Plex Skill

Overview

• Manages a Plex Media Server through its HTTP API.
• Credentials stored in .env file next to this SKILL.md. Start from .env.example; the CLI auto-loads and validates the final .env.
• Main helper script: scripts/plex_cli.py (Python 3).
• Dependency: plexapi package required for watchlist command (pip3 install plexapi).

Quick Start

1. Credentials: create .env next to this SKILL.md from .env.example, then fill in your real Plex URL and token. The CLI auto-loads .env, but CLI flags and existing shell env vars override it.
2. Run:

   cp ~/.agents/skills/plex/.env.example ~/.agents/skills/plex/.env
   # edit ~/.agents/skills/plex/.env and replace the placeholder values
   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py ping
   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py libraries
   

Section IDs are server-specific. Use python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py libraries to discover them on the target server.

What This Skill Can Do

1. Verify Plex connection and auth:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py ping
   

2. List Plex libraries:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py libraries
   

3. Search media by title:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py search --query "Alien" --limit 20
   

4. Show recently added items:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py recently-added --limit 10
   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py recently-added --section-id SECTION_ID --limit 10
   

5. Show active playback sessions:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py sessions
   

6. Get metadata by ratingKey:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py metadata --rating-key 12345
   

7. Trigger library refresh (scan) — normally not needed, Plex scans automatically:

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py refresh-section --section-id SECTION_ID
   

8. Get user's Plex Watchlist (from plex.tv cloud, not local server):

   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py watchlist
   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py watchlist --filter movie
   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py watchlist --filter show
   python3 ~/.agents/skills/plex/scripts/plex_cli.py watchlist --sort titleSort:asc
   

Watchlist

The watchlist lives on plex.tv (cloud), not on the local Plex server. The watchlist command uses python-plexapi to fetch it.

Important notes

• Requires: pip3 install plexapi (already installed).
• The local Plex server API does NOT have a watchlist endpoint — it only exists on plex.tv.
• Returns metadata from Plex's online database (title, year, guid, type). These are NOT local library items.
• To match watchlist items against the local library, search by title/year using the search command.

Filter options

• --filter movie — only movies
• --filter show — only TV shows
• No filter — returns all items (movies + shows)

Sort options (format: field:dir)

Sort	Description
watchlistedAt:desc	Most recently added to watchlist first (default)
watchlistedAt:asc	Oldest watchlist additions first
titleSort:asc	Alphabetical A→Z
titleSort:desc	Alphabetical Z→A
originallyAvailableAt:desc	Newest releases first
rating:desc	Highest rated first

Workflow: Download all watchlist movies

1. Get watchlist: plex_cli.py watchlist --filter movie
2. For each item, search RuTracker (see rutracker skill)
3. Send .torrent to NAS (see synology-download-station skill)
4. Plex picks up new files automatically after download

Operational Notes

• Default output is JSON for easy processing.
• Invalid or incomplete config also returns JSON errors, not Python tracebacks.
• Library refresh happens automatically — only use refresh-section if the user explicitly asks.
• Never print or commit real PLEX_TOKEN.
• Summarize results naturally — don't dump raw JSON to the user.

References

• references/api-cheatsheet.md for endpoint and command mapping.