4grayandClaude Fable 5
4bcd4bd390
* feat(dashboard): add TMDB "Because you watched" recommendations rail
TMDB has no account-free "for you" endpoint, so the rail seeds per-title
recommendations from up to 3 recently watched movies/series. Seeds resolve
through the enrichment facade via a shared lookup-attempt builder (extracted
from the hero service), and recommendations already ride in every cached
details payload, so watched seeds cost zero network. Per-seed lists are
interleaved round-robin, deduplicated by id and normalized title, stripped
of watched/favorited titles, and matched against imported libraries with one
batched DB_MATCH_TITLES request; only year-compatible matches render and
fewer than 5 cards hides the rail. Loads are keyed by the seed set, and a
load where no seed resolved retries instead of latching.
The header names the seed ("Because you watched X") when exactly one seed
contributed, else falls back to the generic "Recommended for you". New
dashboardRails.tmdbRecommendations toggle (default on) in Settings ->
Dashboard; 4 new i18n keys translated across all 19 locales.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): harden recommendations rail reload semantics
Address Codex review findings: the load latch is now keyed by the seed
set PLUS the watched/favorited exclusion set, so favoriting a recommended
title re-filters the rail instead of being ignored by the seed-only memo;
an emptied watch history clears the root-provided service's items and
seed titles instead of leaving a stale rail; and a load requested while
one is in flight is queued and re-run afterwards, so a mid-flight history
change cannot commit results for an obsolete seed set. The dashboard
effect now also tracks favorites. Three regression tests added.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): catalog-aware invalidation, no empty latch, original-title aliases
Address Codex round-2 findings: the load key now includes the
imported-playlist id set, so importing or deleting a playlist re-runs the
catalog matching instead of leaving dead links or hiding fresh matches; a
below-threshold (or transiently failed) match result hides the rail
WITHOUT latching, mirroring the trending rail's retry-on-empty semantics,
since matchTitles maps worker failures to an empty list; and matching plus
watched/favorited exclusion now work through both the localized TMDB title
and the original-title alias, so a catalog named in the original language
still matches while cards keep displaying the localized form. Regression
tests added for all three.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): reset latch on hide, alias-year fallback, language-keyed loads
Address Codex round-3 findings: hiding the rail below the match threshold
now also resets the saved load key, so returning to a previously
successful input set (un-favoriting, restoring a playlist) reloads instead
of dying on the equality guard; alias matching picks the first alias whose
match is also year-compatible, so a same-named different-year row hit by
the localized title no longer vetoes the correct original-title match; and
the load key now includes the effective TMDB language (exposed on the
enrichment facade), so switching the app language re-localizes the cards
instead of keeping the previous language all session. Regression tests
added for all three.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): two-tier watched-title exclusion, drop ES2019 flatMap
Address the Codex round-4 finding: a provider stores whatever the panel
named the file, so a watched "Inception 2010" never matched TMDB's
canonical "Inception" by exact key. Exclusion now runs on two tiers —
exact normalized title plus a year-gated base tier — so the year-suffixed
shape is caught while a stored "Blade Runner 2049" still cannot swallow
the 1982 film. An unknown year on either side counts as agreeing, since
re-recommending something already watched is the worse failure.
Also replaces the alias query builder's flatMap with a loop: the web app
compiles this lib against lib: es2018, where Array.prototype.flatMap does
not exist, which broke the web build and every job downstream of it.
Both exclusion tiers are pinned by mutation-verified regression tests.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): index recommendation exclusions the way TMDB looks them up
Address Codex round-5 findings. The watched/favorited exclusion index is
now built through the same lookup-attempt builder the seeds and the hero
use, so an activity row is indexed under the media type the detail view
enriched with rather than its routing verdict — a Stalker embedded-VOD
series routes as 'movie' but is a show to TMDB, so its recommendation
looked up series: and sailed past a movie:-only entry — and under its
stored original-language title (info.o_name), which a translated
recommendation shares no key with. Only the builder's PRIMARY attempt is
indexed: the second is a fallback guess, and indexing it would let a
watched film exclude the same-named show.
Adds Electron E2E for the new setting: the toggle now appears in the
disabled-when-dashboard-off assertion (with the trending toggle, which
was also missing), plus a restart-persistence test. Rail rendering stays
unit-covered — it needs the TMDB opt-in, live TMDB data and catalog
matches, which would make an E2E network-dependent and flaky.
