Documentation

Usenet is DroppedNeedle’s second download source, alongside slskd. It works through SABnzbd with Newznab-compatible indexers: DroppedNeedle searches your indexers for an album or track, enqueues the NZB in SABnzbd, and imports the finished files through the same verification and import pipeline it uses for slskd. You supply and run SABnzbd; DroppedNeedle drives it over its local HTTP API.

If you would rather use Soulseek, skip this page and read slskd Setup instead. You can also run both sources at once, covered under Running both sources below.

Requirements

  • A running SABnzbd instance (4.x or newer) reachable from the DroppedNeedle container, with an API key.
  • One or more Newznab-compatible indexers, each with its own API key. NZBGeek, NZBPlanet, NZB.su, and Slug all work.
  • SABnzbd’s completed-downloads directory and your music library on the same filesystem. Imports are atomic moves, the same as the slskd path.

The completed-downloads mount

DroppedNeedle imports a finished Usenet download by moving it out of SABnzbd’s completed directory into your library. For that move to work, DroppedNeedle has to see SABnzbd’s completed files, and they have to be on the same filesystem as your music.

Bind-mount SABnzbd’s completed-downloads directory into the DroppedNeedle container, read-write, on the same filesystem as the library mount. The default in-container path is /sabnzbd-downloads; set the matching path under Settings > Download Client so DroppedNeedle knows where SABnzbd’s files land.

# In the droppedneedle service of your compose file:
volumes:
  - /path/to/your/music:/music:rw                    # library
  - /path/to/sabnzbd/complete:/sabnzbd-downloads:rw  # MUST be the same filesystem as /music

A rename across filesystems fails with EXDEV, so if the two paths sit on different mounts, downloads finish in SABnzbd but nothing lands in your library. Settings > Download Client shows the mount status and the exact reason for any failure.

Add SABnzbd

Go to Settings > Download Client (admin) and enable Usenet. Enter your SABnzbd URL and API key, and confirm the completed-downloads mount path matches the volume you bind-mounted above. Click Test, then Save.

Add your indexers

Open Settings > Indexers and add each Newznab indexer with its URL and API key. DroppedNeedle searches every enabled indexer and merges the results, so a release only one indexer carries still shows up. Use Test on each one before saving. DroppedNeedle ships no indexers; you add your own.

Running both sources

slskd and Usenet can run side by side. The source-priority control under Settings > Download Client decides which one DroppedNeedle tries first for a given request. Whatever the source, every download passes through the same scoring, verification, quarantine, and import, so quality tiers and held-import review apply the same way to both.

Verifying the setup

After saving your SABnzbd connection and at least one indexer:

  1. Click Test on the SABnzbd connection. A pass confirms the URL and API key are right and SABnzbd is reachable.
  2. Check the completed-downloads mount status on the same page. Fix any warning before requesting downloads.
  3. Request an album and watch the Downloads page. The task steps through searching -> downloading -> processing -> completed live, then the files appear under Library.