A BitTorrent Client in your Terminal

Superseedr is a modern Rust BitTorrent client featuring a high-performance terminal UI, real-time swarm observability, secure VPN-aware Docker setups, and zero manual network configuration. It is fast, privacy-oriented, and built for both desktop users and homelab/server workflows.

🚀 Features at a Glance

Experience	Networking	Engineering
🎨 60 FPS TUIFluid, animated interface with heatmaps.	🐳 Docker + VPNGluetun integration out of the box.	🧬 BitTorrent v2Hybrid swarms & Merkle tree verification.
📊 Deep AnalyticsReal-time bandwidth graphs & peer metrics.	⚓ Auto-BindDynamic port reloading without restarts.	🧠 Self-TuningAdaptive limits control for max speed and I/O Stability.
🧲 Magnet LinksNative OS-level handler support.	👻 Private ModeOptional builds disabling DHT/PEX.	✅ Verified CorePure Rust, fuzz-tested for correctness.

Terminal Torrenting With Superseedr

• Pushing TUI Boundaries: Experience a fluid, 60 FPS interface that feels like a native GUI, featuring smooth animations and high-density visualizations rarely seen in terminal apps.
• See What's Happening: Diagnose slow downloads instantly with deep swarm analytics, heatmaps, and live bandwidth graphs.
• Set It and Forget It: Automatic port forwarding and dynamic listener reloading in Docker ensure your connection stays alive, even if your VPN resets.
• Crash-Proof Design: Leverages Rust's memory safety guarantees to run indefinitely on low-resource servers without leaks or instability.

Installation

Download platform-specific installers from the releases page (includes browser magnet link support):

• Windows: .msi installer
• macOS: .pkg installer
• Debian/Ubuntu: .deb package

Package Managers

• Cargo: cargo install superseedr
• Brew: brew install superseedr
• Arch Linux: yay -S superseedr (via AUR)

Usage

Open a terminal

superseedr

⌨️ Key Controls

Key	Action
m	Open full manual / help
q	Quit
↑ ↓ ← →	Navigate
c	Configure Settings

[!TIP]
Add torrents by clicking magnet links in your browser or opening .torrent files. Copying and pasting (ctrl + v) magnet links or paths to torrent files will also work.

Troubleshooting

Connection or Disk issues?

• Check your firewall allows outbound connections
• Increase file descriptor limit: ulimit -n 65536
• For VPN users: Verify Gluetun is running and connected

Slow downloads?

• Enable port forwarding in your VPN settings
• Check the swarm health in the TUI's analytics view

More help: See the FAQ or open an issue

More Info

• 🤝Contributing: How you can contribute to the project (technical and non-technical).
• ❓FAQ: Find answers to common questions about Superseedr.
• 📜Changelog: See what's new in recent versions of Superseedr.
• 🗺️Roadmap: Discover upcoming features and future plans for Superseedr.
• 🧑‍🤝‍🧑Code of Conduct: Understand the community standards and expectations.

Running with Docker

Superseedr offers a fully secured Docker setup using Gluetun. All BitTorrent traffic is routed through a VPN tunnel with dynamic port forwarding and zero manual network configuration.

If you want privacy and simplicity, Docker is the recommended way to run Superseedr.

Follow steps below to create .env and .gluetun.env files to configure OpenVPN or WireGuard.

# Docker (No VPN):
# Uses internal container storage. Data persists until the container is removed.
docker run -it jagatranvo/superseedr:latest

# Docker Compose (Gluetun with your VPN):
# Requires .env and .gluetun.env configuration (see below).
docker compose up -d && docker compose attach superseedr

Setup

1. Get the Docker configuration files: You only need the Docker-related files to run the pre-built image, not the full source code.

   Option A: Clone the repository (Simple) This gets you everything, including the source code.

   git clone https://github.com/Jagalite/superseedr.git
   cd superseedr
   

   Option B: Download only the necessary files (Minimal) This is ideal if you just want to run the Docker image.

   mkdir superseedr
   cd superseedr
   
   # Download all compose and example config files
   curl -sL \
     -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jagalite/superseedr/main/docker-compose.yml \
     -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jagalite/superseedr/main/docker-compose.common.yml \
     -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jagalite/superseedr/main/docker-compose.standalone.yml \
     -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jagalite/superseedr/main/.env.example \
     -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Jagalite/superseedr/main/.gluetun.env.example
   
   # Note the example files might be hidden run the commands below to make a copy.
   cp .env.example .env
   cp .gluetun.env.example .gluetun.env
   

2. Recommended: Create your environment files:

   • App Paths & Build Choice: Edit your .env file from the example. This file controls your data paths and which build to use.

     cp .env.example .env
     

     Edit .env to set your absolute host paths (e.g., HOST_SUPERSEEDR_DATA_PATH=/my/path/data). This is important: it maps the container's internal folders (like /superseedr-data) to real folders on your computer. This ensures your downloads and config files are saved safely on your host machine, so no data is lost when the container stops or is updated.

