from swifty_lew@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 13:19
https://lemmy.world/post/48453617
I’m a solo dev and I got tired of not having a good iOS app to manage my self-hosted media stack, so I built one.
Quartermaster connects to Radarr, Sonarr, SABnzbd, NZBGet, qBittorrent, Jellyseerr, Overseerr, Jellyfin, Emby, Lidarr, Prowlarr and Bazarr. Manage your library, approve requests, watch your download queues, see active streams — from your phone.
The part I care about most: it’s pure client-side. No backend, no analytics, no accounts. Your server credentials are stored on-device in the iOS Secure Enclave and the app only ever talks to the servers you point it at. Nothing leaves your phone.
It’s in TestFlight beta now and I’m looking for testers — especially if you run qBittorrent or a less common setup. Free to test.
More detail and how to apply: qmstack.com
Happy to answer anything about how it works.
threaded - newest
Let me guess, it’s vibe coded as all these flashy looking programs seem to be.
Hey! Nope - this is not vibe coded - the app is not generic AI slop
It is built as a 1st party Apple app
You can at least admit the marketing site is AI, yes?
Yeah, I used AI to help build the site and write some of the copy, I’m a solo dev not a marketing team. The app itself is the part I’ve poured the work into. Fair cop on the site though
I guarantee you used ai to develop the app too.
I appreciate the candidness. Hopefully you can understand AI presentation generally implies an AI product, and without source code to audit, it raises some flags. Clarity of where AI is used as you’ve done here helps.
i hope it is. it would be stupid to put time into things that computers can do better.
The public site is the first impression and introduction of a product, and this one has all sorts of slop signs around it. You can see how that can make someone skeptical to the quality of application. I don’t agree “computers can do it better” - I’d prefer a plain old website that gets to the point over one showing useless graphics, generated text, and non-functional interactions.
Thank you - I will honestly take this feedback onboard
fuck off
didnt realise this community was so hot for paid for, closed source apps being shilled by brand new uses.
OP is literally just advertising. This isnt just a cool home project someone wants to share. it is a product that they want to charge for. theyre using this community for free advertising.
is that what is wanted here? 1day old accounts shilling their paid for products?
what if google or meta or microsoft did the same thing
Damn, okay? It is the cheapest alternative to anything out there on iOS currently
Eh it’s a fair price. Don’t let fuckwit here get you down. If it was OSS and completely desktop based then I would agree on pricing, but nothing wrong with charging considering how much work it takes to keep it on the store.
Thank you :) I am just trying to find footing in this space so the kind words really do help
Lemmies don’t like paying for things. All things must be free. If I were running the required stack and I found it useful, I’d have no issues paying someone to use their product. As it is, I don’t run the *arr stack so it’s not really in my wheelhouse. I will say tho, your app does look very polished and professional.
Shame on you for that tonal
Microsoft Insiders beta test Microsoft products continuously. Google does the same. It’s not a new concept. Honestly I don’t know what sets some people off. Not interested? Use that little scroll mechanism on your mouse. It really is that simple.
are they shilling them on this community?
not sure how you missed the entire point of my comment.
are you happy with them advertising paid for products in this community
How does this compare to Helmarr?
Helmarr’s genuinely good and more established than me, it covers more services right now, so if it does what you need it’s a solid pick. Mine’s newer and more focused. I’m a solo dev building it around feedback like this, so it’ll move fast. Honestly happy to be compared, competition’s good for everyone.
What exactly is this solution providing that just having a safari shortcut to the service doesn’t? Like, what’s justifying this costing money? It doesn’t sound like it’s doing anything for the user that isn’t already equally easy and 100% free.
Edit: sorry if it comes off as flippant, I genuinely just don’t understand the purpose of this.
People like doing things in different ways
Fair question. A Safari shortcut just opens each service’s web UI one at a time. This pulls all your services into one native app, so you see downloads, requests, library and streams together, with proper iOS navigation, widgets, and stuff the web UIs don’t do well on a phone. If the web UIs work fine for you, that’s genuinely valid, this is for people who want one tidy native place for the whole stack :)
Damn so much negativity in here wtf. This looks really cool! Makes me want to step up my stack to try it! I suppose ideally you’d setup Tailscale before using it right?
Cheers! Yeah if you want to use it away from home you’d set up Tailscale (or a reverse proxy / VPN) first, but on your home network it just works with the local IP. No Tailscale needed if you’re on the same wifi.
In testing, I have setup my own WireGuard VPN and its working brilliantly :)
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Not for me as I’m not an iOS user, but I contribute to all FOSS software I find useful as it helps motivate the developer and why should everything be free? My time sure as hell isn’t.
