The core philosophy behind a modern self-hosted media ecosystem is set it and forget it. Once properly designed, the system should continuously monitor, acquire, process, optimize, and present media with minimal human intervention.

Automation tools are not optional enhancements — they are the control plane that makes large libraries manageable, scalable, and sustainable over time.

This page introduces the automation concepts used throughout Trash Panda Guides and explains how the tools in this ecosystem complement one another. Individual configuration and tuning is covered in dedicated pages.

Manual media management does not scale.

Without automation, a growing library quickly becomes:

• Time-consuming to maintain
• Inconsistent in quality
• Fragile during upgrades or rebuilds
• Prone to human error

Automation shifts responsibility from the operator to the system. Once configured:

• New content is discovered automatically
• Missing or upgraded releases are tracked continuously
• Media is processed consistently
• Libraries self-heal when files are replaced or improved

The result is a media environment that behaves more like an appliance than a hobby project.

In a properly designed automation stack:

• You express *intent* (what you want)
• The system handles *execution* (how it happens)

Examples:

• Adding a movie triggers search, acquisition, import, and optimization
• Higher-quality releases automatically replace inferior ones
• Media is standardized without manual intervention
• Plex reflects changes without rescans or micromanagement

This is not about piracy — it is about self-management.

Each tool in the stack has a single, clearly defined responsibility. Overlap is intentional but controlled.

At a high level:

• Indexing tools discover content sources
• Management tools track desired media
• Download tools acquire content
• Post-processing tools normalize and optimize media
• Plex presents the final result

No single tool does everything — and that is by design.

A typical automated flow looks like this:

1. You add a movie, show, or artist 2. Management tools monitor for availability 3. Indexers provide searchable sources 4. Download clients retrieve the content 5. Media is imported into the library 6. Optimization tools standardize files 7. Plex updates automatically

Each step is handled by a tool specialized for that task.

Prowlarr is the indexer management layer for the automation stack.

Primary responsibilities:

• Centralized management of indexers
• Consistent configuration across Sonarr and Radarr
• Health monitoring of indexer availability

Why it matters: Without Prowlarr, each application manages indexers independently, leading to duplicated effort, inconsistent results, and configuration drift.

Prowlarr ensures that discovery is uniform and reliable across the ecosystem.

Sonarr manages episodic television content.

Primary responsibilities:

• Track TV series and seasons
• Monitor for missing or upgraded episodes
• Enforce quality and format expectations
• Coordinate downloads and imports

Why it matters: TV libraries change constantly. Sonarr ensures that episodes appear automatically, stay complete, and improve over time without manual checks.

Radarr manages movie libraries.

Primary responsibilities:

• Track wanted movies
• Search for available releases
• Enforce quality and format rules
• Replace inferior versions automatically

Why it matters: Movies are static, but releases are not. Radarr ensures your movie library converges toward your desired quality over time.

Jackett provides indexer compatibility and translation.

Primary responsibilities:

• Bridge unsupported or custom indexers
• Normalize indexer APIs for automation tools
• Extend discovery beyond native support

Why it matters: Not all indexers integrate cleanly. Jackett expands the ecosystem’s reach without forcing compromises elsewhere.

qBittorrent is the acquisition engine.

Primary responsibilities:

• Execute downloads requested by automation tools
• Manage torrent lifecycle
• Report status and completion

Why it matters: Automation tools do not download media themselves. qBittorrent provides a stable, scriptable, automation-friendly backend for acquisition.

Unmanic is the media normalization and optimization layer.

Primary responsibilities:

• Standardize codecs and containers
• Reduce storage footprint
• Enforce consistency across libraries
• Operate continuously in the background

Why it matters: Media sourced from multiple origins is inherently inconsistent. Unmanic ensures your library remains efficient, predictable, and Plex-friendly over time.

These tools are intentionally specialized:

• Discovery is separate from management
• Management is separate from acquisition
• Acquisition is separate from optimization
• Playback is separate from all of the above

This separation:

• Reduces failure domains
• Simplifies troubleshooting
• Allows components to be replaced independently
• Keeps the system understandable months or years later

Treat automation tools like infrastructure, not applications.

Once configured:

• They should require minimal attention
• Logs should be quiet
• Intervention should be rare and deliberate

If you are constantly “fixing” automation, something upstream is misdesigned.

This page exists to:

• Introduce automation concepts
• Explain *why* these tools exist
• Provide mental models for how they interact

It intentionally avoids:

• Installation steps
• Configuration screenshots
• Tuning recommendations

Each tool has a dedicated guide that builds on the concepts introduced here.

Automation is not about convenience — it is about resilience.

A properly automated media ecosystem:

• Survives operator absence
• Recovers from failures gracefully
• Improves itself over time
• Scales without added complexity

When designed correctly, the system runs quietly in the background — exactly as intended.