Alchemist docs
Alchemist documentation

Find a page.

Type at least two characters.

    Docs menu

    Guides

    Web Interface

    What each section of the Alchemist dashboard does.

    Source revision aeebc48

    Served by the same binary as the backend. Default: http://localhost:3000.

    Header bar

    Visible on every page. Shows engine state and provides Start and Stop controls plus About and Logout.

    • Start — begins processing
    • Stop — drain mode: active jobs finish, no new jobs start
    • About — version info, environment info, and update-check status

    Dashboard

    • Engine state and stat row (active, completed, failed, total)
    • Mobile Active Now panel with active job progress on narrow screens
    • Queue ETA panel with remaining jobs and a recent-throughput estimate
    • Recent Activity — last five jobs with status and timestamps
    • Resource Monitor — CPU, memory, GPU (updated via SSE)

    Jobs

    Tabs: Active / Queued / Completed / Failed / Cancelled / Skipped / Archived

    Search matches file paths plus stored skip and failure explanation text.

    Click any job to open the detail panel:

    • Input metadata (codec, resolution, bitrate, duration, HDR)
    • Output stats (size, compression ratio, speed, VMAF)
    • Skip or failure reason in plain English, including known FFmpeg stderr signatures when available
    • Per-file attempt history for retries and reruns
    • Queue position and blocked reason for queued jobs

    Right-click a job row to open the row action menu, including Copy input path.

    • Full FFmpeg log

    Bulk actions via checkboxes: restart, cancel, delete. Terminal tabs can be cleared from the active table without deleting the underlying history.

    Logs

    Real-time log viewer (SSE). Entries grouped by job — click a header to expand. System logs appear at the top. Filterable by level, searchable.

    Statistics

    Space savings area chart, per-codec breakdown, aggregate totals, and a storage-reclaimed equivalent. Fills in as jobs complete.

    Intelligence

    • Duplicate groups by basename
    • Remux-only opportunities
    • Wasteful audio layout recommendations
    • Commentary / descriptive-track cleanup candidates

    Convert

    Experimental single-file utility:

    • Upload a file (bounded by conversion_upload_limit_gb, default 8 GiB)
    • Probe streams and metadata
    • Configure transcode or remux settings
    • Preview the generated FFmpeg command plus source/output summary and estimated savings
    • Queue the job and download the result when complete

    Library & Intake

    Watch Folders includes a Preview action that runs the planner in dry-run mode for a folder and shows skip, remux, encode, error, and sample-file results without enqueueing work.

    Uploads and generated outputs are removed automatically by a cleanup sweep that runs on every upload. The retention window after a successful download is governed by conversion_download_retention_hours (default 1 hour).

    Convert uses the same analyzer, planner, queue, and executor as library jobs. Treat it as a one-off utility, not a second core workflow.

    Settings tabs

    TabControls
    LibraryWatch folders, scan trigger
    Watch FoldersExtra monitored directories
    TranscodingCodec, quality, thresholds, stream rules
    HardwareGPU vendor, device path, fallback, probe log, cached detection state
    File SettingsOutput extension, suffix, output root, replace strategy, and a staged-change impact summary
    QualityVMAF scoring, minimum score, revert on failure
    NotificationsDiscord webhook, Discord bot, Gotify, ntfy, Telegram, email, webhook targets, quiet hours, daily summary time
    API TokensNamed bearer tokens with read_only, arr_webhook, and full_access classes
    ScheduleTime windows
    RuntimeEngine mode, concurrent jobs override, Library Doctor, database backup
    SystemMonitoring poll interval, manual conversion upload limit and post-download retention, update channel/check settings, telemetry toggle, watch-folder switch, metrics switch
    AppearanceColor theme (35+ themes)
    ConfigRaw TOML editor with no-persistence validation preview before apply

    Runtime backup validation is also available through POST /api/v1/system/backup/validate-restore for operators who want to inspect a downloaded .db.gz snapshot before planning a manual restore.

    Authoritative source

    This page is generated from the editable Markdown in the Alchemist repository.

    View docs/content/web-interface.md at aeebc48

    Documentation © Brooklyn Halmstad. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

    A Dead Signal Works project.