SABnzbd API

⚠️ MANDATORY SKILL INVOCATION ⚠️

YOU MUST invoke this skill (NOT optional) when the user mentions ANY of these triggers:

"SABnzbd status", "NZB queue", "Usenet downloads"
"pause SAB", "resume downloads", "delete NZB"
"SAB history", "download speed", "SABnzbd"
Any mention of SABnzbd or Usenet download management

Failure to invoke this skill when triggers occur violates your operational requirements.

Manage Usenet downloads via SABnzbd's REST API.

Purpose

This skill provides read and write access to your SABnzbd Usenet downloader:

Monitor download queue and history
Add NZB files by URL or upload
Control downloads (pause, resume, delete)
Adjust download speed limits
Manage categories and post-processing scripts
Retry failed downloads
View server statistics and warnings

Operations include both read and write actions. Always confirm before deleting downloads with file deletion.

Setup

Credentials: ~/.homelab-skills/.env

SABNZBD_URL="http://localhost:8080"
SABNZBD_API_KEY="your-api-key-from-config-general"

Get your API key from SABnzbd Config → General → Security.

Security: Never commit .env file. Set permissions: chmod 600 ~/.homelab-skills/.env

Quick Reference

Queue Status

# Full queue
./scripts/sab-api.sh queue

# With filters
./scripts/sab-api.sh queue --limit 10 --category tv

# Specific job
./scripts/sab-api.sh queue --nzo-id SABnzbd_nzo_xxxxx

Add NZB

# By URL (indexer link)
./scripts/sab-api.sh add "https://indexer.com/get.php?guid=..."

# With options
./scripts/sab-api.sh add "URL" --name "My Download" --category movies --priority high

# By local file
./scripts/sab-api.sh add-file /path/to/file.nzb --category tv

Priority: force, high, normal, low, paused, duplicate

Control Queue

./scripts/sab-api.sh pause              # Pause all
./scripts/sab-api.sh resume             # Resume all
./scripts/sab-api.sh pause-job <nzo_id>
./scripts/sab-api.sh resume-job <nzo_id>
./scripts/sab-api.sh delete <nzo_id>    # Keep files
./scripts/sab-api.sh delete <nzo_id> --files  # Delete files too
./scripts/sab-api.sh purge              # Clear queue

Speed Control

./scripts/sab-api.sh speedlimit 50      # 50% of max
./scripts/sab-api.sh speedlimit 5M      # 5 MB/s
./scripts/sab-api.sh speedlimit 0       # Unlimited

History

./scripts/sab-api.sh history
./scripts/sab-api.sh history --limit 20 --failed
./scripts/sab-api.sh retry <nzo_id>     # Retry failed
./scripts/sab-api.sh retry-all          # Retry all failed
./scripts/sab-api.sh delete-history <nzo_id>

Categories & Scripts

./scripts/sab-api.sh categories
./scripts/sab-api.sh scripts
./scripts/sab-api.sh change-category <nzo_id> movies
./scripts/sab-api.sh change-script <nzo_id> notify.py

Status & Info

./scripts/sab-api.sh status             # Full status
./scripts/sab-api.sh version
./scripts/sab-api.sh warnings
./scripts/sab-api.sh server-stats       # Download stats

Response Format

Queue slot includes:

nzo_id, filename, status
mb, mbleft, percentage
timeleft, priority, cat
script, labels

Status values: Downloading, Queued, Paused, Propagating, Fetching

History status: Completed, Failed, Queued, Verifying, Repairing, Extracting

Workflow

When the user asks about Usenet downloads:

"What's downloading?" → Run queue to show active downloads
"Add this NZB" → Run add "<url>" with appropriate category and priority
"Pause all downloads" → Run pause
"Resume downloads" → Run resume
"Show download history" → Run history
"Retry failed downloads" → Run retry-all or retry <nzo_id>
"Slow down downloads" → Run speedlimit <percentage> or speedlimit <MB>M

Notes

Requires network access to your SABnzbd server
Uses SABnzbd API (v2+)
All data operations return JSON
Delete operations with --files are permanent - always confirm before deleting downloaded files
Speed limits can be percentage (of configured max) or absolute values
NZB files can be added by URL (indexer links) or local file upload
Post-processing scripts are executed after download completion

🔧 Agent Tool Usage Requirements

CRITICAL: When invoking scripts from this skill via the zsh-tool, ALWAYS use pty: true.

Without PTY mode, command output will not be visible even though commands execute successfully.

Correct invocation pattern:

<invoke name="mcp__plugin_zsh-tool_zsh-tool__zsh">
<parameter name="command">./skills/SKILL_NAME/scripts/SCRIPT.sh [args]</parameter>
<parameter name="pty">true</parameter>
</invoke>

sabnzbd