The first thing to define for your add-on is the manifest, which describes it's name, purpose and some technical details.
Valid properties are:
id - required - identifier, dot-separated, e.g. "com.stremio.filmon"
name - required - human readable name
description - required - human readable description
NOTE: In order to understand the next properties better, please check out the protocol documentation and keep in mind requests to add-ons are formed in the format of /{resource}/{type}/{id}
resources - required - supported resources - for example ['catalog', 'meta', 'stream', 'subtitles'], resources can also be added as objects instead of strings, for added details on how they should be requested, example: { "name": "stream", "type": "movie", "idPrefixes": [ "tt" ] }
types - required - array of supported types, from all the Content Types. If you wish to provide different sets of types for different resources, see the ADVANCED note.
idPrefixes - optional - use this if you want your add-on to be called only for specific content IDs - for example, if you set this to ["yt_id:", "tt"], your add-on will only be called for id values that start with yt_id: or tt. If you wish to provide different sets of idPrefixes for different resources, see the ADVANCED note.
ADVANCED: A resource may either be a string (e.g. 'meta') or an object of the format { name, types, idPrefixes }. The latter can be used to control the types and idPrefixes for a particular resource. Those properties work in the same way as if you put them in the manifest directly. If you just provide a string, the types and idPrefixes in the manifest will be applied for the resource.
NOTE: Leave this an empty array ([]) if your add-on does not provide the catalog resource.
catalogs - optional - a list of the content catalogs your add-on provides, an array of objects in the catalog format (see below), although this is marked as "optional" it is required in all cases that serve playable streams, the only case in which this is not required is when making add-ons that serve only subtitles and no streams
type - this is the content type of the catalog
id - the id of the catalog, can be any unique string describing the catalog (unique per add-on, as an add-on can have many catalogs), for example: if the catalog name is "Favourite Youtube Videos", the id can be "fav_youtube_videos"
name - human readable name of the catalog
extraSupported - all of the extra properties this catalog support, array of strings (explained below)
extraRequired - all of the extra properties this catalog requires, array of strings; all properties included here must also be in extraSupported (explained below)
NOTE:
Stremio can invoke /catalog/{type}/{id}.json for catalogs specified in catalogs in order to get the feed of Meta Objects.
It can also invoke /catalog/{type}/{id}/{extraArgs}.json in which case {extraArgs} will contain other properties such as a search query in order to search the catalog for a list of Meta Object results.
extraSupported and extraRequired only need to be set in certain cases, for example, these don't need to be set if your catalog only supports giving a feed of items, but not search them. If your catalog supports searching, set extraSupported: ['search'], if your catalog supports filtering by genre, set extraSupported: ['genre']. But what if your catalog supports only searching, but not giving a feed? Then set extraSupported: ['search'], extraRequired: ['search'] and your catalog will only be requested for searching, nothing else.
If your catalog supports any extra properties, extraSupported is mandatory. If you use extraRequired, extraSupported is still mandatory and must include at least all properties included in extraRequired
For a complete list of extra catalog properties check the Catalog Handler Definition
background - optional - background image for the add-on; URL to png/jpg, at least 1024x786 resolution
logo - optional - logo icon, URL to png, monochrome, 256x256
contactEmail - optional - contact email for add-on issues; used for the Report button in the app; also, the Stremio team may reach you on this email for anything relating your add-on
TIP - to implement sources where streams are geo-restricted, see Stream object's geos
{
"id": "org.stremio.example",
"version": "0.0.1",
"description": "Example Stremio Add-on",
"name": "Example Add-on",
"resources": [
"catalog",
"stream"
],
"types": [
"movie",
"series"
],
"catalogs": [
{
"type": "movie",
"id": "moviecatalog"
}
],
"idPrefixes": ["tt"]
}This manifest example is for an add-on that:
- provides streams and catalogs
- has one catalog that includes movies
- will receive stream requests for meta items that have an id that starts with
tt(imdb id, example:tt0068646), for both movies and series