MediaWatch¶

A Discord-first monitoring bot for self-hosted media servers. One live dashboard inside Discord for Plex or Jellyfin: active streams, library totals and server state, with optional SABnzbd and Uptime Kuma data.

The MediaWatch dashboard in a Discord channel

Where to start¶

Set it up

From a fresh Discord application to a running dashboard. The bot token, the one privileged intent it needs, invite permissions, and your Plex token or Jellyfin API key.

Getting started
Run it

Docker is the recommended way. Compose file, volumes, PUID/PGID, logs and updates, or run it straight from a virtualenv.

Deployment
Configure it

Credentials live in .env, behaviour lives in data/config.yaml. Every option with its default, plus ready-made blocks to copy.

Configuration
Fix it

The common failure modes, grouped by what you actually see, with the exact messages MediaWatch writes to the log.

Troubleshooting

Two things worth reading first¶

Everyone in the channel can see more than you might expect

By default anyone who can read the dashboard channel can open stream details, and on Plex with Tautulli also the global statistics, including a server-wide top-users leaderboard. Two config options close that down.

Privacy and visibility

Upgrading from PlexWatch 1.x?

Three things are not automatic: the container image path changed, DISCORD_GUILD_ID is now required, and you should check the result of the automatic config.json conversion. Your old file is never modified.

Upgrading from 1.x

Platform scope¶

MediaWatch loads exactly one platform at runtime, selected by media_server.type.

Capability	Plex	Jellyfin
Live dashboard and library totals
Stream details	With Tautulli
Kill Stream
SABnzbd and Uptime Kuma
User and global statistics	With Tautulli
Open in the media server	With Tautulli

Plex has the richer surface because MediaWatch can layer Tautulli on top. Jellyfin support is intentionally narrower but uses the same dashboard model and the same runtime architecture. See Architecture.

What it is not¶

Not a web app, not a multi-user control panel, and not a replacement for Tautulli or Uptime Kuma. It is an operational bot for people who already live in Discord and want their media server status there.

How this project is built¶

MediaWatch is written with extensive help from AI coding assistants. PlexWatch 1.x started the same way: it worked better than I expected, but its internals were not built to last, which is what the 2.0 rewrite addresses.

I have run MediaWatch in production on my own server since early 2026, and the features and fixes since then come from using it every day. CI runs the full test suite on every push and pull request.