I built a local-first media app where you can search, play, and download torrents
It's called Yaria.
It started as a video player, but over time it turned into a local-first media app for finding, downloading, and playing media without needing an account.
The torrent side is probably the part that might be interesting here.
You can search for media, pick a torrent source, and play it in the built-in player. You can also download the torrent and manage it from the same app.
The basic flow is:
search -> pick a source -> play or download
It supports:
- Torrent search and playback
- Torrent downloads
- Video/audio downloads through yt-dlp
- Pause/resume/retry
- Concurrent downloads
- Speed limits
- Local media library
- Continue watching
- Remote media over SSH/SFTP/SMB
- LAN media server + DLNA
- Built-in mpv and WebView players
- Subtitle and audio track support
You can also keep media on another PC/NAS and play it remotely instead of copying everything over.
The whole thing is designed to be local-first. No account required, no telemetry or analytics, and your library, settings, and watch history stay on your machine.
The app is open source and is mainly written in Go + Svelte.
There's also Yaria Bridge, a Firefox addon that lets you send the downloads to the desktop app over localhost. It's open source too.
The free Yaria side is mainly the downloader. Mantorex is the more complete media side with the torrent search, library, and playback features. It has a 30-day trial and Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription.
Currently available on Linux and Windows, with a CLI for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
I built this mostly because I wanted something that combined the things I normally needed several different apps for.
Give it a try if it sounds useful, and let me know what you think.
Posted Sep 2, 2026, 12:44 PM UTC