   • VPN Config: Edit your .gluetun.env file from the example.

     cp .gluetun.env.example .gluetun.env
     

     Edit .gluetun.env with your VPN provider, credentials, and server region.

Option 1: VPN with Gluetun (Recommended)

Gluetun provides:

• A VPN kill-switch
• Automatic port forwarding
• Dynamic port changes from your VPN provider

Many VPN providers frequently assign new inbound ports. Most BitTorrent clients must be restarted when this port changes, breaking connectability and slowing downloads. Superseedr can detect Gluetun’s updated port and reload the listener live, without a restart, preserving swarm performance.

1. Make sure you have created and configured your .gluetun.env file.
2. Run the stack using the default docker-compose.yml file:

docker compose up -d && docker compose attach superseedr

To detach from the TUI without stopping the container, use the Docker key sequence: Ctrl+P followed by Ctrl+Q. Optional: press [z] first to enter power-saving mode.

---

Option 2: Standalone

This runs the client directly, exposing its port to your host. It's simpler but provides no VPN protection.

1. Run using the docker-compose.standalone.yml file:

docker compose -f docker-compose.standalone.yml up -d && docker compose attach superseedr

To detach from the TUI without stopping the container, use the Docker key sequence: Ctrl+P followed by Ctrl+Q. Optional: press [z] first to enter power-saving mode.

Integrations & Automation

Superseedr includes several integration points designed for automation, headless operation, and easy pairing with VPN containers like Gluetun.

Check out the Superseedr Plugins Repository for plugins (beta testing).

1. File Watcher & Auto-Ingest

The application automatically watches configured directories for new content. You can drop files into your watch folder to trigger actions immediately.

File Type	Action
.torrent	Automatically adds the torrent and begins downloading.
.magnet	A text file containing a magnet link. Adds the magnet download.
.path	A text file containing a local absolute path to a .torrent file.
shutdown.cmd	If a file named shutdown.cmd appears, the client will initiate a graceful shutdown.

2. CLI Control

You can control the running daemon using the built-in CLI commands. These commands write to the watch folder, allowing you to control the app from scripts or other containers.

# Add a magnet link
superseedr add "magnet:?xt=urn:btih:..."

# Add a torrent file by path
superseedr add "/path/to/linux.iso.torrent"

# Stop the client gracefully
superseedr stop-client

3. Status API & Monitoring

For external monitoring dashboards or health checks, Superseedr periodically dumps its full internal state to a JSON file.

• Output Location: status_files/app_state.json (inside your data directory).
• Content: Contains CPU/RAM usage, total transfer stats, and detailed metrics for every active torrent.

Configuration

You can control how often this file is updated using the output_status_interval setting.

Environment Variable: Set this variable in your Docker config to change the update frequency (in seconds).

# Update the status file every 5 seconds
SUPERSEEDR_OUTPUT_STATUS_INTERVAL=5

🧠 Advanced: Architecture & Engineering

Superseedr is built on a Reactive Actor architecture verified by model-based fuzzing, ensuring stability under chaos. It features a Self-Tuning Resource Allocator that adapts to your hardware in real-time and a hybrid BitTorrent v2 engine, all powered by asynchronous Tokio streams for maximum throughput.

This section is designed for developers, contributors, and AI agents seeking to understand the internal design decisions that drive Superseedr's performance.

⚡ Async Networking Core

Superseedr is built on the Tokio runtime, leveraging asynchronous I/O for maximum concurrency.

• Full-Duplex Streams: Every peer connection is split into independent Reader and Writer tasks (tokio::io::split). This allows the client to saturate download and upload bandwidth simultaneously without thread blocking or lock contention, ensuring the UI remains responsive even with thousands of active connections.
• Actor-Based Session Management: Each peer operates as an isolated Actor. Communication between the network socket and the core logic happens exclusively via mpsc channels, meaning a slow or misbehaving peer cannot block the main event loop or affect other connections.
• Hot-Swappable Listeners: The application runs an async file watcher (notify) on the VPN configuration volume. When Gluetun rotates the forwarded port, Superseedr detects the file change and instantly rebinds the TCP listener to the new port without dropping the swarm state or restarting the process.

🔒 Security & Privacy Engineering

• VPN Isolation (Kill-Switch): In the Docker Compose setup, Superseedr's network stack is fully routed through Gluetun. This guarantees that 100% of BitTorrent traffic traverses the VPN tunnel. If the tunnel drops, connectivity is cut immediately, preventing any IP leakage over the host connection.
• Binary-Level Private Mode: Private tracker compliance is enforced at compile time, not just runtime. By building with --no-default-features, the DHT and Peer Exchange (PEX) modules are completely excluded from the binary, guaranteeing zero leakage of private swarms.

🏗️ Reactive Actor Model & Verification

The application logic abandons traditional mutex-heavy threading in favor of a Functional Reactive architecture.

