Quickstart

This is the five-minute path from nothing to a working kino instance with one item in the library. It assumes Docker; for native installs, see the platform-specific install guides linked at each step.

What you’ll need

• A machine to run kino on (your own laptop, a NAS, a small VPS, a Raspberry Pi 4/5 — anything with Docker).
• A directory you want to use as the media library.
• A free TMDB account so kino can look up posters and metadata. Registration is one page and takes about a minute.
• One indexer kino can search — either an existing Torznab- compatible endpoint you already run, or you can configure one from kino’s built-in catalogue during setup.

Note

kino is designed for media you have the right to access — your own rips, your own family videos, your own collection. The project assumes you bring your own indexers and you’re responsible for what you point them at.

1. Run kino

The Docker route works the same on Linux, macOS, and Windows:

docker run -d \
  --name kino \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -v ./data:/data \
  -v /path/to/media:/media \
  -e TZ=Europe/London \
  ghcr.io/kinostack-app/kino:latest

Replace /path/to/media with the directory you want kino to manage. The ./data mount holds kino’s database and config — keep it somewhere persistent (don’t put it inside the media directory).

For native installs (no Docker), see Linux, macOS, Windows, or Raspberry Pi.

2. Open the UI

Browse to http://localhost:8080 (or http://<host>:8080 if you ran kino on another machine).

The setup wizard appears automatically on first run. Skip ahead to First-run setup for the per-step walkthrough; the short version is below.

3. Walk through setup

1. Storage — point at your media library + a download staging directory. Inside Docker these are /media and /data/downloads by default.

2. Metadata — paste your TMDB Read Access Token. The wizard verifies it’s valid before letting you continue.

3. Languages — pick one or more languages you want releases in (e.g. English). Releases with other audio tracks get scored lower.

4. Indexers — either pick from the built-in catalogue (kino ships a few hundred Cardigann definitions you can opt into) or add a Torznab URL pointing at your existing indexer.

5. Ready — click finish.

4. Add something to the library

From the home page:

1. Click the search icon in the top bar
2. Type the title of a movie or show you want
3. Click a result to open the details page
4. Click Follow

kino marks the item as monitored, kicks off a search against your configured indexers, and starts a download when it finds an acceptable release. You can watch the download progress in Library → Downloads.

What’s next

• First-run setup walks through each wizard step in detail and explains the choices.
• Setup → Indexers covers indexer configuration in depth — including kino’s built-in Cardigann catalogue, Torznab integration, and per-indexer settings.
• Setup → VPN sets up the built-in WireGuard client for routing traffic through a VPN provider.
• Features → Library explains how the library, monitoring, and quality profiles fit together.

Stuck? See Troubleshooting — most first-run issues are covered there.