Dev spent 6 months with Claude building HolyArrs, one app replacing an 8-app *arr media stack

CoderLuii · reddit · 2026-10-22

A developer with 10+ years in software security spent six months building HolyArrs with Claude — a single self-hosted Go app replacing Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Bazarr, Prowlarr, Seerr, SABnzbd and qBittorrent, idling at 110 MB RAM.

Method: before any code, Claude studied 36 similar apps in a lab and wrote manuals "in our own words"; all code was then generated from those manuals, with every change checked against the real apps running side by side.

Key features: sign-in enforced from day one with no API keys exposed and fake/malware releases intercepted; a migration wizard imports existing libraries without renaming or moving files; a compatibility API keeps nzb360, Homarr widgets etc. working; 4K/1080p and multiple cuts/languages unified under one title; built-in metadata with no API keys; a Netflix-style request page (hover trailers, mood browsing, one-tap requests); on-server recommendation algorithm; optional AI search with local or BYO-key cloud models plus a built-in MCP server for assistant-driven requests.

Where Claude needed the human: it ships features that work and look great but ignores cost — the build silently grew from 76 MB to 110 MB idle RAM with nothing flagging it. RAM is now a release gate, not an afterthought.

The project will be free and open source; beta testers are being recruited.

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Dev spent 6 months with Claude building HolyArrs, one app replacing an 8-app *arr media stack

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