• Deterministic State Machine: The TorrentManager operates as a Finite State Machine (FSM). External events (Network I/O, Timer Ticks) are transmuted into Action enums, processed purely in memory, and result in a list of Effects.
• Chaos Engineering: We validate this core logic using Model-Based Fuzzing (via Proptest). Our test suite injects deterministic faults to verify correctness under hostile conditions:
• Network Chaos: Simulates Packet Loss (dropped actions), High Latency (reordered actions), and Duplication (ghost packets).
• Malicious Peers: Fuzzers act as "Bad Actors" that send protocol violations, infinite byte-streams, and out-of-bounds requests to ensure the engine punishes them without crashing.

🤖 Self-Tuning Resource Allocator

Instead of static ulimit values, Superseedr runs a Stochastic Hill Climbing optimizer in the background.

• The Loop: Every 90 seconds, it randomly reallocates internal permits between competing resources—Peer Sockets, Disk Read Slots, and Disk Write Slots—to find the local maximum for performance.
• Universal Optimization: This algorithm dynamically discovers the optimal configuration for any combination of hardware (SSD vs HDD) and network environment (Home Fiber vs Datacenter), automatically scaling concurrency to match capacity.

🧮 Statistical Engine

Superseedr calculates granular metrics in real-time to drive optimization and observability:

• IOPS & Latency: Tracks instantaneous Input/Output Operations Per Second and uses an Exponential Moving Average (EMA) to calculate precise Read/Write latency (ms). This helps distinguish between bandwidth limits and disk saturation.
• Disk Thrash Score: Measures physical disk head movement using Sum(|Offset - PrevOffset|) / Ops. This detects random I/O bottlenecks that raw speed metrics miss.
• Seek Cost per Byte (SCPB): Calculates the "expense" of I/O relative to throughput (TotalSeekDistance / TotalBytes), serving as the primary penalty factor for the self-tuner.

♟️ Protocol Algorithms

Superseedr implements optimized versions of the core BitTorrent exchange strategies:

• Selective & Priority Downloading: Support for file-level priority (Skip, Normal, High). The engine maps file boundaries to pieces, prioritizing high-value data while ensuring shared boundary pieces are handled correctly to prevent corruption.
• Rarest-First Piece Selection: The client continuously tracks piece availability across the swarm, prioritizing rare pieces to prevent "swarm starvation" and ensure redundant availability.
• Tit-for-Tat Choking: The choking algorithm uses a robust Tit-for-Tat strategy (reciprocation), rewarding peers who provide the highest bandwidth while optimistically unchoking new peers to discover better connections.

🔬 Unique Visualizations & UX

Superseedr includes specialized TUI components (src/tui/view.rs) to visualize data usually hidden by other clients:

• Integrated File Explorer: A custom, navigable filesystem browser that provides instant previewing of .torrent file contents and internal directory structures before the download begins.
• Block Particle Stream: A vertical "Matrix-style" flow visualizing individual 16KB data blocks entering (Blue) or leaving (Green).
• Peer Lifecycle Scatterplot: Tracks the exact moment peers are Discovered, Connected, and Disconnected to visually diagnose swarm "churn."
• Backpressure Markers: The network graph overlays red "Backpressure Events" whenever the self-tuner detects a system limit (e.g., file descriptors), proving the engine is actively managing load.

🧬 Hybrid BitTorrent v2 (BEP 52)

Superseedr implements the full Merkle Tree verification stack required for BitTorrent v2.

• Block-Level Validation: Incoming data is hashed and verified at the 16KiB block level using Merkle Proofs, allowing for the immediate rejection of corrupt data before it is written to disk.
• Hybrid Swarms: The client handles VerifyPieceV2 effects to simultaneously handshake with legacy v1 peers (SHA-1) and modern v2 peers (SHA-256).

🛡️ Backpressure & Flow Control

• Persistent Retries with Backoff: Critical I/O operations (like disk writes) are protected by an exponential backoff retry mechanism (jittered), ensuring transient system locks or busy disks don't crash the download session.
• Adaptive Pipelining: The PeerSession uses a dynamic sliding window (AIMD-like algorithm) that expands or shrinks the request queue based on the peer's real-time response rate (blocks_received_interval), maximizing link saturation.
• Token Buckets: Global bandwidth is shaped via a hierarchical Token Bucket algorithm that enforces rate limits without blocking async executors.

📜 Key Standards Compliance

Superseedr implements the following BitTorrent Enhancement Proposals (BEPs):

• BEP 3: The BitTorrent Protocol Specification
• BEP 5: DHT Protocol (Mainline)
• BEP 9: Extension for Peers to Send Metadata Files (Magnet Links)
• BEP 10: Extension Protocol
• BEP 11: Peer Exchange (PEX)
• BEP 19: WebSeed - HTTP/FTP Seeding
• BEP 52: The BitTorrent Protocol v2