Configuration

Aviato reads its configuration from three sources, applied in this order (later values win):

1. Built in defaults, suitable for a typical Docker install.
2. config.yml in the data directory, if present.
3. Environment variables prefixed with AVIATO_.

This means you can ship a base config.yml and override individual values per environment with env vars, without rewriting the file.

The data directory

Most settings revolve around the data directory, where Aviato stores its database, downloaded assets, plugin installs, and log files.

You can point Aviato anywhere with AVIATO_DATA_PATH=/srv/aviato. When that variable is set (or /data does not exist outside the monorepo), Aviato uses your chosen path as the base for database, plugins, assets, and logs. You can still override each subpath individually if you want them on different volumes.

The config file

If a file called config.yml exists at the root of the data directory, Aviato loads it on startup. The structure mirrors the sections below. A minimal example:

server:
  port: 9090
  corsOrigins:
    - https://aviato.example.com

logging:
  level: debug
  format: pretty

transcoding:
  hwAccel: vaapi
  maxSessions: 8

Anything you leave out keeps its default value. There is no schema validation beyond YAML parsing, so typos silently fall back to defaults.

Environment variables

Every option that is commonly tuned has an AVIATO_* env var. Booleans accept true / false or 1 / 0. Comma separated lists are split on commas with whitespace trimmed.

If you set both a config file value and an env var, the env var wins.

Server

Where the HTTP server binds and which origins it accepts.

Web

Controls the bundled web UI.

Data

Where Aviato keeps its persistent state. All paths default to subdirectories of data.path.

Builtin plugins

Build metadata

These values are baked into each build by CI and reported by /api/health and /api/info. You should not normally override them.

Plugins

Lifecycle and bookkeeping for the plugin runtime.

The plugin scratch directory (cover art, thumbnails, extracted streams) defaults to <os.tmpdir()>/aviato-plugins/<pluginId> and is swept hourly for entries older than 24 hours. To redirect it (test harnesses, faster storage), set the env var below; the same value is propagated to every plugin process so cleanup stays addressable from one root.

Marketplace

Configuration for plugin discovery and installation from a remote catalog.

Logging

Jobs

The job runner powers library scans and metadata indexing. These knobs trade off throughput against load on your system and on third party APIs.

Transcoding

Settings for the on the fly video transcoder. The defaultVideoBitrate, defaultAudioBitrate, segmentDuration, sessionTimeout, and cleanupInterval options are configurable via config.yml only.

Relay

Webhooks

Retention for webhook delivery records. Old delivery rows are pruned in the background.

Adapters

Third-party API compatibility adapters. Each sub-key is an opt-in compatibility layer that exposes Aviato's library through a foreign protocol so unmodified third-party clients can connect with the user's existing Aviato credentials. Adapters are off by default — enabling one does not affect native Aviato clients.

Jellyfin

When enabled, mounts a subset of the Jellyfin REST API at /api/adapter/jellyfin so Jellyfin-native clients (Plezy, Infuse, Swiftfin, Findroid, Streamyfin, Finamp, etc.) can connect using a user's Aviato credentials. Clients should be pointed at the Aviato server URL with /api/adapter/jellyfin set as the path prefix.

v1 supports movies, TV, and music libraries with direct play and remux only — transcoding through the Jellyfin protocol is not yet implemented; transcode-only clients will not work.

Updates

The server polls a release manifest every 6 hours to surface an "update available" indicator in the General settings pane. Channel selection (stable, beta, nightly) is editable per server in the admin UI; the install script also seeds the initial channel on first boot.

When the install script runs with AVIATO_CHANNEL=beta or AVIATO_CHANNEL=nightly, it writes updates.channel into <dataDir>/config.yml so the server picks the same channel on first boot. The data directory defaults to ~/Library/Application Support/Aviato on macOS and $XDG_DATA_HOME/aviato on Linux, and can be overridden with AVIATO_DATA_PATH.

Full example

A reasonably complete config.yml for a self hosted setup:

server:
  host: 0.0.0.0
  port: 8080
  corsOrigins:
    - https://aviato.example.com

data:
  path: /srv/aviato
  # database, plugins, assets, logs default to subdirectories of path

logging:
  level: info
  format: json
  maxFiles: 14

jobs:
  concurrency: 4
  scanInterval: 1800000   # 30 minutes
  indexBatchSize: 50

transcoding:
  hwAccel: vaapi
  maxSessions: 6
  defaultVideoBitrate: 6000000
  segmentDuration: 4

webhooks:
  deliveryRetentionDays: 14

relay:
  enabled: true

adapters:
  jellyfin:
    enabled: false   # opt-in: lets third-party Jellyfin clients connect