Your time. Your queue.

Sikio is Swahili for "ear" (word origin). Sikio is a self-hosted media library for podcasts, YouTube, PeerTube and the German public broadcasters' media libraries. You choose what enters your lists and mark what you have watched or heard.

What it does

• Subscribes to podcasts, YouTube channels, PeerTube channels and TV series. One input field accepts a feed URL, a website, a channel or video URL, or a search term.
• Searches Apple Podcasts for shows and episodes, and the German public broadcasters' media libraries (ARD, ZDF, arte, 3sat and more) for series and films. An episode or film goes to the queue or the inbox on its own, and its show can be subscribed from the same row. The media library search is powered by MediathekViewWeb.
• Searches PeerTube for channels and videos across instances, through Sepia Search or another index the operator names.
• Searches YouTube for channels and videos without an API key, from YouTube's results page.
• Imports and exports subscriptions as OPML.
• Keeps an inbox of new items, a queue in your own order, and a history of heard items. With Play on, the queue plays the next item when one ends.
• Plays podcasts, PeerTube videos and media library films in its own player and YouTube videos in their official embed. Playback continues while you navigate the library. Playback positions are saved, and chapters are shown.
• Follows every source through the public feed it publishes. Podcasts, YouTube channels and PeerTube channels all offer one, and MediathekViewWeb offers one for every TV series. Sikio downloads no video or audio and needs no API key. A channel or video link is resolved to its feed once, when you subscribe.
• Hides a YouTube channel's Shorts unless you enable them for that subscription.
• Serves a small group on one instance. Accounts sign in with passkeys and join by invitation.

Using Sikio explains the library, playback and supported feeds.

Install it

Sikio runs on Linux, x86_64 or arm64, with SQLite or PostgreSQL. Two guides cover installation up to a claimed instance behind Caddy:

• Run Sikio with Docker: the image ghcr.io/oliverandrich/sikio with Docker Compose.
• Run Sikio from a release under systemd: a release tarball from GitHub as a systemd service.

Operations documents every setting, logging, updates and backups.

Develop it

You need mise. The full check also needs PostgreSQL 18. mise run setup installs the browser for the browser tests.

mise trust
mise install
mise run setup
mise run setup-code
mise dev

Open http://localhost:4000, enter the code that mise run setup-code printed, and create your first passkey. Contributing covers setup, checks and the contribution workflow.

Documentation

• Using Sikio: subscriptions, playback and supported feeds.
• Run Sikio with Docker and from a release under systemd.
• Operations: settings, logs, accounts, updates and background work.
• Authentication: accounts, invitations and security.
• Extension API: the browser extension's sign-in and requests.
• Localization: language selection and translations.
• Contributing: development setup, mise commands and tests.
• Changelog: changes per version and the steps each update requires.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Oliver Andrich and contributors

Sikio is free software, licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 or later (AGPL-3.0-or-later). See LICENSE for the full text.

Sikio is network-facing software, so AGPL §13 applies. A hosted instance must offer its source, including modifications, to its users. The sidebar footer and the About dialog link to it. Operations lists the setting for a modified version.