MagnetScout

MagnetScout is a lightweight Python CLI and library for discovering BitTorrent metadata from pluggable providers, normalizing magnet links, checking current swarm signals, and ranking useful results. It never downloads torrent payloads or sends results to a BitTorrent client.

MagnetScout is intended for public, freely licensed, and otherwise lawfully distributed content. Metadata is informative rather than a legal determination; users remain responsible for deciding whether they may access a result.

Status

The project is alpha software. Provider availability and swarm observations can change at any time, and a healthy score does not guarantee a successful download.

Install

MagnetScout requires Python 3.11 or newer.

python -m pip install magnet-scout

To install the development version from a checkout:

python -m pip install -e .

Optional DHT peer discovery is installed separately:

python -m pip install 'magnet-scout[dht]'

CLI

magnet-scout search ubuntu
magnet-scout search ubuntu --top 10
magnet-scout search ubuntu --verify --top 10
magnet-scout search ubuntu --verify --min-verified-seeders 3
magnet-scout search ubuntu --json
magnet-scout search dataset --provider academic-torrents

The default providers are Internet Archive, Academic Torrents, and Fedora. Provider failures are reported independently, so one unavailable source does not discard results from the others.

--verify performs bounded tracker and web-seed observations without requesting payload pieces. --dht adds optional, process-isolated peer discovery. A provider's reported seeder count remains separate from independently observed values.

Python API

from magnet_scout import parse_magnet

magnet = parse_magnet("magnet:?xt=urn:btih:0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef01234567&dn=Example")
print(magnet.info_hash)
print(magnet.canonical_uri)

Provider integration uses the asynchronous SearchProvider protocol. See the provider documentation for a complete example.

Evidence, not guarantees

• reported_seeders is untrusted metadata supplied by a provider.
• verified_seeders is a recent tracker observation when the tracker supports scraping.
• dht_peers counts peer endpoints discovered during a bounded lookup; addresses are discarded.
• UNKNOWN means there was not enough independent evidence. It does not mean dead.
• No check proves that a complete payload will remain available.

The exact score and ranking rules are documented in the health-scoring documentation.

Documentation

• Architecture
• Providers
• Health scoring
• Development
• Release process
• Licensing and external services

License

MagnetScout is released under the MIT License.

That license covers MagnetScout's own source code. Dependencies, provider services, trademarks, and content referenced by search results retain their own licenses and terms. See the licensing notes.