qbit_controller

A small Rust daemon that maintains qBittorrent state on a schedule. Inspired by qbit_manage, with a narrower feature set focused on tagging, share-limit management, and category routing.

What it does

Each run pulls the current torrent list from qBittorrent and applies these processes (each individually toggleable):

• Auto-management — flips qBittorrent's automatic torrent management on for every torrent except those carrying a configured ignore tag.
• Tracker tags — adds tags based on tracker URL substring match (e.g. iptorrents for any tracker URL containing iptorrents).
• Tracker error tag — applies a configurable tag (default issue) to torrents where at least one real (http/https/udp/ws/wss) tracker is in qBittorrent's Not working state and no real tracker is Working. Matches qbit_manage's semantics, so DHT/PeX/LSD pseudo-trackers and partially-working torrents are not flagged.
• Share limits — applies grouped ratio / seeding-time / upload-speed limits to torrents matched by category and tag rules. Supports min_num_seeds and min_seeding_time protection (limits are temporarily cleared and a MinSeedsNotMet / MinSeedTimeNotReached tag is added until the threshold is met). Optional cleanup flag deletes the torrent + data once the configured ratio or seeding time is reached.
• Tag by name — adds tags when the torrent name contains a configured substring (e.g. release group).
• Category moves — rewrites a torrent's category when its current category
  • tag set matches a rule.

All operations are diff-aware: if qBittorrent's reported state already matches the desired state (auto-tmm flag, ratio/seeding-time/upload limits, managed tags), the API call and the log line are skipped. Steady-state runs should produce only the section headers and a summary block.

Configuration

Configuration lives at config/config.yml. On first start a fully-commented example_config.yml and JSON schema are written next to it; copy the example and edit. Minimal config:

qbit:
  url: http://10.0.0.10:8080
  username: username
  password: password

settings:
  dry_run: false
  enable_auto_management: true

processes:
  tracker_tags: true
  tracker_errors: true
  share_limits: true

trackers:
  iptorrents|stackoverflow.tech:
    tags: iptorrents
  other:
    tags: other

share_limits:
  IPT:
    priority: 2
    max_seeding_time: 30d
    min_num_seeds: 10
    include_all_tags: [iptorrents]
    cleanup: false

  default:
    priority: 999
    max_ratio: 1
    max_seeding_time: 1d
    categories: [movies-complete, tv-complete]
    cleanup: true

See config/example_config.yml for the full surface area.

Notable settings

Key	Default	Purpose
settings.dry_run	false	Log every action with a [DRY-RUN] prefix; never call write APIs.
settings.share_limits_tag	z	Prefix for managed group tags (z_<priority>.<group>).
settings.tracker_error_tag	issue	Tag applied for tracker errors.
settings.share_limits_min_num_seeds_tag	MinSeedsNotMet	Protection tag while waiting for seeders.
settings.share_limits_filter_completed	true	Skip incomplete torrents in the share-limits pass.
settings.auto_management_ignore_tags	[]	Torrents with any of these tags are skipped by auto-management.

Running

Docker (recommended)

docker build -t qbit_controller .
docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$PWD/docker_config:/config" \
  -e qbit_con_schedule=120 \
  qbit_controller

qbit_con_schedule is the loop interval in minutes (default 120). The container runs the binary, sleeps for that many minutes, and repeats.

Native

cargo run --release

The binary expects to be invoked from a directory containing config/config.yml and log_config.yml. It runs once and exits.

Logging

Logs are written to stdout and config/qbit_controller.log (rotated at 10MB, 5 archives). Log level and pattern live in log_config.yml.

Sample run with diff-aware output and section dividers:

=========== Auto management ===========
auto-tmm   12 torrent(s)
=========== Tracker tags ===========
tag-add    'Some Show S01E02' tags=["issue"]
=========== Share limits ===========
tag-remove 'Wonder Man S01E02 ...' tags=["MinSeedsNotMet"]
apply      'Wonder Man S01E02 ...' group=IPT
delete     '[SubsPlease] ... .mkv'  group=SubsPlease (limit reached)
=========== Category moves ===========
cat-move   'Some.Title.S01' anime-complete -> digital-core
==================== Summary ====================
  Torrents inspected         : 412
  Auto-management enabled    : 12
  Tracker tags added         : 1
  Tracker tags removed       : 0
  Share limits applied       : 8
  Share limits cleaned up    : 1
  Share-limit tags added     : 8
  Share-limit tags removed   : 8
  Name tags added            : 0
  Categories changed         : 1

In dry-run mode every action line is prefixed [DRY-RUN] and the summary header reads Summary (dry-run).

Development

cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets
cargo build --release