Spool providers

The catalogue Spool installs providers from. Spool reads two files from this repository's GitHub Pages site, https://spool-player.github.io/spool-providers/:

• official.json: first-party providers, checked at every launch
• index.json: everything, read when someone browses community providers or has one installed

Each entry names one release of one provider: its version, the archive's URL and its SHA-256. Spool installs a download only when it matches, so what you get is exactly what was reviewed here.

The official catalogue includes Jellyfin, Emby, Plex and Stremio. Each provider keeps its protocol and screens in its own repository under spool-player. Jellyfin, Emby and Plex are MPL-2.0; the new Stremio provider is original 0BSD code, with no bundled torrent engine.

Publishing a provider

1. Build and release your provider (see the SDK in spool-player/spool, or start from spool-provider-example). New releases carry a .szo package and its spool-provider.json:

   python3 sdk/spool-provider.py build . --output dist/<id>-<version>.szo
   python3 sdk/spool-provider.py feed dist/<id>-<version>.szo --url <where the release serves it>
   

   Package URLs must use HTTPS; their filenames are opaque. Both existing .tar.zst URLs and .szo or extensionless URLs are accepted. The downloaded bytes, size, SHA-256, format-3 manifest and package contents—not the URL suffix—determine package validity.

2. Open a pull request here adding providers/<id>.json with that spool-provider.json and the required curated boolean appleAppStore. Existing reviewed providers are true; Stremio is false and is excluded from Apple App Store builds. The flag is catalogue policy, not provider-controlled feed metadata: release bumps preserve it, and both generated catalogues include it unchanged. App Store consumers include only explicit true. The check downloads the package, compares it with the entry and runs the validation Spool runs before installing. A maintainer reviews the code.

3. For each new version, open a pull request updating the same file.

Until then, anyone can already install it in Spool from a link to its repository (Settings → Providers → Add from a link), and it will be kept up to date from its releases.

Ids starting with spool. are reserved for first-party providers, listed in official.txt. Those follow their own releases: a scheduled job (and each first-party release, through repository_dispatch) moves their entries to the latest verified release.

Maintaining

python3 tools/store.py check            # every entry: download, verify, validate
python3 tools/store.py bump             # first-party entries to their latest releases
python3 tools/store.py site _site       # what Pages serves

sdk/spool-provider.py is Spool's own validator, copied from spool-player/spool at the revision in sdk/REVISION. Needs Python 3.14 or the zstd command.

Current provider contract

The catalogue and validator use numeric format: 3, without a separate api field or extension-major negotiation. All five curated entries pin actual published current-contract archives: Jellyfin 0.2.13, Emby 0.1.8, Plex 0.1.9, Stremio 0.1.2 and Open Movies 1.1.1.

Release metadata must come from the actual uploaded archive; preserve the reviewed appleAppStore flag when updating an entry. Stremio remains false. Run store.py check before deployment. The host's bundled-provider lock uses the same published archive bytes and SHA-256 pins.