VuIO Media Server

A lightweight, high-performance, cross-platform media server written in Rust. Streams video, audio, and images to DLNA / UPnP, Chromecast / Google TV, and compatible AirPlay video receivers.

• Low resource usage: Uses only ~25 MB of RAM for a 5,000-object media library. For all functions listed below. And Less then 100Mb for 100000 objects.
• Modern asynchronous core: Built with Rust, Tokio, Axum, and SQLite for maximum concurrency and stability.
• Cross-platform: Native binaries for Linux, macOS, Windows (x64 and arm), Freebsd (x64), Docker, and Kubernetes. Repo with setup packages for all linux flows, DEB, RPM, APK, Pacman, musl and tar.gz.
• Single binary, no dependencies, All is included in the binary, no need to install anything else, just download and run.

Features

• DLNA/UPnP Media Server – Stream to any Smart TV or DLNA renderer with SSDP and mDNS (Bonjour) discovery.
• Multi-Protocol Casting – Play directly to DLNA, Chromecast/Google TV, and AirPlay video receivers from the web UI or API.
• Dual Web Interfaces – Modern Svelte web interface (:8090) alongside a lightweight built-in dashboard (:8080).
• AI Agent & MCP Integration – Native Model Context Protocol (MCP 2026-07-28) support for AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, autonomous agents) to browse, search, and cast.
• Instant Search & Fast Indexing – High-performance SQLite engine with parent-directory indexing and sub-millisecond SOAP browse cache.
• HTTP Range Streaming – Full seek support for massive 4K/UHD media files.
• Broad Format Support – MKV, MP4, AVI, WebM, MP3, FLAC, WAV, AAC, OGG, JPEG, PNG, and more.
• Audio Tagging & Playlists – Automatic extraction of artist, album, genre, and year tags; auto-imports M3U/M3U8 and PLS playlists.
• Live File Monitoring – Real-time filesystem watcher updates the library dynamically as files change.
• Live Configuration – 21 of 25 settings apply dynamically in place without restarting the server.
• Live Radio Broadcasting & P2P Tuner – Broadcast continuous radio stations from folder selections with synchronous playout clock and P2P peer station discovery across local VuIO instances.
• Multi-Provider Metadata Scraping (MediaInfo) – Automatic metadata, poster artwork, ratings, and synopsis enrichment via TMDb, OMDb, TVmaze, MusicBrainz, Discogs, Last.fm, Genius, AniList, Jikan, and Kitsu.
• On-the-Fly WebVTT Subtitle Conversion – Auto-detects sidecar SRT subtitles and transforms them dynamically to WebVTT for browser and cast playback with zero disk writes.
• HLS Video Streaming & In-Browser Player – Master playlist generation with segmented HLS streaming (/media/{id}/hls/master.m3u8), Plyr video player, and sticky audio player.
• Observability & Log Streaming – Native Kubernetes HA probes (/healthz, /readyz), Prometheus exposition metrics (/metrics), and HTTP log streaming (/logs) for Grafana Loki/Alloy.
• Granular Security & Admin Management – Optional administrative token protection, secure session management, and CIDR subnet access restrictions (allowed_networks).

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Quick Start

Homebrew (macOS & Linux)

brew tap vuiodev/vuio
brew install vuio

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name vuio-server \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  --network host \
  -v /path/to/media:/media:ro \
  -v ./vuio-config:/config \
  -e VUIO_IP=192.168.1.100 \
  ghcr.io/vuiodev/vuio:latest

Ubuntu / Debian

echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://vuiodev.github.io/vuio/apt stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vuio.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install vuio

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Documentation Index

Explore the detailed documentation guides for full installation, configuration, and integration instructions:

Guide	Description
📖 Installation Guide	Complete installation instructions for Linux (APT, DNF, APK, Pacman, musl), macOS, Windows, Docker, Kubernetes, FreeBSD, and Systemd.
🖥️ Web Interface & Dashboard	Modern Svelte web UI (:8090), built-in dashboard (:8080), media players, casting controls, and in-browser settings admin.
⚙️ Configuration Guide	Full TOML configuration reference (config.toml), live hot-reload vs restart behavior, and metadata provider API keys.
🐳 Docker Deployment	Docker Compose setups, single/multi/NFS volume mounting, network modes, and full environment variables table.
☸️ Kubernetes & Helm	Helm 3 chart deployment, host networking for SSDP multicast discovery, and persistent storage.
🤖 AI Agent & MCP Integration	Model Context Protocol setup, Claude integration (plugin, stdio, Desktop), and full tools reference catalog.
🔒 Security & Authentication	Administrative authentication, secure sign-in tokens, session lifetimes, and CIDR network restriction filters.
📊 Monitoring & Observability	High-availability probes (/healthz, /readyz), Prometheus metrics (/metrics), JSON telemetry, and DLNA browse caching.
📝 Logging & Diagnostics	Rolling background log files, --debug console tracing, custom log destinations, and log streaming endpoint (/logs).
🎵 Audio & Media Features	Music metadata extraction, supported lossless/lossy formats, playlist discovery, and recommended directory organization.
🔌 API Reference	Comprehensive REST, UPnP/DLNA SOAP, and MCP endpoint specifications with request/response examples.
🏗️ Architecture Overview	Core system components, concurrency model, multi-protocol casting pipeline, and platform layer.
🛠️ Development Guide	Building from source, multi-architecture Docker image builds, and local development workflows.

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Command Line Usage

Usage: vuio [OPTIONS] [MEDIA_DIR]

Arguments:
  [MEDIA_DIR]  Directory containing media files

Options:
  -p, --port <PORT>        Port to listen on [default: 8080]
  -n, --name <NAME>        DLNA / AirPlay server friendly name
  -c, --config <CONFIG>    Path to configuration file
  -m, --media-dir <DIR>    Additional media directories to scan
      --debug              Enable verbose console debug logging
      --log-file <PATH>    Path to custom log file
      --log-level <LEVEL>  Set log level (off, error, warn, info, debug, trace)
      --update             Update binary to the latest release from GitHub
      --auth               Enable administrative authentication
  -h, --help               Print help information
  -V, --version            Print version information

Self-Updater

Update an installed binary to the latest GitHub release:

vuio --update

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please ensure cross-platform compatibility is maintained across Linux, macOS, and Windows.

• Backend & Core: Rust workspace (crates/vuio-core, crates/vuio-cli, crates/vuio-cast).
• Web Interface: Developed in its own repository at vuiodev/vuio-web. The built bundle (crates/vuio-web/dist) is refreshed via ./scripts/build-web.sh.

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Credits & Third-Party Code

• oxicast: Async Google Cast (Chromecast) client for Rust by Dennis Kribl (MIT / Apache-2.0). Maintained locally in crates/vuio-cast with ring TLS.

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License

Dual-licensed under either of:

• MIT License
• Apache License 2.0