Silo

A self-hosted media streaming server with a React frontend and Go backend. Supports direct play, remuxing, and hardware-accelerated transcoding. Compatible with Jellyfin/Emby clients (VidHub, Findroid) via a built-in compatibility layer.

Deploy with Docker (recommended)

The easiest way to run Silo is with Docker Compose. The default stack assumes you do not already have PostgreSQL and Redis available, so it bundles PostgreSQL, Redis, FFmpeg, and the application for a one-command start.

1. Create a .env file

   cp .env.example .env
   

2. Set your media path

   Edit .env and set:

   MEDIA_ROOT=/path/to/your/media
   

   MEDIA_ROOT is the one value most users need to change. You can also override SILO_DATA_ROOT if you do not want bind mounts under /opt/silo, and change ports if the defaults conflict with something else on the host.

3. Start the default integrated stack

   docker compose up -d
   

   This starts PostgreSQL, Redis, and the integrated Silo server. The app is available at http://localhost:8090 and the Jellyfin-compatible endpoint at http://localhost:8096.

   If you already have PostgreSQL and Redis available, omit those bundled service examples from compose and point Silo at your existing DATABASE_URL and REDIS_URL instead.

4. Configure through the admin UI

   Add libraries, users, metadata providers, and playback settings from the web interface.

Bind Mount Layout

The deploy-oriented compose files use host folder mappings rather than Docker-managed volumes.

By default, data is stored under /opt/silo:

• /opt/silo/postgres
• /opt/silo/redis
• /opt/silo/transcode
• /opt/silo/catalog-seeds

Media is mounted into the container at /mnt/media from the host path you set in MEDIA_ROOT.

Optional Profiles

The main compose file is integrated-first. These profiles exist for operators testing distributed mode or mirroring a split deployment shape. Most single-host installs should stay on the default integrated service, because it already includes proxying and transcoding.

Profile	Command	Description
default	docker compose up -d	Integrated server plus bundled PostgreSQL and Redis
proxy	docker compose --profile proxy up -d	Start a standalone proxy service for distributed-mode testing
transcode	docker compose --profile transcode up -d	Start a standalone transcode service for distributed-mode testing

You can enable both optional examples together:

docker compose --profile proxy --profile transcode up -d

If you are splitting workers across multiple hosts, use the separate remote worker example instead of trying to stretch the main compose file across machines.

Advanced Remote Node Example

For a dedicated remote transcode worker, use docker-compose.remote-transcode.yml. That file is intended for a separate worker host that connects back to an existing Silo deployment using shared PostgreSQL and Redis.

Deployment Notes

The default compose stack intentionally bundles PostgreSQL and Redis for ease of setup and assumes a fresh install without those services already available. If you already operate PostgreSQL and Redis, omit those examples from compose and point Silo at your existing infrastructure instead. For serious installs, PostgreSQL is better on a separate VM or a managed service so upgrades, tuning, and backups are isolated from the app host. Redis can stay local for many installs, but externalizing it is also reasonable if you already operate shared infrastructure.

Silo is externally stateful by default rather than fully stateless. Durable application state lives in PostgreSQL. Redis only stores coordination and cache-style data. Silo still writes transient transcode output locally under /tmp/silo-transcode. If you switch userdb.backend=sqlite, Silo also becomes locally stateful at /var/lib/silo/userdb.

Migrating an existing Continuum Docker install should be done with the preflight helper and cutover guide in docs/continuum-to-silo-docker-migration.md.

Build from Source

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24+
• Bun 1.0+
• PostgreSQL 18+
• FFmpeg (for transcoding support)

Quick Start

1. Start PostgreSQL (skip if you already have one running)

   docker compose up -d postgres redis
   

   The main compose file still expects MEDIA_ROOT to be set even if you only want the bundled PostgreSQL and Redis services, so set that in .env first.

2. Configure the database connection

   cp .env.example .env
   

   Edit .env and set DATABASE_URL to point to your PostgreSQL instance.

3. Build and run

   make build
   ./silo
   

   The server starts at http://localhost:8080 by default. All other settings are configured through the admin UI.

Development

Local development remains intentionally separate from the deploy-oriented compose setup. Use docker-compose.yml and the existing source-build workflow for local development.

# Run the frontend dev server (hot reload, proxies API to :8090)
make dev-frontend

# Run the Go backend
make dev-backend

If you are developing Silo and silo-plugin-sdk together, keep using the local go.work workspace. That workspace is a developer convenience only. CI and release builds run with GOWORK=off, so any new SDK helper used here must be pushed and tagged in silo-plugin-sdk before this repo can merge or release the change.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution expectations, merge request guidance, and the policy for AI-assisted submissions.

Plugin authors should start with docs/architecture/plugin-development.md, which covers the RPC plugin package format, generated proto workflow, SDK import paths, route and asset exposure, and auth or user-config integration points.

Reporting Issues

If you are reporting a bug, install problem, or performance issue, start with the admin workflow and reproduction steps, not Claude/Codex analysis.

Please include:

• What you were trying to do
• Exact steps you took
• What you expected to happen
• What actually happened
• What exact action is slow or broken (save, scan, browse, import, playback, etc.)
• Whether it happens every time or only sometimes
• The library, media type, filter, setting, or value involved
• Version, branch, commit, and deployment details if you know them
• Screenshots, recordings, or log snippets if relevant

If you used Claude/Codex for debugging, put that under Technical notes at the end. Suspected files, SQL output, stack traces, and root-cause theories can be helpful, but only after the workflow and repro steps are clear.

