` or the error in the warn colour, clear the input on success. **Play(m, force)**: 1. Show the player view with the title and description. Status text: `Looking for peers to fetch metadata…` when `metadataKnown` is false, else `Starting torrent…`. 2. Start a 1 s "waiting" ticker that polls `/api/movies/:id/status` and writes `Looking for peers to fetch metadata… 3 peers connected · 12s` (or `connecting` when status is 404). After 20 s without metadata append `· still no metadata, this swarm may be dead (a .torrent URL with webseeds works better)`. 3. `POST /api/movies/:id/play?force=1` (query only when `force`). On success stop the ticker, merge `r.item` into the card's item, set `video.src = r.streamUrl`, attempt `video.play()`, and start the 1 s status poll. On failure stop the ticker and show `Failed: <message> (<reasons>)`. 4. Log `[plaier] url param source: …`, `[plaier] addSource -> <id>`, `[plaier] play <id> force=…`, `[plaier] play ok <streamUrl>` / `[plaier] play failed …` to the console (the Electron shell forwards these to its log file). **Status poll** (every second while playing): update the three bar layers (downloaded %, buffered-to %, played %) and the text line: ``` Big Buck Bunny.mp4 · downloaded 27.2% (35 MB / 129 MB) · 5.7 MB/s (45.87 Mbit/s) · 12 peers (9 seeding) · buffered to 24s · playing ``` "buffered to" is the end of the `video.buffered` range that contains `currentTime` with a ±1 s tolerance (otherwise it reads 0 whenever the playhead sits exactly on a range edge). The last word is `buffering` when `readyState < 3`, else `paused` or `playing`. **Back** (and the wordmark while playing): stop polling, pause, remove `src`, `load()`, `DELETE /api/movies/:id/play`, show the grid. ### 13. Behaviours worth reproducing exactly - **Sequential + critical**: measured cold start to first frame 1–7 s; a seek to 80 % of a file at 3 % downloaded plays after ~3 s. Seeks inside the downloaded region are instant. Native controls show the timeline because every response is `206` with `Accept-Ranges`, `Content-Length` and `Content-Range`. - **Resume**: data survives `stop`; a restart serves 20 MB from disk in ~0.3 s. - **Only the chosen file** is selected. One small partial file may still appear for a neighbouring file where a piece straddles the boundary. Expected. - **Scrapes are advisory**: swarms that live on DHT report 0 on trackers. The probe is what the badge trusts; "0 seeds" from a scrape means nothing on its own. - **Idempotent add**: the same infohash twice replaces the entry; a reload of a page that was opened with `?magnet=` does nothing new. - **Magnets built from Internet Archive items have no peers**: IA torrents are served by webseeds, which magnets do not carry. Use the item's `https://archive.org/download/<id>/<id>_archive.torrent` URL instead; the `.torrent` carries the webseeds and starts instantly. - **Timeouts**: play metadata 90 s; probe metadata 15 s, settle 6 s; scrape 5 s per tracker; quit waits at most 3 s for the client to close. ### 15. Icon `build/icon.svg`, 1024×1024: a rounded square (`x=100 y=100 w=824 h=824 rx=184`) with a vertical gradient `#2b2b2b → #101010` and a soft drop shadow; a red play triangle (`M400 300 L700 492 L400 684 Z`, gradient `#ff2a36 → #c4060f`, 44 px rounded stroke, red glow); and a "piece bar" of five 80×44 rounded rectangles at y=736 starting at x=272 with a 100 px pitch, three in `#e50914` then `#6a6a6a` and `#3a3a3a`. Rasterise to `build/icon.png` (on macOS without extra tools: `qlmanage -t -s 1024 -o <dir> build/icon.svg` writes `icon.svg.png`). Copy to `public/icon.png` for the favicon. ## Acceptance checks Use these public-domain torrents (Blender open movies): - Sintel `.torrent`: `https://webtorrent.io/torrents/sintel.torrent` (also as magnet infohash `08ada5a7a6183aae1e09d831df6748d566095a10`) - Big Buck Bunny magnet: `magnet:?xt=urn:btih:dd8255ecdc7ca55fb0bbf81323d87062db1f6d1c&dn=Big+Buck+Bunny` - Tears of Steel magnet (WebM): `magnet:?xt=urn:btih:209c8226b299b308beaf2b9cd3fb49212dbd13ec&dn=Tears+of+Steel` 1. `npm start`, open `http://localhost:3000`, paste the Sintel `.torrent` URL → card shows `129 MB · MP4`, badge resolves to green within ~10 s, click → playing within seconds. 2. Paste the Big Buck Bunny magnet → `size unknown until peers found`; click → metadata over DHT in ~1 s, playing; after Back the card reads `276 MB · MP4` with a badge like `7 seeds / 10 peers`. 