Configuration Overview

PrepArr uses a declarative configuration model. You describe the desired state of your Servarr instance in a configuration file, and PrepArr reconciles the running instance to match.

Configuration Sources

PrepArr loads configuration from three sources, merged in priority order:

1. CLI arguments (highest priority) — --postgres-host=localhost
2. Environment variables — POSTGRES_HOST=localhost
3. Configuration file — JSON or YAML file at CONFIG_PATH
4. Default values (lowest priority) — Built-in defaults

Higher-priority sources override lower-priority ones for the same setting.

Configuration File

The configuration file defines the desired state of your Servarr instance. It can be JSON or YAML, specified via the CONFIG_PATH environment variable.

JSON format

{
  "apiKey": "2bac5d00dca43258313c734821a15c4c",
  "prowlarrSync": true,
  "rootFolders": [
    { "path": "/tv", "accessible": true }
  ],
  "qualityProfiles": [...],
  "downloadClients": [...],
  "customFormats": [...],
  "mediaManagement": {...},
  "naming": {...}
}

YAML format

apiKey: 2bac5d00dca43258313c734821a15c4c
prowlarrSync: true
rootFolders:
  - path: /tv
    accessible: true
qualityProfiles: [...]
downloadClients: [...]

Root Configuration Properties

Property	Type	Description
apiKey	string	32-character hex API key. Auto-generated if not provided.
prowlarrSync	boolean	Enable Prowlarr indexer sync. Default: false.
rootFolders	array	Root folder definitions
qualityProfiles	array	Quality profile definitions
customFormats	array	Custom format definitions
downloadClients	array	Download client definitions
indexers	array	Indexer definitions
applications	array	Prowlarr application sync configs
mediaManagement	object	Media management settings
naming	object	Naming conventions
qualityDefinitions	array	Quality size limits
releaseProfiles	array	Release scoring (Sonarr only)
qbittorrent	object	qBittorrent-specific settings
bazarr	object	Bazarr subtitle manager settings

How Reconciliation Works

The sidecar compares each configuration section against the current state of the Servarr instance:

• Create — Resources in your config that don’t exist in Servarr are created
• Update — Resources that exist but differ from your config are updated
• Delete — Resources in Servarr that aren’t in your config are removed (for CRUD resources)
• Skip — Resources that match are left unchanged

Some configuration sections (like media management and naming) only support updates, not create/delete, since they are single-value settings rather than collections.