Use this template:

Goal:
Steps:
Expected:
Actual:
What is slow/broken:
Scope:
Version/branch:
Deployment:
Technical notes:

Make Targets

Target	Description
make build	Build frontend + Go binary
make frontend	Build frontend only
make dev-frontend	Vite dev server with HMR
make dev-backend	Run Go backend (integrated mode)
make dev-proxy	Run a standalone proxy node
make dev-transcode	Run a standalone transcode node
make clean	Remove build artifacts

Running Tests

# Go tests (uses testcontainers — Docker must be running)
go test ./...

# Frontend tests
cd web && bun test

Linting

# Go
golangci-lint run

# Frontend
cd web && bun run lint
cd web && bun run format:check

License

Silo is licensed under AGPL-3.0-or-later. See LICENSE.

Configuration

Silo requires only a DATABASE_URL when running from source or against external infrastructure. In the default Docker Compose path, the stack wires the database and Redis URLs for you. All other settings — libraries, metadata providers, transcoding, users — are managed through the admin UI after first launch.

Server Modes

Mode	Description
integrated	Full server: API + frontend + scanner + transcode (default)
api	API server only, no local transcoding
proxy	Stream proxy node that connects to the shared deployment database and Redis
transcode	HLS transcode worker node that connects to the shared deployment database and Redis

PostgreSQL Performance Tuning

The default PostgreSQL configuration is conservative and not optimized for any particular workload. For better performance, use PGTune to generate settings tailored to your hardware.

Recommended PGTune settings:

Setting	Value
DB Type	Web application
Total Memory	Your server's RAM
Number of CPUs	Your server's CPU count
Number of Connections	20 (Silo's default pool size)
Data Storage	SSD or HDD depending on your setup

Silo's workload is predominantly read-heavy API queries (browse, search, metadata lookups) with the database small enough to fit in RAM for most libraries. The Web application profile optimizes for this: CPU-bound simple queries served from cached pages, high concurrent reads, and low write volume.

If you have a very large library (50,000+ items) or heavy activity logging, consider switching to the OLTP profile instead.

Recommended Defaults for Modern Hardware

Assuming you're using modern hardware with fast NVMe storage this is what I'm currently running.

# Connections
max_connections = 100

# Memory (tuned to keep PG under ~8GB total)
shared_buffers = 4GB               # holds the entire DB in cache (typical DB is 1-4GB)
effective_cache_size = 6GB         # planner hint only, not an allocation
work_mem = 32MB                    # per-operation sort/hash memory
maintenance_work_mem = 512MB       # VACUUM, CREATE INDEX, catalog imports

# WAL / Write Performance
wal_buffers = 64MB
min_wal_size = 512MB
max_wal_size = 2GB
checkpoint_completion_target = 0.9

# Storage (NVMe/Optane)
random_page_cost = 1.1             # default 4.0; NVMe random ≈ sequential
effective_io_concurrency = 200     # NVMe handles many concurrent requests

# Parallelism
max_worker_processes = 8
max_parallel_workers_per_gather = 4
max_parallel_workers = 8
max_parallel_maintenance_workers = 4

# Huge Pages
huge_pages = try

These settings keep PostgreSQL under ~8GB of RAM while still caching the entire database. For HDD storage, change random_page_cost to 4.0 and effective_io_concurrency to 2.

Applying Settings

Docker (recommended): Save the settings above to a postgresql.conf file and mount it into your container:

# docker-compose.yml
postgres:
  image: pgvector/pgvector:pg18
  volumes:
    - ./postgresql.conf:/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf:ro
  command: postgres -c config_file=/etc/postgresql/postgresql.conf

Then restart: docker compose restart postgres

Existing PostgreSQL: You can apply settings without editing config files using ALTER SYSTEM, which writes to postgresql.auto.conf inside the data directory:

ALTER SYSTEM SET work_mem = '32MB';
ALTER SYSTEM SET effective_cache_size = '6GB';
ALTER SYSTEM SET random_page_cost = 1.1;
ALTER SYSTEM SET effective_io_concurrency = 200;
-- Apply without restart:
SELECT pg_reload_conf();

-- These require a full restart:
ALTER SYSTEM SET shared_buffers = '4GB';
ALTER SYSTEM SET max_connections = 100;
ALTER SYSTEM SET max_worker_processes = 8;
ALTER SYSTEM SET huge_pages = 'try';

Settings like shared_buffers, max_connections, max_worker_processes, and huge_pages require a PostgreSQL restart. Memory/planner settings (work_mem, effective_cache_size, random_page_cost) can be reloaded live.

Project Structure

cmd/silo/       Entry point
internal/
  api/               HTTP router, handlers, middleware
  auth/              JWT authentication and sessions
  catalog/           Media item, episode, season repositories
  config/            YAML + env var configuration
  jellycompat/       Jellyfin/Emby protocol compatibility
  metadata/          Plugin-driven metadata matching and enrichment
  playback/          Direct play, remux, transcode session management
  scanner/           Media file discovery and FFProbe
  worker/            Background jobs (scan, match, reconcile)
web/                 React + TypeScript frontend (Vite, Tailwind, shadcn/ui)
migrations/          PostgreSQL schema migrations