How to Use Seer: The Beginner's Guide (First Deploy, the Sonarr/Radarr Wiring, Your First Request, and the Migration Branch)

CodexFuse Team · 2026-11-01T09:51:46.498Z · 12 min read

Seer merged Overseerr and Jellyseerr into one request manager. Deploy it, connect Plex or Jellyfin, wire Sonarr/Radarr, and handle your first request.

What Is Seer?

Seer is a free, open-source request and discovery manager for your media server — the unified successor to Overseerr and Jellyseerr, whose teams merged into one project in February 2026. Your users browse a polished interface to discover and request movies and TV shows, and Seer sends the approved requests to Sonarr and Radarr, which handle the actual downloading and organizing. Learning how to use Seer is the fastest way to stop getting "can you add this show?" texts from friends and family.

First, a name check: this guide is about Seer, the media-request app — not a serger, the sewing machine that search engines keep mixing it up with. The project lives at github.com/seerr-team/seerr, is MIT licensed, holds more than 13,000 GitHub stars, and its current release, v3.5.1, shipped on October 21, 2026. One thing to internalize early: Seer downloads nothing by itself — it is the front door and the approval desk, while Sonarr and Radarr do the fetching.

This Seer tutorial walks the complete beginner arc in one sitting: deploying with Docker Compose, connecting Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby, wiring Sonarr and Radarr, setting up users with quotas and auto-approval, making your first request, turning on notifications, and — if you are coming from the old apps — the migration branch that moves your Overseerr or Jellyseerr data over automatically.

How to Use Seer: The 10-Step Beginner Arc

Here is the whole journey in one numbered list. Each step has its own section below with the details.

1. Deploy Seer with the official Docker Compose file on port 5055.
2. Open http://your-server-ip:5055 and finish the setup wizard.
3. Connect your media server — Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby — and let Seer scan your libraries.
4. Wire Sonarr and Radarr: API keys, quality profiles, root folders.
5. Create your users: import them from Plex/Jellyfin, set permissions and quotas.
6. Decide who gets auto-approval and who needs a manual review.
7. Discover something to watch and submit your first request.
8. Approve the request and watch it land in Sonarr or Radarr.
9. Turn on notifications so everyone knows when titles become available.
10. Back up your config folder — migrations are easy, rebuilds are not.

Step 1: Deploy Seer With Docker

The only supported way to run Seer for a beginner is the official Docker image, ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:latest — the old fallenbagel/jellyseerr image is gone and the sct/overseerr project is archived, so update any old guides you are reading. New to containers? This Docker beginner guide covers the concepts you need before touching a compose file.

Here is the official compose service, straight from the Seer migration docs:

services:
  seerr:
    image: ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:latest
    init: true
    container_name: seerr
    environment:
      - LOG_LEVEL=debug
      - TZ=America/New_York   # set to your time zone
      - PORT=5055             # optional; 5055 is the default
    ports:
      - 5055:5055
    volumes:
      - /path/to/appdata/config:/app/config
    restart: unless-stopped

Two details make or break a fresh install. First, init: true is required — the current Seer container no longer ships its own init process, and without it the container can behave badly on restarts. Second, the container now runs as the node user (UID 1000) instead of root: if Seer cannot write to your config folder, fix the ownership with chown -R 1000:1000 /path/to/appdata/config before starting, and remove any old user: directive left over from an Overseerr or Jellyseerr compose file.

The only thing the container needs persisted is /app/config — that single folder holds the database, settings, and everything else. Back it up and you can rebuild the whole service in minutes. SQLite is the default database; if you prefer PostgreSQL, Seer accepts DB_TYPE, DB_HOST, DB_PORT, DB_USER, DB_PASS, and DB_NAME environment variables.

Step 2: Connect Your Media Server (Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby)

Open http://your-server-ip:5055 and the setup wizard walks you into the one decision that shapes the whole instance: which media server Seer sits on top of. Seer works with Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby, but only one media-server integration can be active at a time — pick the server your library actually lives on.

For Plex, sign in with Plex OAuth (Quick Connect is also supported) and Seer pulls in your servers and libraries; you can then import your Plex users into Seer in a couple of clicks instead of creating accounts by hand. For Jellyfin or Emby, enter the server URL and sign in with a Jellyfin/Emby username and password directly inside Seer — no manual API key hunting — and Quick Connect auth works there too on recent versions.

After connecting, Seer scans your libraries and marks every title as available or unavailable. That scan is what powers the green "Available" badges in search results, so give it time to finish before judging your first searches. If your library lives on Plex, this Plex beginner guide covers the server side; if it lives on Jellyfin, this Jellyfin beginner guide does the same.

Step 3: Wire Sonarr and Radarr

Seer is the request desk, not the warehouse: approved requests get forwarded to Sonarr (TV shows) and Radarr (movies), so both must be configured before any request can complete. In Seer, go to Settings → Services and add a server for each. The fields are identical for both, and this is the table most beginners should bookmark:

You can add multiple Sonarr or Radarr instances — a common pattern is one standard Radarr plus a separate 4K Radarr — and Seer lets a request target the right one. After wiring, test the connection before inviting users: the number-one cause of "my approved request never downloaded" is a request that was approved fine but landed in a Sonarr with auto-search off, a wrong quality profile, a missing root folder, or no download client configured. Manage requests for media you have legal rights to — Seer is a request manager, not a source.

Step 4: Set Up Users, Quotas, and Auto-Approval

Users log in to Seer with their existing Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby credentials — or with local Seer accounts you create for people outside your media server. Permissions are granular: the MANAGE_REQUESTS permission decides who can approve requests, so hand admin rights only to people you trust with the "yes" button.