3. Click the native timeline at 80 % → playing again within a few seconds; the status line shows the download jumping to that region. 4. `curl -I -H 'Range: bytes=0-1' localhost:3000/stream/<id>` → `206`, `Content-Range: bytes 0-1/<total>`; `bytes=-100` → the last 100 bytes; `bytes=999999999999-` → `416`. 5. Back → `GET /api/active` is `[]`; play again → instant from disk. 6. `http://localhost:3000/?magnet=<url-encoded magnet>` → added and playing without clicks, query removed from the address bar. 7. Paste a magnet with a bogus infohash → status ticks `… N peers connected · 12s`, and after 20 s adds the dead-swarm hint; after 90 s `Failed: no metadata after 90s`. 8. `npm run electron` → window opens, server on a random port, data under `~/Library/Application Support/plaier/data`. 9. `npm run dist`, copy to `/Applications`. With Plaier closed, `open "<magnet>"` launches it into the player. With Plaier running, `open -a Plaier "<other magnet>"` switches the window to that torrent and `/api/active` on the app's port lists it within seconds. Firing a second magnet 3 s after a cold launch (while the page is still probing) must also play; this exercises probe adoption. 10. `~/Library/Application Support/plaier/plaier-main.log` shows `open-url`, `openSource … win= true handle= true`, `did-navigate`, and the renderer's `[plaier] play ok` for each send. ## Hand-off to the person Tell them, in plain words: - Plaier is in their Applications folder. Suggest dragging it to the Dock. - How to use it: paste a magnet link or a `.torrent` link and click the card. If they chose to, clicking a magnet link in their browser opens Plaier straight away. - The badge tells them whether enough people are sharing a torrent for it to play. Green means good. Some torrents simply have nobody sharing them any more. - Downloaded videos are kept in `~/Library/Application Support/plaier/data/downloads`. Show them how to open that folder in Finder, and that they can delete files there to free up space. - While Plaier is playing, it also shares the pieces it has downloaded with other people. That's how torrents work. - Where to find films they're allowed to watch: the Internet Archive's feature films and public-domain collections (use the item's `.torrent` link, which starts much faster than a magnet), and the Blender Foundation's open movies such as *Sintel* and *Big Buck Bunny*. Only play torrents they have the rights to. - Which choices you made: whether Plaier opens magnet links, and where the project folder is.

--- title: "Torrent Video Player" slug: torrent-video-player version: 1.0.0 updated: 2026-10-20 sha256: 2ee45b4372fafc0f933a73d6b901467de4f25a7a9c66ea804b3204ba09974bb5 category: computer-tools category_name: "Computer Tools" source: https://promptbai.bonq.foo/r/torrent-video-player.md check: https://promptbai.bonq.foo/r/torrent-video-player.json --- # Torrent Video Player — a promptbai recipe (v1.0.0) > Watch a video from a torrent while it's still downloading ## Instructions for the AI agent (read first) You are an AI coding agent. A person (who is probably **not** a programmer) has asked you to build this for them by following this recipe from promptbai (https://promptbai.bonq.foo). 1. **Read the whole recipe before you start.** Then follow it section by section. 2. **Talk to the person in plain language.** Avoid jargon. When you need a decision from them, ask one short question at a time and offer a sensible default. 3. **Ask when something is unclear** instead of guessing on things that matter to them (names, colors, personal details). Use your judgment on purely technical details. If the person doesn't answer or isn't available, use the defaults the recipe gives and keep going. 4. **Respect the Constraints section.** If the person's setup makes a constraint impossible, explain why and suggest the closest alternative. 5. **Check your work** against the Acceptance checks before you say you are done. 6. **Write a file named `promptbai.json`** in the root of the project folder with these values (formatting may differ), so the build can be updated later: ```json { "slug": "torrent-video-player", "version": "1.0.0", "sha256": "2ee45b4372fafc0f933a73d6b901467de4f25a7a9c66ea804b3204ba09974bb5", "source": "https://promptbai.bonq.foo/r/torrent-video-player.md", "check": "https://promptbai.bonq.foo/r/torrent-video-player.json" } ``` 7. **If you can't create files yourself** (for example, you are a chat assistant), give the person each file in full, one at a time. Tell them exactly what to name it, where to save it, and how to save it with an app they already have. 8. **Finish with the Hand-off section:** tell the person, simply, where their new thing is, how to open it, and how to use it. Include a short "your choices" note listing the options you used (theirs or the defaults) and how to change them later. 