All three new unit tests are mutation-verified, including one that was
passing vacuously before this round.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): keep every catalog row until the year gate has chosen
Address the Codex round-6 finding: buildTitleMatchIndex collapses to one
row per key before the candidate's year is known, so a catalog holding
both "Dune 1984" and "Dune 2021" keeps whichever the worker returned
first and a 2021 recommendation then fails the year check with the right
row already discarded. The rail now groups the rows per key itself and
lets the year gate pick, still preferring an exact-title match over a
year-stripped one so the shared helper's precedence is preserved.
Mutation-verified regression test.
The trending rail shares the same collapse-then-check shape and is
unaffected by this PR; flagged separately as a follow-up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): survive a failed refresh, document the new rail
Address Codex round-7 findings.
A refresh that cannot reach TMDB no longer leaves the rail untouched, but
it does not blank it either: a failed request is not a verdict that there
is nothing to recommend, and removing still-valid cards is the worse
answer for an offline user. What the failure cannot excuse is a card the
user has since watched or favorited, so the retained cards are re-filtered
against the fresh exclusion index and the rail hides if too few survive.
The key stays unlatched, so the next visit still retries.
Also documents the rail in the two canonical dashboard docs I missed:
the surface diagram and render rules in docs/architecture/workspace-dashboard.md
and the rail list in the feature README. Both had also never mentioned the
sibling trending rail, so that gap is closed in the same pass.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): year-aware exclusions, remake-safe dedupe, key reset
Address Codex round-8 findings.
The exclusion index now records each row's release year (Stalker's
info.releasedate, else a year read off the title) with every key, and both
tiers gate on it, so a watched 1954 "Godzilla" no longer excludes the 2014
one. A row that states no year records null and keeps excluding
unconditionally, so the conservative behaviour survives where nothing is
known.
Candidate dedupe is by TMDB id only; title collisions are resolved after
matching, by the catalog row a candidate resolved to. Same-titled remakes
("Dune" 1984 and 2021) are different films and must both reach the
matcher — collapsing them beforehand let whichever arrived first fail the
year gate on behalf of the one the library actually holds — while two
candidates landing on one row would render as duplicate cards.
The offline re-filter now clears the saved load key, so restoring those
exact inputs (un-favoriting the title) rebuilds the rail instead of
hitting the equality guard.
Splits the pure helpers and data shapes into dashboard-recommendations.util.ts:
the service had crossed the 400-line production limit. All three fixes are
mutation-verified, including one test that only became real after the
mutation showed it passing on the wrong ordering.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): do not latch a partially resolved seed set
Address the Codex round-9 finding: when several seeds load and only some
resolve, latching marked the whole set complete, so a seed that failed
transiently lost its recommendations for the rest of the session. The load
now latches only once every seed has answered.
A seed with no TMDB match never resolves either, so that user's rail
re-runs on each dashboard visit. That is bounded work — the enrichment
misses are cached and the catalog match is one batched worker call — and
it matches the rail's existing policy of not latching on uncertainty.
Mutation-verified regression test, plus one pinning that a fully resolved
set still latches.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): trust only stated years on the exact exclusion tier
Address Codex round-10 findings.
The first is a regression I introduced last round: recording a
title-inferred year with the exact exclusion key meant a watched
"Blade Runner 2049" carried year 2049, disagreed with TMDB's actual 2017,
and stopped excluding the very film the user had just watched. The exact
tier now gates only on a year the row STATES in a metadata field
(Stalker's info.releasedate) — the rule releaseTagYear already documents:
on a whole-title match a trailing number belongs to the name and nothing
can settle it. The base tier keeps its stripped trailing year, which is a
suffix by construction, so the Godzilla 1954/2014 case still holds.
The offline re-filter also drops cards whose playlist has been deleted.
That path is the only one that can reach retained cards without the
catalog key rebuilding the rail, so those cards would otherwise navigate
to a dead route.
Both fixes are mutation-verified.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): resolved media type replaces the routing one; prefer year-tagged rows
Address Codex round-11 findings.
The exclusion index no longer indexes an activity row under BOTH its
routing type and its resolved media type. A Stalker embedded-VOD series
routes as 'movie' on positive series evidence, so keeping that key made a
watched show exclude an unrelated film of the same name — and, with no
release date to gate on, unconditionally. The resolved type now replaces
the routing one; a row the builder cannot classify keeps its routing type,
which is then the only thing known.
Catalog matching now prefers a row whose stripped year IS the candidate's
over an untagged one: an untagged "Dune" row could be either cut, so
linking a 2021 recommendation to it while "Dune 2021" also exists throws
away the better evidence. Untagged rows stay next in precedence, which is
also the only tier reachable when the candidate's year is unknown.