Quotas are the feature that keeps a shared server healthy. You set per-user request limits — separate movie and TV quotas inside a rolling window — and users see their remaining quota right in the request modal. Admins can bypass quotas entirely. A sensible starting point for a friends-and-family server is 5–10 requests per user per week; you can always loosen it later, and tightening it later starts arguments.

Pair quotas with auto-approval rules: trusted users get auto-approve so their requests flow straight to Sonarr/Radarr, while everyone else lands in the pending queue for a manual review. That one decision — who is trusted — is the entire access policy of most home Seer servers.

Step 5: Make Your First Request

The Discover section is where Seer earns its keep: trending movies and shows with filters for streaming service, genre, release date, studio, and rating, so users find things worth requesting instead of scrolling aimlessly. Search any title and Seer shows whether it is already in your library, already requested, or available to request.

Clicking request opens the request modal: pick the profile (movie, full show, individual seasons, or 4K), confirm the destination server, and submit. The request lands in PENDING — or skips straight to processing if you have auto-approval. This is also where first-timers learn the mental model: requesting is not downloading. You are filing a ticket; Sonarr and Radarr fulfill it.

Step 6: Approve Requests and Read the Request Flow

The full lifecycle of a request looks like this: user submits → PENDING → admin approves (or auto-approve fires) → Seer sends it to Sonarr or Radarr → the *arr app grabs and organizes it → the user gets notified it is available. Watch one request travel that whole path before you invite anyone — it is the fastest way to catch a wiring mistake in Step 3.

Seer also ships the small quality-of-life features that separate it from older request tools: watchlists, blocklists for titles you never want requested, override rules that adjust request settings per user or tag, and a choice of metadata provider (TMDB by default, experimental TVDB if you want Sonarr-style numbering). If you are comparing against the other classic request tool, here is the honest one-page summary:

Step 7: Turn On Notifications

Notifications close the loop: users learn when a request is approved, declined, or available without you relaying the news. Seer supports Discord (with thread IDs and multiple channel IDs), email over SMTP, Telegram, Slack, Pushover, Pushbullet, Gotify, ntfy.sh, generic webhooks with dynamic URL placeholders, web push, and LunaSea. Wire at least one channel before inviting users — a request tool nobody hears from feels broken even when it works.

If your users reach Seer over the internet rather than your LAN, put HTTPS in front of it before sharing the link. This Caddy beginner guide shows the quickest reverse-proxy path for self-hosted apps. And remember the house rule from Step 1: back up /app/config — the whole instance is one folder.

The Migration Branch: Moving From Overseerr or Jellyseerr

If you already run Overseerr or Jellyseerr, this is the easiest upgrade in self-hosting: the migration runs automatically the first time you start Seer. Your existing database and configuration carry over on first boot — no manual export, no re-adding servers. The prep is a short checklist, not a project:

1. Back up your current appdata/config folder — migrations are safe, but backups are sacred.
2. Rename every overseerr/jellyseerr reference in your compose file and paths to seerr.
3. Swap the image to ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:latest.
4. Add init: true — the new container requires it.
5. Fix config ownership for the rootless container: chown -R 1000:1000 on your config folder.
6. Start the container and let the first-boot migration finish before touching anything.

On Unraid, the equivalent path is: copy /mnt/user/appdata/overseerr to /mnt/user/appdata/seerr, install Seer from the Community Apps store, and remove the old container once the migration is verified. Note the name-family cleanup: the old fallenbagel/jellyseerr repository now redirects to seerr-team/seerr, and sct/overseerr is archived with a banner pointing at Seer — anything still referencing those images is stale.

Beginner Mistakes That Break a Seer Install

Almost every failed first install traces back to one of these:

Sources

Every fact in this guide was verified against a page fetched for this article on November 1, 2026: the official Seer migration guide and v3.0 release announcement at docs.seerr.dev; the seerr-team/seerr GitHub repository and its releases page (v3.5.1, October 21, 2026); the TechHut "Overseerr is Now Seer" migration guide (techhut.tv); the mariushosting Seerr-on-UGREEN-NAS guide (updated October 31, 2026); the QuickBox Seer/Jellyseerr application docs (quickbox.io); the ElfHosted Seer documentation; and the Dr. Frankenstein Seerr-on-Synology guide (drfrankenstein.co.uk).

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Seer really free?

Yes. Seer is MIT-licensed open-source software with no paid tier — you self-host it on your own hardware and pay nothing for the app itself. The ~13,000 GitHub stars reflect a community that arrived mostly from Overseerr and Jellyseerr after the February 2026 merger.

Does Seer work with Emby, or just Plex and Jellyfin?

All three: Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby. Sign in with a server URL plus credentials for Jellyfin/Emby, or Plex OAuth for Plex. Only one media-server integration can be active at a time, so pick the server that holds your library.

How do I migrate from Overseerr or Jellyseerr to Seer?

Back up your config folder, rename your compose references from overseerr/jellyseerr to seerr, swap the image to ghcr.io/seerr-team/seerr:latest, add init: true, fix config ownership to UID 1000, and start. Seer detects the old database on first boot and migrates it automatically.

Why is my approved request not downloading?

Seer only forwards requests — the download happens in Sonarr or Radarr. Check, in order: is auto-search enabled in the *arr app, is the quality profile valid, is the root folder correct, and is a download client actually configured there. Nine times out of ten the request was fine and the *arr side was not.

Do I need Sonarr and Radarr to use Seer?

For the full request flow, yes: Seer manages and approves requests, Sonarr fetches TV shows, and Radarr fetches movies. You can run Seer with just a media server connected to browse and discover, but requests will pile up in pending until the *arr apps are wired.