FlareSolverr on a Seedbox: Cloudflare Bypass for Indexers

What FlareSolverr Is

FlareSolverr is a small proxy server. Its only job: solve Cloudflare's anti-bot challenges so other apps (mainly Prowlarr and Jackett) can scrape pages behind them.

Some torrent trackers sit behind Cloudflare's anti-bot stack. Without FlareSolverr in the chain, Prowlarr or Jackett gets a Cloudflare challenge page back instead of the search results. With FlareSolverr, the request goes through a real headless Chrome that solves the challenge, and the underlying tracker page comes back clean.

When You Actually Need It

You need FlareSolverr if:

• A tracker you've added to Prowlarr or Jackett returns "Cloudflare challenge" errors
• Searches that used to work suddenly stopped (Cloudflare may have raised the protection level)
• A specific tracker's connection-test fails inside Prowlarr or Jackett with a Cloudflare-related message

If your indexers are working without errors, you don't need FlareSolverr running.

Why Run It on a Seedbox?

FlareSolverr only does its job if Prowlarr or Jackett can hit it on a stable URL. Same box as those apps is the cleanest way:

• One-click install in the panel
• Internal URL works without HTTPS or auth fuss
• Always on
• Uses the same shared infrastructure

Installing FlareSolverr

Open the Bytesized Panel, find FlareSolverr in the app catalog, click install. The panel takes care of the headless Chrome dependency, the binary, and the port.

There's no UI to open. FlareSolverr runs as a service that other apps talk to over a JSON API.

Wiring It Into Prowlarr

In Prowlarr's Settings > Indexers > Add Indexer Proxy > FlareSolverr:

• Host: internal URL from the panel (without https://)
• Port: the FlareSolverr port (in app settings)
• Tags: add a tag (e.g., cf); apply this tag to indexers that need it

Save, then for each tracker hitting Cloudflare problems, add the cf tag in its indexer config. Prowlarr will route those requests through FlareSolverr automatically.

Wiring It Into Jackett

In Jackett, Settings > FlareSolverr API URL. Paste the FlareSolverr URL there. Jackett routes Cloudflare-protected requests through FlareSolverr automatically.

Common Gotchas

FlareSolverr eats CPU. Headless Chrome isn't free. Heavy use (lots of concurrent searches across many CF-protected indexers) can spike CPU. Limit concurrency in Prowlarr or Jackett if it's a problem.

Still getting Cloudflare errors. Cloudflare's protection levels change over time. Sometimes FlareSolverr lags behind Cloudflare's newest checks; updating to the latest version (Bytesized ships current builds) usually fixes it.

Tracker says "Captcha required." FlareSolverr handles automatic challenges, not human captchas. If a tracker is asking for an interactive captcha, you'll need to solve it in a browser and paste the cookie into Jackett or Prowlarr.

Service crashed. FlareSolverr can OOM under heavy load. The panel auto-restarts it; if you keep hitting this, throttle concurrency.

FAQ

Is FlareSolverr free? Yes. Free and open source.

Do I always need to run it? No. Only when a tracker behind Cloudflare's anti-bot stack starts returning challenges.

Does it work with Sonarr or Radarr directly? No. Sonarr and Radarr talk to your indexers through Prowlarr or Jackett. FlareSolverr sits in front of those, not directly in front of Sonarr.

Will it slow my searches down? A little. The CF challenge solve adds a second or two. Trivial in normal use, noticeable if you're running parallel searches across many CF-protected trackers.

Is it legal? The tool is. What you scrape with it is your concern, the same as any other indexer setup.

Ready to Set It Up?

Browse Appbox plans, install FlareSolverr from the panel, paste the URL into Prowlarr or Jackett, tag the affected trackers.