RescanArr

RescanArr is a lightweight service that periodically triggers Radarr searches for a rotating subset of movies in a large library.

It is designed for large Radarr libraries where manual rescans or Radarr’s built-in search behavior becomes inefficient.

RescanArr guarantees that every eligible movie eventually receives a search without repeatedly searching the same titles within a single sweep cycle.

How It Works

RescanArr operates using sweep cycles.

A sweep cycle works like this:

1. Fetch the entire Radarr movie library
2. Identify base eligible movies
3. Exclude movies already processed in the current cycle
4. Randomly select a subset
5. Trigger Radarr searches
6. Apply a checked tag
7. Continue until no selectable movies remain
8. Remove checked from all currently checked movies
9. Immediately start a new sweep cycle

This guarantees:

• No repeated searches during a cycle
• Full coverage of eligible movies
• Automatic cycle reset
• Continuous operation

Eligibility Rules

A movie is base eligible if:

• monitored == true
• status == released
• it does not have the ignore tag

A movie is selectable if:

• it is base eligible
• it does not have the checked tag

When the selectable pool reaches zero while base eligible movies still exist, RescanArr resets the sweep by removing the checked tag from all currently checked movies in the library, then continues in the same run.

Features

• Randomized movie selection
• Sweep cycle search coverage
• Automatic sweep reset
• Ignore tag support
• Cron-based scheduling
• Radarr API integration
• Config reload support
• Non-root container runtime
• Environment variable support (PUID, PGID, TZ)
• File logging with rotation
• Docker / Portainer stdout logging

Docker Image

Published image:

ghcr.io/brodybuster/rescanarr

Example tags:

• ghcr.io/brodybuster/rescanarr:latest
• ghcr.io/brodybuster/rescanarr:0.1.0

Quick Start

Create a configuration directory:

mkdir -p config

Create config/config.yaml:

radarr_url: "http://radarr:7878"
api_key: "YOUR_API_KEY"

checked_tag_name: "checked"
ignore_tag_name: "ignore"

count: 3
dry_run: false

cron: "*/20 * * * *"

request_timeout: 60

Docker Compose

Example docker-compose.yml:

services:
  rescanarr:
    image: ghcr.io/brodybuster/rescanarr:latest
    container_name: rescanarr
    restart: unless-stopped

    environment:
      PUID: "1000"
      PGID: "1000"
      TZ: "America/New_York"

    volumes:
      - ./config:/config

    logging:
      driver: json-file
      options:
        max-size: "5m"

Start the container:

docker compose up -d

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
PUID	Runtime user ID
PGID	Runtime group ID
TZ	Timezone inside the container

Example:

environment:
  PUID: "1000"
  PGID: "1000"
  TZ: "America/New_York"

Configuration

Option	Description
radarr_url	Radarr base URL
api_key	Radarr API key
checked_tag_name	Tag used to track sweep progress
ignore_tag_name	Tag used to exclude movies from sweeps
count	Number of movies selected each run
dry_run	Simulate actions without modifying Radarr
cron	Cron schedule for sweep runs
request_timeout	Radarr API timeout in seconds