Restream

Restream is a browser player for one Stalker/MAG IPTV portal. Watch live TV, movies, and series from devices on your network without installing an IPTV app on each one.

Browsers <-- HTTP(S) --> Restream <-- Stalker portal --> Provider
                           |
                           +-- SQLite cache in /data
                           +-- FFmpeg --> HLS playback

Run with Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/pushpinderbal/restream.git
cd restream
cp .env.example .env

Set STALKER_PORTAL_URL and STALKER_MAC in .env to your portal URL and registered MAC address, then run:

docker compose up -d

Compose pulls ghcr.io/pushpinderbal/restream:latest. Open http://localhost:8080 or your server's LAN address. Keep .env private. See .env.example for optional portal device identity and refresh settings.

Choose Live TV, Movies, or Series, browse or search, then open a title and press Play.

Open Settings to check library and programme guide sync states, last successful and upcoming refreshes, guide coverage, and stream usage. Use the refresh icon beside each sync state to start a background refresh without interrupting playback. The icon spins and its state changes to Syncing while the refresh runs. A successful library refresh updates live channels and categories and expires cached movie, series, and episode lists. Open lists reload automatically; other lists fetch fresh data when next visited. Refreshes respect provider cooldowns. Intervals and playback limits are configured in .env.

To update the published app:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Develop with Docker Compose

Use the standalone compose.dev.yaml for local development. Configure .env as above, then run from the repository root:

docker compose -f compose.dev.yaml up --build --watch

Or use mise run dev if you have mise installed. Development only requires Docker Compose 2.32 or newer; Go, Bun, and FFmpeg run inside the containers.

Open http://localhost:5173 or your development machine's LAN address on port 5173. The frontend proxies API requests and video playback to the development backend over the Compose network.

• React and CSS edits hot reload from the mounted web/ directory, without a container rebuild.
• Go source changes automatically rebuild and restart the backend through Compose Watch. Active playback stops when the backend restarts.
• Changes to web/package.json or web/bun.lock restart the frontend and reinstall dependencies.
• Development uses separate data and dependency volumes from the published app. The backend build skips the production UI bundle.

Stop development with Ctrl+C, or remove its containers while retaining cached data:

docker compose -f compose.dev.yaml down

The equivalent mise commands are mise run dev:logs and mise run dev:down. Plain docker compose up -d continues to run the published app on port 8080. Use the development file by itself, rather than combining it with compose.yaml.

To work on the UI using a locally installed Bun instead, keep a backend running on localhost:8080 and run mise run dev:ui, or run bun install --frozen-lockfile followed by bun run dev from web/.

How it works

Restream caches live channels, guide data, categories, and requested movie and series pages in SQLite under /data. It fetches movie and series pages as people browse; it does not download the full catalog at startup. Movie and series pages expire after CATALOG_REFRESH_INTERVAL (default 24h). Episode lists are shared after the first visit and expire independently after EPISODE_CACHE_TTL (default 1h); reopening a series after expiry checks for new episodes. Successful manual and scheduled library refreshes expire these lists immediately while retaining title records used by active playback. Keep the /data volume to retain the cache across restarts.

Each viewer uses a separate upstream stream. MAX_STREAMS (default: 1) limits simultaneous players, including paused players; when all slots are in use, the browser shows a warning. Set the limit within your provider's allowance.

Restream has no built-in client authentication. If you expose it beyond your LAN, put authentication in front of it and proxy the entire site, including /api/streams/. Run one container replica because playback slots and FFmpeg sessions are local to that container.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.