Tidefetch

Tidefetch is a download manager for the aria2 engine. It ships as one static binary with two interfaces: a keyboard-first terminal UI for the machine in front of you, and a self-hosted web UI for a NAS, VPS or Raspberry Pi that has no screen.

Who it is for

You are Use
Working in a terminal on your own machine tidefetch, the terminal UI
Running downloads on a headless server or homelab tidefetch serve, the web UI
Scripting downloads or building a dashboard The HTTP API behind the web UI

Both interfaces drive the same aria2 daemon and share one configuration, queue and history, so you can switch between them at any time.

What it does

  • Every aria2 protocol. HTTP(S), FTP, SFTP, BitTorrent, magnet links, Metalink and multi-mirror downloads.
  • Full queue control. Add, pause, resume, retry, reorder and remove downloads; pick the files inside a torrent; edit per-download and global aria2 options.
  • Live telemetry. Speed graphs, per-download speed history, piece maps, connection and peer lists, disk usage.
  • Persistent state. aria2 saves the queue to disk, so downloads survive restarts. Tidefetch keeps a searchable, categorised history of finished downloads.
  • Safe to expose. The web UI has bcrypt passwords, HttpOnly sessions, login rate limiting, a same-origin guard and a strict Content Security Policy. The aria2 RPC secret never leaves the server.
  • Small. One Go binary and no runtime. Multi-arch container images, a Helm chart, and Compose, Swarm, Unraid and systemd assets.

How it fits together

Terminal UI ─┐
             ├──> tidefetch ──private JSON-RPC──> aria2 ──> your storage
Browser ─────┘    (auth, history, HTTP API)

Tidefetch starts a local aria2c for you, or attaches to one you already run. In the container image aria2 is bundled and its RPC port stays on loopback; only port 8210 is exposed.

Start here

  1. Installation: the one-line script, Homebrew, the container image, Helm or Go.
  2. Quick start: your first download in the terminal UI and the web UI.
  3. Terminal UI and Web UI: every screen and shortcut.
  4. Deployment: run tidefetch serve as a long-lived service.

Platform support

Platform Terminal UI Web UI server
Linux (amd64, arm64, armv7) Yes Yes
macOS (Intel, Apple silicon) Yes Yes
Windows (amd64, arm64) Yes, Windows Terminal recommended Yes
Docker, Kubernetes, Unraid No Yes, aria2 bundled

Tidefetch needs aria2 1.36 or newer on the host, except in the container image where it is bundled. The web UI supports current Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge.

Licensing

Tidefetch is MIT licensed. aria2 is a separate GPL-2.0-or-later project; Tidefetch talks to it over JSON-RPC and does not link against it. Tidefetch is an independent project and is not affiliated with aria2.