Deployment¶

Deployment Options¶

qbittorrent-agent supports local stdio, a loopback-only development listener, a least-privilege stdio container, and a remote authenticated HTTPS boundary. Provider endpoint, credential, selector, identity, and trust material are supplied at runtime through AgentConfig; none is stored in this repository.

Installed stdio process¶

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qbittorrent": {
      "command": "qbittorrent-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {"MCP_TOOL_MODE": "intent"}
    }
  }
}

Loopback development listener¶

qbittorrent-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000

Do not expose this listener beyond loopback. Network deployments require direct TLS or an explicitly trusted TLS-terminating ingress, configured authentication, exact MCP_ALLOWED_HOSTS, and an exact trusted-proxy CIDR policy.

Least-privilege local container¶

docker run -i --rm \
  --read-only \
  --cap-drop=ALL \
  --security-opt=no-new-privileges \
  --pids-limit=256 \
  --tmpfs /tmp:rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,size=64m \
  -e TRANSPORT=stdio \
  registry.example.invalid/qbittorrent-agent@sha256:<digest> qbittorrent-mcp

The operator projects the selected AgentConfig profile into the process at runtime; the image remains immutable and contains no environment connection profile.

Remote authenticated HTTPS endpoint¶

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qbittorrent": {"url": "https://service.example.invalid/mcp"}
  }
}

Store the real remote URL, outbound identity reference, and TLS-profile reference in AgentConfig, not in MCP client JSON or documentation.

This page covers running qbittorrent-agent as a long-lived service: the MCP-server transports, the companion A2A agent server, a Docker Compose stack, putting it behind a Caddy reverse proxy, and giving it a DNS name with Technitium. To provision the qBittorrent instance it connects to, see Backing Platform.

qbittorrent-agent ships two console scripts: an MCP server (qbittorrent-mcp) exposing the typed tool surface, and an A2A agent server (qbittorrent-agent) that calls those tools for conversational and multi-step workflows.

Run the MCP server¶

The transport is selected with --transport (or the TRANSPORT env var):

stdio (default)streamable-httpsse

qbittorrent-mcp

For IDE / desktop MCP clients that launch the server as a subprocess.

qbittorrent-mcp --transport streamable-http --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

A network server with a /health endpoint and /mcp route.

qbittorrent-mcp --transport sse --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000

Health check (HTTP transports):

curl -s http://localhost:8000/health        # {"status":"OK"}

Configuration (environment)¶

qbittorrent-agent is configured entirely from the environment. The required connection set:

Var	Default	Meaning
`QBITTORRENT_URL`	Required	qBittorrent WebUI base URL
`QBITTORRENT_USERNAME`	Required	WebUI user id
`QBITTORRENT_PASSWORD`	Required	WebUI password
`TLS_PROFILE`	(empty)	Named `AgentConfig` transport-security profile; verification is mandatory
`TLS_PROFILES_REF`	(empty)	Runtime secret reference for the TLS profile catalog

The per-domain tool sets are toggled independently and default to enabled:

Var	Default	Tool domain
`APPTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_app`
`LOGTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_log`
`SYNCTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_sync`
`TRANSFERTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_transfer`
`TORRENTSTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_torrents`
`RSSTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_rss`
`SEARCHTOOL`	`True`	`qbittorrent_search`

Plus HOST / PORT / TRANSPORT for HTTP transports. The complete set, including telemetry (ENABLE_OTEL, OTEL_*) and access governance (EUNOMIA_*), is documented in .env.example. Copy it to .env and fill in only what you use.

Docker Compose¶

The repo ships docker/mcp.compose.yml. It reads a sibling .env and publishes the HTTP server on :8000:

services:
  qbittorrent-agent-mcp:
    image: example/qbittorrent-agent@sha256:<digest>
    container_name: qbittorrent-agent-mcp
    hostname: qbittorrent-agent-mcp
    restart: always
    env_file:
      - ../.env
    environment:
      - PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "python3", "-c", "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:8000/health')"]
      interval: 30s
      timeout: 10s
      retries: 3

cp .env.example .env          # then edit QBITTORRENT_* values
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml up -d
docker compose -f docker/mcp.compose.yml logs -f

A2A agent server¶

qbittorrent-agent also ships a Pydantic-AI A2A agent (console script qbittorrent-agent). It connects to the MCP server over MCP_URL, auto-discovers the tool surface from mcp_config.json, and serves an A2A / AG-UI endpoint on its own port:

export MCP_URL=http://qbittorrent-agent-mcp:8000/mcp
qbittorrent-agent --provider openai --model-id gpt-4o --host 0.0.0.0 --port 9004

The repo ships docker/agent.compose.yml, which deploys the MCP server and the agent together — the agent waits on the MCP service and is wired to it by container name:

services:
  qbittorrent-agent-mcp:
    image: example/qbittorrent-agent@sha256:<digest>
    hostname: qbittorrent-agent-mcp
    env_file: [../.env]
    environment:
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=8000
      - TRANSPORT=streamable-http
    ports: ["8000:8000"]

  qbittorrent-agent-agent:
    image: example/qbittorrent-agent@sha256:<digest>
    depends_on: [qbittorrent-agent-mcp]
    command: ["qbittorrent-agent"]
    env_file: [../.env]
    environment:
      - HOST=0.0.0.0
      - PORT=9004
      - MCP_URL=http://qbittorrent-agent-mcp:8000/mcp
      - PROVIDER=${PROVIDER:-openai}
      - MODEL_ID=${MODEL_ID:-gpt-4o}
      - ENABLE_WEB_UI=True
    ports: ["9004:9004"]

docker compose -f docker/agent.compose.yml up -d
curl -s http://localhost:9004/health         # agent health endpoint

Behind a Caddy reverse proxy¶

Expose the HTTP server on a hostname with automatic TLS. Add to your Caddyfile:

# Internal (self-signed) — homelab .example.invalid zone
qbittorrent-agent.example.invalid {
    tls internal
    reverse_proxy qbittorrent-agent-mcp:8000
}

# Public — automatic Let's Encrypt
qbittorrent-agent.example.com {
    reverse_proxy qbittorrent-agent-mcp:8000
}

Reload Caddy:

docker compose -f services/caddy/compose.yml exec caddy caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

DNS with Technitium¶

Point the hostname at the host running Caddy. Via the Technitium API:

curl -s "http://technitium.example.invalid:5380/api/zones/records/add" \
  --data-urlencode "token=$TECHNITIUM_DNS_TOKEN" \
  --data-urlencode "domain=qbittorrent-agent.example.invalid" \
  --data-urlencode "zone=arpa" \
  --data-urlencode "type=A" \
  --data-urlencode "ipAddress=192.0.2.10" \
  --data-urlencode "ttl=3600"

…or add an A record qbittorrent-agent.example.invalid → <caddy-host-ip> in the Technitium web console (http://technitium.example.invalid:5380). The ecosystem technitium-dns-mcp automates this as a tool.

Register with an MCP client¶

Add to your client's mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "qbittorrent-agent": {
      "command": "uv",
      "args": ["run", "qbittorrent-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "QBITTORRENT_URL": "<configured-endpoint>",
        "QBITTORRENT_USERNAME": "<configured-principal>",
        "QBITTORRENT_PASSWORD": "<runtime-secret>"
      }
    }
  }
}

For a remote HTTP server, point the client at http://qbittorrent-agent.example.invalid/mcp instead.