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!
harvey9•1y ago
angra_mainyu•1y ago
vintikzzzz•1y ago
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
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
KomoD•1y ago
Content on the hosted instance...?
vintikzzzz•1y ago
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.