Your first movie job

This walkthrough sets up a movie job using TMDB → Blockbusterr → Radarr. You do not need Trakt, MDBList, Sonarr, or a request manager to follow it.

You should already have Radarr working with a root folder and quality profile. Blockbusterr chooses movies to send there; it does not configure Radarr’s indexers or download client.

If you want shows, use Sonarr and a TV Show job instead. For requests, follow Jellyseerr/Seerr.

1. Start Blockbusterr with dry-run enabled

For a new Docker installation:

docker run -d \
  --name blockbusterr \
  -p 9090:9090 \
  -v blockbusterr-data:/app/data \
  -e BLOCKBUSTERR_DRY_RUN=true \
  -e TZ=America/Chicago \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  ghcr.io/mahcks/blockbusterr:v2.0.1

Replace the timezone with yours. Open http://localhost:9090 if Docker runs on your computer, or http://YOUR-SERVER-IP:9090 if it runs on a NAS or another machine. Open Jobs and check that the Dry-run mode is active banner appears.

Dry-run lets jobs evaluate titles and record what they would do without sending additions or requests. This matters because Custom Job creates an enabled job, while ready-made recipes create disabled jobs.

Already installed? Add BLOCKBUSTERR_DRY_RUN=true to the existing container’s environment and recreate it with the same data mount. Do not create a second instance against that mount. See Installation or Deployment platforms for Compose and NAS instructions.

Access to the web interface

Keep the app on a trusted network. You can enable a login by setting BLOCKBUSTERR_AUTH_TOKEN to a random value of at least 32 characters; the username is blockbusterr. See Configuration for details.

2. Connect TMDB

1. Get the API credential described in the TMDB setup guide.
2. Open Settings → Connections → TMDB.
3. Enter the credential and save Settings.

This supplies the movies and their metadata. TMDB jobs use TMDB audience ratings on a 0–10 scale. You do not need to build a movie list on another website.

3. Connect Radarr

1. In Radarr, copy the API key from Settings → General.
2. In Blockbusterr, open Settings → Connections → Radarr.
3. Enter Radarr’s URL and API key, then test the connection.
4. Load and choose a quality profile and root folder. These come from Radarr, so create them there first if needed.
5. In Settings → Automation, choose Direct as the delivery mode, then save Settings.

If both containers share a Docker network and the Radarr service is named radarr, its URL can be http://radarr:7878. Otherwise use an address reachable from Blockbusterr, such as http://YOUR-SERVER-IP:7878. Inside a container, localhost means that container, not your NAS or another app.

The root folder is a path inside Radarr, such as /movies. Blockbusterr does not need your movie folder mounted into its own container. The Radarr guide covers these fields in more detail.

4. Make a small rule set

Open Rules, create a Movie rule set from Empty rule set, and name it My first movies.

Use these example preferences:

Setting	Example value	What it means
Required matches → Languages	en	Keep titles whose supplied original language is English
Boundaries → Minimum rating	6	Require at least 6/10 from this source
Boundaries → Minimum votes	100	Avoid deciding on only a handful of audience votes

Save the rule set. These are starting preferences, not recommended settings for everyone. Leave other conditions empty while learning how results change. Do not use Allow overrides for this walkthrough: those are exceptions that can bypass other rules.

If you prefer films with fewer audience votes, lower the vote minimum. For subtitles or dubbed audio, remember that original language does not describe the audio tracks in a downloadable release.

5. Create the job

In Jobs → New job → Custom Job, enter:

Field	Value
Job Name	My first trending movies
Job Type	Trending
Media Type	Movie
Discovery Source	TMDB
Rule set	My first movies
Discovery limit	50
Job delivery cap	3
Include in ranked selection	Off

Create it, then open the job to edit its delivery mode to Direct (Radarr/Sonarr) if necessary. Expand Delivery & schedule and set Custom Sync Interval to 24h if you want it to run daily, and save.

The discovery limit asks for up to 50 candidates. The delivery cap allows at most 3 successful additions in a live run. The job may add fewer if few titles pass, titles already exist, or a shared limit has been reached.

Prefer a preset? The recipe picker shows each recipe’s source, rules, and limits. A ready recipe stays disabled and opens Preview. Most create dedicated rules; Personal Watchlist uses Default Movies. Review those settings rather than assuming they match this example.

6. Preview and read the decisions

Open Preview on the job. Pick a few titles and read their rule checks:

• An English-language movie rated 7.2 with 500 votes passes these rules.
• A movie rated 5.4 fails the minimum rating.
• A movie with 20 votes fails the minimum votes, even if its rating is 9.
• A passing movie already in Radarr is skipped.

The numbers above are examples, not promised results from today’s feed. If nothing passes, look at the actual rejection reasons before changing settings.

Preview does not add anything. Its eligible count is not a promise of the live delivery count: a normal job preview does not simulate every delivery cap, and the source or destination can change before a run. With dry-run still enabled, you can also use Run now to inspect a simulated execution in Activity.

7. Turn on real additions

When the results look right:

1. Disable other jobs you are not ready to run. Enabled duration-based jobs can run when Blockbusterr starts.
2. Remove BLOCKBUSTERR_DRY_RUN or set it to false in your container settings and recreate the container with the same data mount. With Compose, use docker compose up -d blockbusterr after editing the environment.
3. Confirm the dry-run banner is gone. Enable your job if you disabled it or used a recipe.
4. Check Activity for a startup run before choosing Run now; the daily job may already have run.
5. Open Radarr and confirm that the added titles appear.

An added title may still be waiting for a suitable release. Check Radarr’s monitoring, minimum availability, search settings, and download activity if it has no file yet.

8. Check what happened

Activity Entries explain individual titles. Job Runs summarize an execution, including failures. A run can complete successfully without adding anything if all candidates were rejected or already present.

Dry-run history may say Added or Requested with a [DRY RUN] message. Read that message before treating an entry as a real delivery.

Next, try the sci-fi, recommendations, lists, and shared-limit examples, or use Activity and troubleshooting if your result differs from what you expected.