Automate Your Downloads: How to Set Up Autobrr with SonicBit for Instant, Filtered Torrent Grabs

Automate Your Downloads: How to Set Up Autobrr with SonicBit for Instant, Filtered Torrent Grabs

You know that feeling when a private tracker announces a release and you're refreshing the page like it's concert tickets? By the time you spot it, grab the magnet link, and paste it into your client, ten other people already beat you to the ratio. That's the exact problem Autobrr was built to solve — and on SonicBit, you can run it as a one-click app without touching a config file by hand.

In this guide, you'll learn what Autobrr actually does, how to deploy it on your SonicBit seedbox, and how to wire it up to your indexers and download client so torrents start moving the second they're announced — not five minutes later when you finally check your phone.

What Is Autobrr, Exactly?

Autobrr is a download automation tool that listens to IRC announce channels and RSS feeds from your indexers in real time. When a release matching your filter criteria shows up, Autobrr grabs it and pushes it straight to your download client — no manual searching, no browser tabs, no waiting.

Think of it as a bouncer standing at the door of every tracker you're on, checking every new release against a list you wrote ("only 1080p", "only this show", "only remux releases from these three uploaders") and instantly waving through anything that matches.

This matters most for:

• Private tracker seeding, where being first to grab a torrent means a better seed-to-peer ratio
• TV show automation, where you want an episode moving to Sonarr the moment it airs
• Scene/P2P group filtering, where you only trust releases from specific groups

Why Run It on SonicBit Instead of Self-Hosting

Normally, setting up Autobrr means SSH-ing into a VPS, editing a config.toml file, managing a systemd service, and hoping your IRC connection doesn't silently die at 3am. On SonicBit, that entire setup collapses into a single click.

Because Autobrr is a lightweight app, it runs comfortably on a basic app slot — you don't need a performance slot reserved for it, which means even a Nano or Starter plan has room for it alongside your download client.

Prerequisites

Before you start, make sure you have:

• A SonicBit account with at least one free app slot (Autobrr is a light app)
• A download client already deployed on SonicBit — qBittorrent or Deluge work great
• Accounts on the indexers/trackers you want to automate, with IRC announce access details or RSS feed URLs (check your tracker's wiki for these — they're usually under "IRC" or "API" in your profile)

Step 1: Deploy Autobrr from the Apps Page

1. Log into your SonicBit dashboard
2. Head to Apps and search for Autobrr
3. Click Install — you can also jump straight there via https://my.sonicbit.net/apps?install_app_id={autobrr_id}
4. Wait for the deployment to finish; SonicBit handles the container, subdomain, and SSL certificate automatically

!Installing Autobrr from the SonicBit apps page

Once it's up, open the app from your dashboard and complete the first-run setup: create your admin username and password.

Step 2: Connect Your Indexer

Inside Autobrr, go to Settings > Indexers > Add New. Most private trackers are already in Autobrr's built-in indexer definitions, so you just search for your tracker's name and select it.

You'll need to fill in:

• IRC server, port, and channel (from your tracker's wiki page)
• Invite command or API key, depending on the tracker
• NickServ password if your tracker requires IRC authentication

## Example values you'd pull from a tracker's IRC wiki page
server: irc.example-tracker.net
port: 6697
tls: true
channels:
  - "#example-announce"
nickserv:
  account: your_username
  password: your_irc_password

Once connected, Autobrr's Irc page should show the channel status as "Connected" with a green indicator.

Step 3: Build a Filter

This is where the magic happens. Filters decide what actually gets grabbed. Go to Filters > Add New and give it a name like "TV Remux Only."

Common filter fields include:

• Shows/Movies: match by title, using regex if needed
• Resolutions: e.g. only 1080p or 2160p
• Release groups: whitelist trusted uploaders
• Categories: TV, Movies, Music, etc.
• Freeleech: only grab freeleech releases to protect your ratio
• Minimum seeders: skip dead torrents

A practical example: say you only want 1080p episodes of a specific show from two trusted groups.

Shows: Example Show Name
Resolutions: 1080p
Release Groups: GROUP1, GROUP2
Match Releases: *S0[1-9]*

Autobrr checks every announce against every active filter, so you can stack as many as you want — one for TV, one for movies, one for music — without them interfering with each other.

Step 4: Connect Autobrr to Your SonicBit Download Client

Now tell Autobrr where to send matched torrents. Go to Settings > Clients > Add New and select your client type (qBittorrent or Deluge).

Since both apps run inside your SonicBit dashboard, you'll use their internal app URL and the credentials you set during their own one-click deployment:

## Example client connection details
Host: qbittorrent.yourusername.sonicbit.net
Port: 443
Username: your_qbit_username
Password: your_qbit_password

Under the filter you built in Step 3, scroll to the Action section and set it to push to this client, optionally specifying a save path or category tag so Sonarr/Radarr can pick it up automatically afterward.

Step 5: Test It

Autobrr has a built-in Filters > Test feature where you can paste a sample release name and see whether it matches. Run a few test titles through your filter before going live, since a badly written regex will either grab everything or nothing.

Practical Use Cases

• Beat the swarm on private trackers: grab freeleech releases the second they post, protecting your ratio and boosting your seed time
• Full TV automation: pair Autobrr with Sonarr and Bazarr so an episode airs, gets grabbed, gets subtitled, and shows up in Plex — all without you opening a browser
• Scene group curation: only ever download from uploaders you actually trust, cutting out fake or low-quality releases automatically
• Multi-tracker consolidation: run filters across several indexers at once so you don't have to babysit five different tracker RSS feeds

What's Next?

Once Autobrr is grabbing releases automatically, the natural next step is connecting it to Sonarr and Radarr so matched downloads get organized, renamed, and handed off to Plex or Jellyfin without any manual steps in between. If you're seeding on a private tracker, pairing Autobrr with a PrivateX1 or PrivateX2 plan gives you the upload speed to make those early grabs actually count toward your ratio.

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