Save a seat

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Get started

From a folder of films to the first night in. Run Leyla on a machine that stays on, open it in a browser, answer a few questions, and press play.

Beta Leyla is in a private beta. These are the guides the first households follow; the image and the apps reach them first. Save a seat to be one of them.

What you need

  • A 64-bit machine that stays on. A NAS, a mini PC, a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, a Linux server, a VPS. Windows comes during the beta. 32-bit ARM isn’t supported.
  • Your films and shows, on that machine or on a share it can read. Leyla only reads them; it never moves, renames or writes to them.
  • A computer with a browser for the setup. A phone can watch, but can’t set a server up.
  • An SSD for Leyla’s data folder, if the machine has one. The database lives there; your media can stay on spinning disks.

Details and posters come from TMDB, TVmaze, fanart.tv and OMDb without a key of your own, so the server needs to reach the internet. Your films never leave the house.

Run it

Leyla is one container with its database inside. On most machines, that’s one file and one command:

Docker Linux, a NAS, a Pi, a VPS

  1. Get the compose file

    Make a folder for Leyla and save the compose file in it as compose.yaml.

  2. Change the lines marked CHANGE

    Your user and group numbers (id prints them), a folder for Leyla’s data, one for plugins, and where your media is.

  3. Start it

    Terminal
    $ docker compose up -d

On a Synology, QNAP, unRAID or TrueNAS there’s a screen to paste the file into instead; Install walks through each box, and the Linux packages and Windows installer.

Open it

In a browser on any computer at home, open:

Address
http://<the machine’s address>:10001

First start Leyla unpacks and prepares its database the first time, about a minute on a small box. If the page doesn’t answer straight away, give it that minute.

Seven questions

The setup asks one thing per screen, each with Back, Continue and, where the answer can wait, Skip. You can leave halfway: Home shows Finish setting up until you’re done.

  1. Your server

    A name for it, your name and a password. You’re signed in as its administrator.

  2. Your free trial

    Leyla starts a five-day trial on its own. Link it to your email for 60 days, now or later. No card.

  3. Coming from another server?

    Plex, Emby or Jellyfin: people, libraries, what everyone watched, favourites and playlists come across. Moving over

    Can skip
  4. Where is your media?

    Pick from the folders Leyla finds, each with a rough count of its videos, or type a path. Films or television; add as many as you like.

    Can skip
  5. Where should details come from?

    One button installs the TMDB and TVmaze plugins, signed by the Leyla project. Skip it and titles are named from their files.

    Can skip
  6. Reach it from outside

    Only at home, behind your own proxy or tunnel, on a port you forwarded, or over a VPN.

    Can skip
  7. Who else will watch?

    One invitation link, good for a week. More under Admin, People.

    Can skip

A library starts scanning the moment you add it, in the order you’d want: titles first, then they become playable, then posters, then the rest. You can watch before it’s finished.

Everyone else

Someone who opens an invitation link chooses a name and a password, and is in. Their first screen asks three things once: the language they listen in, when they want subtitles, and the language they read them in. Each starts from their own device’s language, and Skip is fine; they can change them later under Account.

A TV the household shares asks Who’s watching?, with an optional four-digit PIN per person. Signing a TV in means typing a short code on your phone, not a password on a remote.

Your screens

Every browser already has Leyla: your server serves the web app at the same address. The Android app covers phones and Android TV, and Chromecast works from both. The rest, and how to put Leyla on each, is in Apps and screens.