patriceckhart•1d ago•77 comments

Show HN: Jynx, a matchmaking app to find gaming teammates

https://jynx.app/
4•akiro____•4h ago•4 comments

Show HN: I built an Android OS in the browser

https://mobilegym.dev/
15•haozaz•12h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Ktx – Open-source executable context layer for data agents

https://github.com/Kaelio/ktx
84•lucamrtl•2d ago•26 comments

Show HN: VT Code – open-source terminal coding agent in Rust

https://github.com/vinhnx/VTCode
13•vinhnx•14h ago•4 comments

Show HN: Continue? Y/N: A 60-second game about AI agent permission fatigue

https://llmgame.scalex.dev
378•Wirbelwind•2d ago•156 comments

Show HN: Free activity calendar for schools, sports clubs, and organizations

https://freecal.eu/?lang=en
8•glenn_vc•19h ago•6 comments

Show HN: Context-aware Japanese furigana using Sudachi and ModernBERT

https://www.ezfurigana.com/
36•epitrochoid413•1d ago•17 comments

Show HN: Hallucinate – Massively Multiplayer Online Rave

https://hallucinate.site
436•stagas•2d ago•193 comments

Show HN: Promptloop – create, run, and improve prompt evals from the terminal

https://github.com/Bella3202019/promptloop
12•velapod•1d ago•2 comments

Show HN: Open-Source AI Racing Harness

https://www.elodin.systems/post/elodin-ai-grand-prix-race-sim-harness
75•danAtElodin•2d ago•22 comments

Show HN: Self Publish Studio

https://selfpublishstudio.com/
8•noahwardlow•19h ago•0 comments

Show HN: AionOS – self-healing microkernel in Zig (boots on real hardware)

https://github.com/rodancz/aion
5•rodancz•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: Oort – A prompt library where every listing has a shipped project

https://oortstack.com
6•Wesearchpress•1d ago•2 comments

Show HN: Open-source Workspace (mail,docs,spreadsheet,drive) web/iOS

https://tinycld.org/
109•nathanstitt•3d ago•39 comments

Show HN: I brought back Airbnb categories

https://www.vibebnb.fyi/
6•giulioco•22h ago•0 comments

Show HN: A Claude Code skill that scopes problems like Peter Naur

https://github.com/spinchange/cartographer-skill/blob/main/skills/cartographer/SKILL.md
2•spinchange•15h ago•0 comments

Show HN: I made an emergency page for my family

https://help.delduca.org
82•delduca•3d ago•104 comments

Show HN: Posthorn, self-hosted mail gateway

https://github.com/craigmccaskill/posthorn
82•craigmccaskill•3d ago•60 comments

Show HN: Local-first semantic knowledge graph with magnetic-pull retrieval

https://github.com/Astralchemist/rig
4•akashi_dev•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: MigraDiff – maintained fork of migra (PostgreSQL schema diff)

https://github.com/migradiff/migra
4•lateos-ai•22h ago•2 comments

Show HN: A website that tracks every stock trade Congress makes

https://congress.kadoa.com/
61•hubraumhugo•4d ago•24 comments

Show HN: I built a better GitHub search that rank repos by what matters

https://reposeek.ai
5•donghaxkim•22h ago•2 comments

Show HN: Compile-time model-id validation with declared capability

https://github.com/yujonglee/openrouter-toolkit
5•yujonglee•4d ago•2 comments

Show HN: OpenBrief – Local-first video downloader/summarizer

https://github.com/tantara/openbrief
92•tantara•4d ago•17 comments