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What are Stremio Addons?

Stremio addons are external services that extend Stremio’s functionality by providing additional content sources. They communicate with Stremio Core through a well-defined protocol, delivering metadata, streams, subtitles, and catalogs.

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Key Concepts

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Addon Descriptor

An addon is represented by a Descriptor which contains:
  • Manifest: Defines the addon’s capabilities, supported resources, and metadata
  • Transport URL: The base URL where the addon can be accessed
  • Flags: Additional metadata like official and protected status
pub struct Descriptor {
    pub manifest: Manifest,
    pub transport_url: Url,
    pub flags: DescriptorFlags,
}

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Resource Types

Addons can provide four main types of resources:
ResourceDescriptionExample Use Case
catalogLists of content itemsBrowse movies by genre
metaDetailed metadata for itemsGet movie details, cast, videos
streamPlayable video sourcesStream a specific episode
subtitlesSubtitle tracksDownload subtitles for a movie

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Resource Path Structure

All addon requests follow a consistent URL pattern: 
/{resource}/{type}/{id}.json
For example:
  • /catalog/movie/top.json - Top movies catalog
  • /meta/series/tt0944947.json - Metadata for a series
  • /stream/movie/tt1254207.json - Streams for a movie
  • /subtitles/movie/tt1254207.json - Subtitles for a movie

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Addon Communication Flow

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Transport Layer

Stremio Core uses the AddonTransport trait to communicate with addons. The primary implementation is AddonHTTPTransport, which handles HTTP requests to addon endpoints.
The transport layer automatically handles URL encoding, extra parameter serialization, and response parsing.

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Type Safety

All addon interactions are strongly typed in Rust:
  • Requests use ResourceRequest and ResourcePath types
  • Responses are parsed into ResourceResponse enum variants
  • Manifests are validated against the Manifest struct
This ensures type safety and prevents runtime errors from malformed data.

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Next Steps

Manifest Structure

Learn about manifest fields and configuration

Resources

Explore resource types and responses

Transport

Understand the transport layer

Creating Addons

Build your first addon

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