Both mutation-verified.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): no TV retry for catalog-classified Xtream rows
Address the Codex round-12 finding: the movie -> tv lookup retry exists
because a Stalker embedded-VOD series is stored as a 'movie' activity row,
but an Xtream row's type comes from a catalog that files movies and series
apart, so there 'movie' is evidence rather than a default. The retry let a
same-titled show answer for a film — the mirror of the existing rule that
a 'tv' verdict never retries as 'movie'.
The lookup item type had dropped the `source` field that distinguishes
them; restoring it is enough to gate the retry. This also tightens the
hero rail, which shares the builder. Mutation-verified.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): confirmed movies skip the TV retry; key by the whole attempt chain
Address Codex round-13 findings, both consequences of last round's change.
A stored Stalker `info.tmdb_id` is never a provider claim — the contract
says its only source is a match this app already gated, under that very
media type — so such a row's 'movie' verdict is no longer the ambiguous
default the TV retry exists for. Retrying it let a same-titled show answer
for a film whenever the movie lookup transiently returned null. The retry
now runs only for rows nothing has confirmed.
The lookup key is now the whole attempt sequence rather than the primary
attempt alone: two rows can share title, year and id yet differ in whether
a TV fallback follows, and callers cache by this key — the hero's
root-level memo would otherwise serve a Stalker row's TV answer as an
Xtream movie's metadata, and selectSeeds() would collapse two seeds that
do not perform the same lookup.
Both mutation-verified. One existing hero test asserted the retry for a
fixture that carries a stored id; it now pins the confirmed-identity
behaviour instead, with a separate test for the id-less retry it used to
cover.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(dashboard): rank catalog matches by year evidence across aliases
Address the Codex round-14 finding: match selection returned as soon as
any alias had a compatible row, so an untagged row under the localized
title beat a row the original-title alias found carrying the candidate's
own year — the wrong remake when both cuts exist. Compatible rows from
every alias now form one pool ranked by evidence, with alias order kept
only as the tiebreaker inside a tier. The nested loop collapses into a
single pass in the process. Mutation-verified.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
IPTVnator - IPTV Player Application
🌐 Website | Telegram channel for discussions | Buy me a coffee | GitHub Sponsors
IPTVnator is a video player application that provides support for IPTV playlist playback (m3u, m3u8). The application allows users to import playlists using remote URLs or by uploading files from the local file system. Additionally, it supports EPG information in XMLTV format which can be provided via URL.
The application is a cross-platform, open-source project built with Electron and Angular.
⚠️ Note: IPTVnator does not provide any playlists or other digital content. The channels and pictures in the screenshots are for demonstration purposes only.
Important
Official sources only. IPTVnator is a free, open-source player — it never sells IPTV subscriptions, channels, or playlists. Websites offering "IPTVnator subscriptions/channels/premium/activated" builds are not affiliated with this project. Get the app only from the official website or GitHub Releases. See Beware of unofficial IPTVnator websites and IPTV services for details.
Features
Playlists & sources
- M3U / M3U8 playlists from local files or remote URLs 📂, with automatic updates on startup
- Xtream Codes (XC) and Stalker / Ministra (STB) portal support
- Custom "User-Agent" header per playlist
Playback
- Built-in HTML5 player (HLS.js or Video.js) with a resizable, resumable inline view
- Optional unified IPTVnator controls for HTML5, Video.js, and ArtPlayer, enabled in Settings → Playback (experimental)
- External players — MPV, VLC, and IINA on macOS (
mpv.app/VLC.appbundle paths supported) (desktop) - Embedded MPV — native mpv rendered inside the app window on macOS, Windows & Linux 🖥️ (experimental · desktop)
- Dedicated radio player for
radio="true"streams 📻
Live TV & EPG
- EPG / XMLTV TV guide with a live timeline ribbon and multi-channel grid (desktop)
- TV archive / catch-up / timeshift (desktop)
- Group-based channel list, channel-number selection, and search 🔍
Movies & series (VOD)
- Redesigned two-state detail pages (browse ↔ watch) with season tabs and resume positions
- Download manager for offline movies & episodes ⬇️ (desktop)
- "Recently added" feeds and category grids with sorting & pagination
Discovery & metadata
- Global search across live TV, movies, and series (desktop)
- TMDB enrichment (opt-in) — plots, cast & crew, trailers, ratings, artwork, a "Similar" rail, clickable actor pages, and a trending dashboard rail (trending rail: desktop)
- Dashboard with recently watched & continue-watching
Organization
- Per-playlist and global favorites, aggregated across all playlists ⭐
- Recently viewed / watch history
- Command palette (
Ctrl/Cmd+K)
Platform
- Cross-platform desktop (Electron) and installable PWA
- Desktop auto-updater and mobile remote control (desktop)
- Docker self-hosting for the PWA + web backend
- 19 languages (translation files), light & dark themes, and keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts
Press ? or Shift+/ in the workspace to open the in-app shortcuts list.
