Your library¶
Everything Orb plays comes from a library: a named media root with its own paths, media type, and scan settings. Libraries are created and tuned entirely from Admin → Libraries in the web UI — there are no environment variables for media paths or scan tunables, so adding a folder never means editing a config file or restarting the server.
How libraries work¶
Each library has:
- One or more filesystem paths (the roots Orb walks).
- A media type — music, audiobook, movie, TV, or comic — which decides how files are parsed and which metadata providers apply.
- An enabled flag, and per-type scan settings (workers, exclude globs, enrichment toggles, and metadata-provider selection).
When you create or edit a library, Orb hot-reloads the affected ingester and kicks off a scan immediately — new content starts appearing without a restart. Deleting a library cancels any in-flight scan and purges its content from the database. Scans also run on a schedule, and the admin Libraries panel shows the last scan time and lets you trigger a Scan now (incremental) or Reprocess (force re-probe of every file).
Only the media types that have an enabled library appear in the sidebar, so a music-only server never shows a Movies tab.
Scan tuning¶
- Workers default to the number of CPU cores. On Linux, Orb detects spinning hard
disks (via
/sys/block/<dev>/queue/rotational) and caps workers at 2 to avoid seek thrashing. Override the cap by setting"workers": Nin the library's settings. - Exclude globs skip paths you don't want indexed (sample folders, extras, etc.).
- Enrichment toggles control whether external metadata plugins run during the scan.
Supported media types¶
| Type | Formats | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Music | FLAC, WAV, MP3, AIFF/AIF, DSF, ISO (DSD/SACD) | Music |
| Audiobooks | M4B, M4A, MP3, FLAC, Opus, OGG, AAC, WMA | Audiobooks |
| Movies & TV | MKV, MP4, M4V, MOV, WebM, TS, M2TS, AVI | Movies & TV |
| Comics | CBZ, CBR, ZIP, RAR, EPUB, PDF | Comics & manga |
| Podcasts | RSS feeds (audio/video episodes) | Podcasts |
Podcasts are subscriptions rather than filesystem libraries — they are managed from the Podcasts section in the app, not from Admin → Libraries.
How metadata is added¶
Filenames and folder structure give Orb a starting point, then it enriches each item against external providers — artwork, descriptions, cast, genres, and tags. Which providers run, and in what order, is configurable per library. See Metadata plugins for the full provider list and how to wire up credentials.
Next steps¶
Pick the media type you're adding: