frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

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: Hacker News on a train station-style flip board

https://popflame.quickish.space/hn-flipboard/
90•PaybackTony•14h ago•18 comments

Show HN: Aerial-autonomy-stack – open-source perception-based drone swarms

https://github.com/JacopoPan/aerial-autonomy-stack
2•SufficientFix42•1h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Smart model routing directly in Claude, Codex and Cursor

https://github.com/workweave/router
186•adchurch•22h ago•99 comments

Show HN: DBOSify – Drop-in Temporal replacement built on Postgres

https://github.com/dbos-inc/dbosify-py
69•KraftyOne•2d ago•17 comments

Show HN: Open Tag, the open source Claude Tag

https://github.com/CopilotKit/OpenTag
2•nathan_tarbert•2h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Autofit2 – End-to-end pipeline for multilingual text classification

https://github.com/neospe/autofit2
24•leschak•2d ago•2 comments

Show HN: WebBase-III – dBASE III rebuilt in the browser with its own interpreter

https://github.com/DDecoene/WebBaseIII
92•ddecoene•3d ago•27 comments

Show HN: Play puzzle games in a feed like TikTok

https://puzzle.express
5•trancence•4h ago•2 comments

Show HN: The TypeScript Semantic Layer for ClickHouse

https://github.com/hypequery/hypequery
3•lureilly1•5h ago•2 comments

Show HN: Turn images into audio that can be decoded with a spectrogram

https://nsspot.herokuapp.com/imagetoaudio/
8•jupr•2d ago•4 comments

Show HN: I made Google Trends for Hacker News by indexing 18 years of comments

https://hackernewstrends.com
789•ytkimirti•2d ago•153 comments

Show HN: Overfitted a 900KB Transformer to Compress a 100MB CSV into 7MB

105•spidy__•4d ago•65 comments

Show HN: Turn native language audio into flashcards and shadowing practice

https://lingochunk.com/try
90•alder•2d ago•36 comments

Show HN: OpenKnowledge – open source AI-first alternative to Obsidian/Notion

https://github.com/inkeep/open-knowledge
370•engomez•1d ago•170 comments

Show HN: Bible as RAG Database

https://www.crosscanon.com/
156•jacksonastone•2d ago•90 comments

Show HN: Nub – A Bun-like all-in-one toolkit for Node.js

https://github.com/nubjs/nub
272•colinmcd•3d ago•80 comments

Show HN: Wordit – Change One Letter, Keep the Chain Going

https://victorribeiro.com/wordit/
43•atum47•3d ago•29 comments

Show HN: peerd – AI agent harness that runs entirely in your browser

https://github.com/NotASithLord/peerd
73•NotASithLord•3d ago•23 comments

Show HN: Nimic – Pure Python as a systems language with AOT compilation

https://github.com/dima-quant/nimic
42•dima-quant•3d ago•28 comments

Show HN: LookAway, a Mac break reminder that knows when not to interrupt

https://lookaway.com
72•_kush•3d ago•25 comments

Show HN: TikZ Editor – WYSIWYG editor for figures in LaTeX

https://tikz.dev/editor/
447•DominikPeters•4d ago•74 comments

Show HN: Secs-man, a secrets manager you can (not) rely on

https://github.com/Fran314/secrets-manager-rs
30•Fran314•2d ago•19 comments

Show HN: I Derived a Steak

https://www.absurdlyoptimized.com/recipes/grilled-meats/
7•bkazez•17h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Jargo – a Golang port of Pipecat for conversational-AI apps

https://github.com/gojargo/jargo
5•fallais•1d ago•0 comments

Show HN: Mantis, A self-hosted LLM gateway

https://github.com/mantis-llm-gateway
5•rizsyed1•19h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Closing the public-key authenticity gap in our E2EE social network

https://mosslet.com/blog/articles/19
3•mosspigletdev•20h ago•1 comments

Show HN: AgentBrush – Your coding agent's missing tool: image generation

https://agentbrush.dev/
4•Yan4300•20h ago•0 comments

Show HN: I built a hardware quantum RNG and wired it into a Magic 8-Ball

https://dnhkng.github.io/posts/building-the-beam-universe-splitter/
10•dnhkng•20h ago•1 comments

Show HN: A map of every UK railway, including stations that no longer exist

https://trainmap.co.uk/map.html
2•optionalltd•21h ago•0 comments

Show HN: Neural Particle Automata

https://selforg-npa.github.io/
88•esychology•4d ago•19 comments