9. **Where practical, keep core logic** (dates, calculations, parsing) in plain functions you can test outside a browser, for example with `node`. In a single-file app, put them in their own ` ``` Plus `` and the stylesheet in ``. #### `app.js` behaviour State: `movies[]` (the custom items, newest first), `current` (identifier being played or null), `statusTimer`. **Load**: `GET /api/movies` → `movies = data.custom` → render → start seed checks for every playable item without cached seeds, 2 at a time, updating the card as each result arrives → then handle URL parameters. **URL parameters**: read `magnet`, `torrent`, or `source` from `location.search`. If present: `history.replaceState` to strip the query, add the source (`POST /api/custom`), put the card first, start its seed check in the background, and immediately `play(item, force = true)`. **Card**: a 2:3 placeholder poster with a 🧲 glyph, a ✕ remove button (top right), title, meta line (`276 MB · MP4`, or `size unknown until peers found`), and a badge: | State | Badge | | --- | --- | | no seed result yet | `not checked` / `checking swarm…` (grey) | | playable | `▶ 7 seeds / 10 peers + 1 webseed` (green); peers part only if `peers > seeders`, webseed part only if `> 0` | | not playable | `✗ ` (orange); full counts in the tooltip | | `playableFile` false | ` not browser-playable` (orange, card dimmed) | | active | `streaming 42%` (accent) | Clicking a card **always** tries to play (`force = true`); the badge is advisory. Cards with `playableFile` false show an alert instead. ✕ stops playback if it is the current item, calls `DELETE /api/custom/:id`, and removes the card. **Paste form**: on submit, add the source, show `Adding…` → `Added ` or the error in the warn colour, clear the input on success. **Play(m, force)**: 1. Show the player view with the title and description. Status text: `Looking for peers to fetch metadata…` when `metadataKnown` is false, else `Starting torrent…`. 2. Start a 1 s "waiting" ticker that polls `/api/movies/:id/status` and writes `Looking for peers to fetch metadata… 3 peers connected · 12s` (or `connecting` when status is 404). After 20 s without metadata append `· still no metadata, this swarm may be dead (a .torrent URL with webseeds works better)`. 3. `POST /api/movies/:id/play?force=1` (query only when `force`). On success stop the ticker, merge `r.item` into the card's item, set `video.src = r.streamUrl`, attempt `video.play()`, and start the 1 s status poll. On failure stop the ticker and show `Failed: <message> (<reasons>)`. 4. Log `[plaier] url param source: …`, `[plaier] addSource -> <id>`, `[plaier] play <id> force=…`, `[plaier] play ok <streamUrl>` / `[plaier] play failed …` to the console (the Electron shell forwards these to its log file). **Status poll** (every second while playing): update the three bar layers (downloaded %, buffered-to %, played %) and the text line: ``` Big Buck Bunny.mp4 · downloaded 27.2% (35 MB / 129 MB) · 5.7 MB/s (45.87 Mbit/s) · 12 peers (9 seeding) · buffered to 24s · playing ``` "buffered to" is the end of the `video.buffered` range that contains `currentTime` with a ±1 s tolerance (otherwise it reads 0 whenever the playhead sits exactly on a range edge). The last word is `buffering` when `readyState < 3`, else `paused` or `playing`. **Back** (and the wordmark while playing): stop polling, pause, remove `src`, `load()`, `DELETE /api/movies/:id/play`, show the grid. ### 13. Behaviours worth reproducing exactly - **Sequential + critical**: measured cold start to first frame 1–7 s; a seek to 80 % of a file at 3 % downloaded plays after ~3 s. Seeks inside the downloaded region are instant. Native controls show the timeline because every response is `206` with `Accept-Ranges`, `Content-Length` and `Content-Range`. - **Resume**: data survives `stop`; a restart serves 20 MB from disk in ~0.3 s. - **Only the chosen file** is selected. One small partial file may still appear for a neighbouring file where a piece straddles the boundary. Expected. - **Scrapes are advisory**: swarms that live on DHT report 0 on trackers. The probe is what the badge trusts; "0 seeds" from a scrape means nothing