Testing AniBridge with curl (developer guide)

This short guide shows how to emulate Sonarr's behavior using curl: perform a Torznab tvsearch for an episode, extract the magnet (or enclosure URL) from the Torznab XML, add the magnet to the qBittorrent shim, and verify the download/job status.

Use these examples from macOS/zsh. Adjust HOST, port, and API key values for your environment.

Quick environment variables

HOST="http://localhost:8000"
CATEGORY="tv-sonarr"
TORZNAB_INDEX="$HOST/torznab/api"
QBIT="$HOST/api/v2"

1) Check Torznab caps (optional)

curl -s "$TORZNAB_INDEX?t=caps" | xmllint --format - 2>/dev/null | sed -n '1,40p'

Fallback (no xmllint):

curl -s "$TORZNAB_INDEX?t=caps" | sed -n '1,20p'

2) Perform a tvsearch (episode search)

Replace values below with the show title, season, and episode you want to test:

TITLE="Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai"
SEASON=1
EPISODE=4

curl -s --get "$TORZNAB_INDEX" \
  --data-urlencode "t=tvsearch" \
  --data-urlencode "q=$TITLE" \
  --data-urlencode "season=$SEASON" \
  --data-urlencode "ep=$EPISODE" \
  --data-urlencode "cat=5070" \
  -H "Accept: application/xml" \
  -o /tmp/torznab_search.xml

# Inspect
xmllint --format /tmp/torznab_search.xml | sed -n '1,120p'

If xmllint is not available:

sed -n '1,120p' /tmp/torznab_search.xml

3) Extract the magnet/enclosure URL

Preferred approach (xmllint + XPath):

MAGNET=$(xmllint --xpath "string(//item/enclosure/@url)" /tmp/torznab_search.xml 2>/dev/null)

if [ -z "$MAGNET" ]; then
  MAGNET=$(xmllint --xpath "string(//item/link[contains(.,'magnet:')])" /tmp/torznab_search.xml 2>/dev/null)
fi
if [ -z "$MAGNET" ]; then
  MAGNET=$(xmllint --xpath "string(//item/description[contains(.,'magnet:')])" /tmp/torznab_search.xml 2>/dev/null | grep -o 'magnet:[^\"< ]*' | head -n1)
fi

Fallback with grep/sed:

MAGNET=$(grep -o 'magnet:[^\"< ]*' /tmp/torznab_search.xml | head -n1)

Show what we found:

echo "Magnet: $MAGNET"

If empty, inspect /tmp/torznab_search.xml to find the node that contains the provider URL or magnet.

4) (Optional) Login to qBittorrent shim to get cookie

Some qBittorrent-like shims set a SID cookie. AniBridge typically accepts empty login (or none). To get a cookie file:

curl -i -s -c /tmp/qb_cookies.txt -X POST "$HOST/api/v2/auth/login" -d "username=&password=&remember=false"
cat /tmp/qb_cookies.txt

If your instance does not require login, skip this step.

5) Add the magnet to the qBittorrent shim (trigger download)

if [ -z "$MAGNET" ]; then
  echo "No magnet found; aborting add."
  exit 1
fi

curl -s -b /tmp/qb_cookies.txt -X POST "$QBIT/torrents/add" \
  -F "urls=$MAGNET" \
  -F "category=$CATEGORY" \
  -F "skip_checking=true" \
  -F "paused=false" \
  -F "root_folder=false" \
  -o /tmp/qbit_add_response.txt

cat /tmp/qbit_add_response.txt

Notes:

• AniBridge's shim may return plain text Ok. on success. A 200 response generally means the torrent was accepted.

• If the add endpoint expects different form fields, inspect app/api/qbittorrent/torrents.py.

6) Verify the torrent/job appears

List torrents for the category:

curl -s -G "$QBIT/torrents/info" --data-urlencode "category=$CATEGORY" | jq .

Check sync/maindata (used by Sonarr):

curl -s -G "$QBIT/sync/maindata" | jq '.'

If you don't have jq:

curl -s -G "$QBIT/torrents/info?category=$CATEGORY" | sed -n '1,120p'

7) Alternative: Use legacy downloader endpoint

AniBridge includes a legacy endpoint that can start a download by slug/season/episode. Example (replace slug):

curl -s "$HOST/downloader/download" \
  -G --data-urlencode "slug=seishun-buta-yarou-wa-bunny-girl-senpai-no-yume-wo-minai" \
  --data-urlencode "season=1" \
  --data-urlencode "episode=4" \
  -o /tmp/legacy_download_response.txt

sed -n '1,120p' /tmp/legacy_download_response.txt

8) Follow logs while the download runs

If logs are written to data/terminal-YYYY-MM-DD.log:

tail -f data/terminal-$(date +%F)_*.log

In Docker:

docker compose logs -f anibridge

Helpful tips and edge cases

• If Torznab returns provider page URLs instead of magnet URIs, you may need to use the legacy downloader or inspect the guid/link to map to the internal job creation endpoint.
• If the Torznab endpoint requires apikey, add &apikey=YOUR_KEY to the tvsearch request.
• If the qBittorrent shim returns errors, inspect app/api/qbittorrent/torrents.py to verify required parameters.