| Area | Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Global | Ctrl/Cmd+K |
Open command palette |
| Global | Ctrl/Cmd+F |
Open global search in the desktop app |
| Global | Ctrl/Cmd+R |
Open recently viewed in the desktop app |
| Global | Enter in workspace search |
Submit the current search |
| Navigation | Ctrl/Cmd+B |
Toggle the live sidebar |
| Navigation | 0-9 |
Select an M3U channel by number |
| Playback | Space / K |
Play or pause playback |
| Playback | F |
Toggle player fullscreen |
| Playback | ArrowLeft / ArrowRight |
Seek VOD playback by 5 seconds |
| Playback | ArrowUp / ArrowDown |
Adjust volume by 5% |
| Playback | M |
Mute audio |
| Dialogs and lists | ArrowUp / ArrowDown |
Move command palette selection |
| Dialogs and lists | Enter |
Run the selected command or open a focused item |
| Dialogs and lists | Escape |
Close dialogs and dismiss overlays |
Screenshots:
| Dashboard with recently watched content | Live channels with inline player and EPG |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Add playlist dialog for M3U, Xtream, and Stalker | Live category channel list |
 |
 |
| Global search across live TV, movies, and series | Manage visible live categories |
 |
 |
| Movie category grid with sorting and pagination | Recently added movies and series |
 |
 |
| VOD details with playback and download actions | Download manager |
 |
 |
| Multi-channel EPG grid | External MPV player support |
 |
 |
| Radio playback with dedicated audio player | Light theme |
 |
 |
| Application settings | |
 |
Note: First version of the application which was developed as a PWA is available in an extra git branch.
Self-hosted PWA
The Docker setup builds the Angular PWA and the monorepo web backend into one
image. The backend handles remote M3U parsing plus Xtream and Stalker proxy
requests under /api, so a separate 4gray/iptvnator-backend container is not
required for the default self-hosted flow.
docker compose -f docker/docker-compose.yml up --build -d
The application is available at http://localhost:4333. See
docker/docker-compose.yml for the ready-to-run
compose file and docker/README.md for environment
variables, reverse proxy notes, PWA limitations, and build details.
The self-hosted image runs the browser PWA rather than the Electron desktop app: EPG/XMLTV panels, Embedded MPV, managed MPV/VLC launching, the download manager, and Electron remote-control features are not available there. If browser playback fails, copy the stream URL and open it manually in an external player such as MPV, VLC, or IINA.
Download
Download the latest version of the application for macOS, Windows, and Linux from the release page.
Alternatively, you can install the application using one of the following package managers:
Homebrew
$ brew install iptvnator
Snap
$ sudo snap install iptvnator
Arch
Also available as an Arch PKG, iptvnator-bin, in the AUR (using your favourite AUR-helper, .e.g. yay)
$ yay -S iptvnator-bin
Gentoo
You can install IPTVnator from the gentoo-zh overlay
sudo eselect repository enable gentoo-zh
sudo emerge --sync gentoo-zh
sudo emerge iptvnator-bin
Linux Embedded MPV Support
Embedded MPV on Linux is experimental and currently supports x64 desktop
sessions where IPTVnator runs under X11 or Xwayland. Native Wayland embedding
is not supported yet. Linux package launchers request X11 with
--ozone-platform=x11, so Wayland desktops still need Xwayland available.
The Linux backend starts a system mpv executable with --wid, so mpv must
be installed and available on PATH. CI validates the Linux native addon and
standard packages on Ubuntu 22.04, with Flatpak packaging built on Ubuntu 24.04.
Expected user targets are Ubuntu/Debian .deb, Arch/Manjaro pacman, RPM
distributions, and AppImage on x64 systems with X11/Xwayland plus mpv
installed. Flatpak and Snap builds remain available, but embedded MPV is not
announced as supported there yet because those sandboxed formats do not expose
the host mpv executable to the embedded backend by default.
Troubleshooting
macOS: "App is damaged and can't be opened"
Older unsigned macOS builds may require removing the quarantine flag from the downloaded application:
xattr -c /Applications/IPTVnator.app
Alternatively, if the app is located in a different directory:
xattr -c ~/Downloads/IPTVnator.app
Linux: chrome-sandbox Issues
If you encounter the following error when launching IPTVnator:
The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly.