So a small fee for a well developed product, that offers something handy and keeps getting support is more than acceptable. Also, it sets a barrier to entry for making it good. If you expect users to pay $5/$10 for something that is your hobby, it had better be good.
Good luck with it.
Interesting! How does it compare to Lunasea?
LunaSea was brilliant but it’s been discontinued since April last year, the repo’s archived and it’s gone from the App Store. Mine’s a new native iOS app covering a lot of the same ground, and the main difference is it’s actively maintained, I’m here building and supporting it. Being straight though: LunaSea was free and open source and mine’s paid, so if free’s a dealbreaker there are community forks like Zagreus keeping that going. I’m going for a more polished native take with ongoing support :)
Missed opportunity to call it Quarrtermaster
😆
Quarrtarrmastarr? Or is that too much?
publish the git repo.
It’s a paid closed-source app, so no, the repo’s not public, same as most paid apps on the store. This community leans open source and that’s fair, but “not open source” and “AI slop” are two completely different accusations and you’re mashing them together.
Yeah, I used AI to help with the site, because I’m a sysadmin, not a marketer, I don’t know the first thing about landing pages and I’m not going to pretend I do. The app is a different story. I’ve been in IT 11 years. I run this exact stack myself, every day, and I built this because I was sick of bouncing between web UIs on my phone. The architecture is mine: pure client-side, credentials in the Secure Enclave, no backend, nothing in the middle touching anyone’s logins. The testing is mine too, I’ve spent entire nights debugging connection bugs that only ever show up on real hardware, a qBittorrent cookie issue and an ATS quirk that silently breaks Tailscale, the kind of thing no “vibe code” ever finds because it requires actually understanding the stack and testing it properly.
So by all means, don’t buy it if closed source is a dealbreaker, that’s a totally legitimate call. But “fuck off” and “shilling” aimed at someone who’s answered every single question here honestly says more about you than it does about the app. I’m happy to talk to anyone engaging in good faith. You’re clearly not.
so you arent even a developer
Brother in Christ - have a day off
I do not understand why you are so pressed?
Looking at your comments on other posts, you seem like you’re a very pressed person, seek help
stop advertising paid for products.
I am looking for beta testers :) The experience is 100% free
Asking for testers on a private project is no issue. That makes complete sense.
I would not charge at all for beta access as this will help me build QM into something the community loves
I am not asking for participance
I appreciate you taking a look though! Cheers
So, this is an ad.
I am looking for beta testers, this is 100% free
You are asking people to QA a commercial product for you. Are you paying them? This is a job advertisement.
It’s free to test, and nobody’s obligated to anything, it’s entirely down to people who actually want to. Beta testers get the full app and all the Pro features for free, during the beta and after as a thank you. That’s just how beta testing works, people who run this stack and are curious get early access and help shape it, and they get the paid product for nothing in return.
Calling that a job advert is a stretch. It’s an optional beta with a free product attached, not unpaid labour. If it’s not for you, no worries, just scroll past
Ding! So, to answer @Mordikan@kbin.earth 's question, yes…the beta tester is being paid. This is how beta testing works.
Self-Hosted isn't a job board, though. If you're going to post job listings, there are better places to do that.
This is not an outlandish or usual scenario.
to freely test his product he then intends to sell.
thats free labour. charge for your product? pay your testers. pretty damn simple.
My friend, the tester keeps the app afterwards
If the tester doesn’t agree with it, then by all means, don’t become a tester :D
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It’s not free labor FFS! You get to keep the product. YOU ARE BEING PAID!
I beta test things all the time that otherwise are paid commercial products. I do a lot of beta testing for BetaBound. In fact, I was one of the fortunate ones to beta test the roku when it first started. This is not unusual, to ask people that are willing, to beta test a product. Currently I am beta testing a ‘rumba’ type floor sweeper. Can’t go into details because of non-disclosure. Usually, after the beta test is over, you are allowed to keep the product.
It’s weird how many new apps show up in this community with long descriptions full of em dashes. Then the author starts replying using the same tone and word choices Claude uses.
Cognitive surrender.
Unfortunately as this is closed source there’s no way to prove if its AI slop or not. Which given the world we live in, means it probably is.
I don’t care if an author is using AI in some capacity to write their app, but I draw a line when their posts on social media are also written by AI. There’s no human in it anymore.
The post was written by Claude. That’s its exact writing style I have to unpack every day during my day job.
Oh I don’t either. There’s a pretty big difference between ai slop code and ai assisted. I write both sometimes good code sometimes slop. My issue is when someone’s trying to sell me something that I can’t verify.
I’m surprised your line is slop social media posts. I kinda just go with the fact they’re all slop, ai written or not. But social media also isn’t my job.