on its own. - **Idempotent add**: the same infohash twice replaces the entry; a reload of a page that was opened with `?magnet=` does nothing new. - **Magnets built from Internet Archive items have no peers**: IA torrents are served by webseeds, which magnets do not carry. Use the item's `https://archive.org/download/<id>/<id>_archive.torrent` URL instead; the `.torrent` carries the webseeds and starts instantly. - **Timeouts**: play metadata 90 s; probe metadata 15 s, settle 6 s; scrape 5 s per tracker; quit waits at most 3 s for the client to close. ### 15. Icon `build/icon.svg`, 1024×1024: a rounded square (`x=100 y=100 w=824 h=824 rx=184`) with a vertical gradient `#2b2b2b → #101010` and a soft drop shadow; a red play triangle (`M400 300 L700 492 L400 684 Z`, gradient `#ff2a36 → #c4060f`, 44 px rounded stroke, red glow); and a "piece bar" of five 80×44 rounded rectangles at y=736 starting at x=272 with a 100 px pitch, three in `#e50914` then `#6a6a6a` and `#3a3a3a`. Rasterise to `build/icon.png` (on macOS without extra tools: `qlmanage -t -s 1024 -o <dir> build/icon.svg` writes `icon.svg.png`). Copy to `public/icon.png` for the favicon. ## Acceptance checks Use these public-domain torrents (Blender open movies): - Sintel `.torrent`: `https://webtorrent.io/torrents/sintel.torrent` (also as magnet infohash `08ada5a7a6183aae1e09d831df6748d566095a10`) - Big Buck Bunny magnet: `magnet:?xt=urn:btih:dd8255ecdc7ca55fb0bbf81323d87062db1f6d1c&dn=Big+Buck+Bunny` - Tears of Steel magnet (WebM): `magnet:?xt=urn:btih:209c8226b299b308beaf2b9cd3fb49212dbd13ec&dn=Tears+of+Steel` 1. `npm start`, open `http://localhost:3000`, paste the Sintel `.torrent` URL → card shows `129 MB · MP4`, badge resolves to green within ~10 s, click → playing within seconds. 2. Paste the Big Buck Bunny magnet → `size unknown until peers found`; click → metadata over DHT in ~1 s, playing; after Back the card reads `276 MB · MP4` with a badge like `7 seeds / 10 peers`. 3. Click the native timeline at 80 % → playing again within a few seconds; the status line shows the download jumping to that region. 4. `curl -I -H 'Range: bytes=0-1' localhost:3000/stream/<id>` → `206`, `Content-Range: bytes 0-1/<total>`; `bytes=-100` → the last 100 bytes; `bytes=999999999999-` → `416`. 5. Back → `GET /api/active` is `[]`; play again → instant from disk. 6. `http://localhost:3000/?magnet=<url-encoded magnet>` → added and playing without clicks, query removed from the address bar. 7. Paste a magnet with a bogus infohash → status ticks `… N peers connected · 12s`, and after 20 s adds the dead-swarm hint; after 90 s `Failed: no metadata after 90s`. 8. `npm run electron` → window opens, server on a random port, data under `~/Library/Application Support/plaier/data`. 9. `npm run dist`, copy to `/Applications`. With Plaier closed, `open "<magnet>"` launches it into the player. With Plaier running, `open -a Plaier "<other magnet>"` switches the window to that torrent and `/api/active` on the app's port lists it within seconds. Firing a second magnet 3 s after a cold launch (while the page is still probing) must also play; this exercises probe adoption. 10. `~/Library/Application Support/plaier/plaier-main.log` shows `open-url`, `openSource … win= true handle= true`, `did-navigate`, and the renderer's `[plaier] play ok` for each send. ## Hand-off to the person Tell them, in plain words: - Plaier is in their Applications folder. Suggest dragging it to the Dock. - How to use it: paste a magnet link or a `.torrent` link and click the card. If they chose to, clicking a magnet link in their browser opens Plaier straight away. - The badge tells them whether enough people are sharing a torrent for it to play. Green means good. Some torrents simply have nobody sharing them any more. - Downloaded videos are kept in `~/Library/Application Support/plaier/data/downloads`. Show them how to open that folder in Finder, and that they can delete files there to free up space. - While Plaier is playing, it also shares the pieces it has downloaded with other people. That's how torrents work. - Where to find films they're allowed to watch: the Internet Archive's feature films and public-domain collections (use the item's `.torrent` link, which starts much faster than a magnet), and the Blender Foundation's open movies such as *Sintel* and *Big Buck Bunny*. Only play torrents they have the rights to. - Which choices you made: whether Plaier opens magnet links, and where the project folder is.