Rather than run without sandboxing I'm aborting now.
You need to make sure that chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755.
Solution 1: Fix chrome-sandbox permissions (Recommended for .deb/.rpm installations)
Navigate to the IPTVnator installation directory and run:
sudo chown root:root chrome-sandbox
sudo chmod 4755 chrome-sandbox
Solution 2: Launch with --no-sandbox flag
Edit the desktop launcher file to add the --no-sandbox flag:
-
Find your desktop file location:
- Ubuntu/Debian:
~/.local/share/applications/iptvnator.desktop - System-wide:
/usr/share/applications/iptvnator.desktop
- Ubuntu/Debian:
-
Edit the file and modify the
Execline:Exec=iptvnator --no-sandbox %U -
Save the file and relaunch the application from your application menu.
Alternatively, you can launch IPTVnator from the terminal with the flag:
iptvnator --no-sandbox
GNU/Linux: Wayland startup failure
If IPTVnator exits on GNU/Linux with errors about failing to connect to Wayland or initialize the Ozone platform, force X11/XWayland instead:
iptvnator --ozone-platform=x11
This workaround is mainly for older or problematic Linux graphics stacks. The Snap package already includes this X11 override by default. For AppImage, direct binaries, and other Linux package formats, pass the flag manually when needed.
How to Build and Develop
Requirements:
- Node.js 22.13–22.x or 24 and newer with pnpm (via Corepack)
-
Clone this repository and install project dependencies:
$ corepack enable $ pnpm install -
Start the application:
$ pnpm run serve:backend
This will open the Electron app in a separate window, while the Angular dev server will run at http://localhost:4200.
The equivalent Nx command is:
$ nx serve electron-backend
To start Electron with an empty, isolated data directory instead of your normal
~/.iptvnator folder, set IPTVNATOR_E2E_DATA_DIR for that run:
$ rm -rf .tmp/iptvnator-empty && mkdir -p .tmp/iptvnator-empty
$ IPTVNATOR_E2E_DATA_DIR="$PWD/.tmp/iptvnator-empty" pnpm run serve:backend
This redirects the SQLite database, Electron user data, and local config under the given directory. Delete that directory whenever you want a fresh empty state.
If you need startup diagnostics for a white screen or a frozen route, you can also turn on opt-in Electron tracing. These logs are written to the Electron terminal output so they still help when the renderer DevTools never open:
$ IPTVNATOR_TRACE_STARTUP=1 pnpm run serve:backend
Nx equivalent:
$ IPTVNATOR_TRACE_STARTUP=1 nx serve electron-backend
Useful narrower flags:
IPTVNATOR_TRACE_IPC=1logs rendererwindow.electron.*calls reaching the Electron bridgeIPTVNATOR_TRACE_DB=1logs DB worker requests and request-scoped DB eventsIPTVNATOR_TRACE_SQL=1logs SQLite statements in both the main connection and DB worker connectionIPTVNATOR_TRACE_WINDOW=1logs BrowserWindow load, navigation, and unresponsive eventsIPTVNATOR_TRACE_RENDERER_CONSOLE=1mirrors renderer console messages into the Electron terminal output
Security-sensitive network compatibility flags are opt-in:
IPTVNATOR_ALLOW_PRIVATE_NETWORK_URLS=1permits strict EPG fetches from playlist metadata (x-tvg-url,url-tvg, ortvg-url) to resolve to localhost, LAN, or other private addresses. Directly configured Xtream/Stalker portals and private playlist servers remain supported without this flag. Prefer the in-app source-scoped “Allow source” action for a trusted EPG URL.IPTVNATOR_ALLOW_INSECURE_TLS=1disables certificate validation for remote playlist imports and refreshes for the whole Electron process. Prefer the in-app host-scoped trust action for a trusted provider with a self-signed or otherwise invalid certificate.
If the local Nx daemon gets into a bad state before rerunning Electron, reset it:
$ pnpm nx reset
To run only the Angular app without Electron, use:
$ pnpm run serve:frontend
Disclaimer
IPTVnator doesn't provide any playlists or other digital content.
Trademark
The name "IPTVnator" and the IPTVnator logo are unregistered trademarks of the project owner. The MIT license covers the source code only — it does not grant rights to the name or logo. Forks and redistributions (including app-store submissions) must use a different name and their own icon. See TRADEMARK.md for details.
