MediaManager: A Modern, Self-Hosted Hub for Your Personal Library

If you've ever felt like your personal media collection—movies, shows, music, ebooks—is scattered across drives and folders, you're not alone. Services like Plex and Jellyfin are great, but sometimes you want something more modular, more under-the-hood, and fully under your control. That's the itch MediaManager aims to scratch.

It's a self-hosted media management system built for developers and tinkerers who want to orchestrate their library programmatically. Think of it less as a ready-made streaming app and more as a powerful backend engine and API for your media universe.

What It Does

MediaManager provides a structured, database-backed system to catalog and manage your media files. It handles metadata fetching, organization, and provides a clean API to query and control everything. Instead of forcing you into a specific front-end, it gives you the tools to build your own workflows or integrate with other apps. It's the central brain for your media, keeping everything indexed and accessible.

Why It's Cool

The developer-centric approach is what sets this apart. You're not just getting a UI; you're getting a foundation.

• API-First Design: Everything is accessible via a RESTful API. Want to build a custom web interface, a CLI tool, or hook it into your home automation? It's all possible.
• Modular & Extensible: The architecture seems built with plugins and customization in mind. You can likely tailor the metadata agents, file scanners, and processing pipelines to your exact needs.
• Clear Tech Stack: Built with Go and SQLite, it promises to be fast, lightweight, and easy to deploy. There's no heavy Java runtime or complex dependency tree—just a single binary in the ideal scenario.
• Total Ownership: Your data, your rules. Everything stays on your hardware, and the system's behavior is transparent and configurable.

How to Try It

The project is hosted on GitHub. The best way to get a feel for it is to check out the source and the documentation.

1. Head over to the repository: github.com/maxdorninger/MediaManager
2. Scan the README for a high-level overview and the docs/ folder for detailed setup instructions.
3. As with any Go project, you can likely build it from source with go build or look for pre-compiled releases in the "Releases" section.
4. The configuration will involve pointing it at your media directories and possibly setting up metadata agents (like TMDB or MusicBrainz).

Since it's a backend service, you'll interact with it via its API (using curl or tools like Postman initially) or by building a simple front-end.

Final Thoughts

MediaManager isn't trying to be the next Plex. It's a tool for developers who see their media library as a dataset to manage and interact with, not just consume. If you've ever thought, "I wish I could script this" or "I want to build my own dashboard for this," then this project is a fantastic starting point. It's a clean, modern codebase that solves the hard problems of metadata and organization, giving you the freedom to create the perfect system for your own needs.

Follow for more interesting projects: @githubprojects