Terms as rDownloader uses them.

Archive password — a password stored with a package and tried when unpacking, before the shared password list. Set in the LinkGrabber, the import dialog, or announced with an indexer hit. See Post-processing.

Audit log — the append-only record of who did what, from where, and how it ended: sign-ins, tokens, settings changes, plugins installed or withdrawn, deletions and restores. Records cannot be edited or deleted; only retention removes them, oldest first. Audit log in the sidebar.

Automation — a rule of the form "when this happens, if this holds, do that", configured in the application. See Automation.

Bandwidth profile — a reusable bundle of a download rate, an optional upload rate, a parallelism cap and traffic budgets, activated by a weekly schedule; a profile can also pause downloads while it is in force. See Bandwidth and power.

Capture token — the credential a desktop capture agent or the browser extension uses. It may push links into the LinkGrabber and read one narrow event stream, and nothing else. Strictly separate from an API token.

Category — a name, a colour, a relative destination structure, and a set of defaults for post-processing. Decides where a package's files land. See Storage, categories and rules.

Click'n'Load (CNL2) — a JDownloader convention where a web page posts links to a local port. The capture agent serves it on 127.0.0.1:9666.

Compacted subscription entry — a skipped or dismissed subscription item older than 30 days (by default) that keeps only what the subscription recognises it by, so it never comes back; it leaves the archive. See Cleaning up the data folder.

Compatibility verdict — what an external tool's version is judged to be: supported, too_old, known_bad or unknown. Only the middle two block anything, and only the capabilities the rule names. See External tools.

Conformance — the check that answers whether rDownloader would actually run a given plugin package. rdownloader plugin conformance <package> --json.

Container (link container) — a .dlc, .ccf, .rsdf or .txt file holding a list of links. Not to be confused with a Docker container or a media container.

Correlation id — the value (a trace id) that ties log records to one request or queued job; pasting it into the log viewer's filter shows that work end to end.

Debrid / multihoster — a service that resolves other hosters' links using its own subscription. Premiumize.me, AllDebrid, Debrid-Link, LinkSnappy, Real-Debrid and Offcloud are bundled, and the debrid service TorBox. They need an account by design.

Diagnostic bundle — an archive for a support request, written on this machine and never uploaded: versions, redacted configuration, the system checks, doctor output and the most recent errors. It is created only after you have seen an inventory of what it would hold and approved that inventory. See Diagnostics and maintenance.

Download window — when downloads may run: a bandwidth profile that pauses downloads, placed in the weekly schedule, or weekly time spans of one package or category, outside which it waits. See Downloading only at certain times and Download windows.

Free flow — a hoster's anonymous download path: wait out the countdown, answer the captcha, post the form. One at a time per hoster.

Hotfolder — see watched folder.

Idempotency key — a value that lets a receiver recognise a repeated delivery. Notifications and automation runs both carry one, because both are at-least-once.

Intake source — where a link came from: manual entry, clipboard, Click'n'Load, the extension's context menu, an intercepted browser download, a watched folder, a subscription, the API. Routing rules can match on it.

LinkGrabber — the review stage in front of the queue, where links are grouped into packages, checked, and given a category before anything downloads. See The LinkGrabber.

Managed tool — an external helper rDownloader downloads, verifies against a signed manifest, activates and can roll back itself, under <data>/tools/<name>/<version>/. Off by default, and a path you configured yourself always wins over a managed version.

Manifest (plugin) — the file in a .rdplug declaring the plugin's type, the ABI version it speaks, and every capability it asks for. One grant is one WIT interface.

Metrics endpoint — /api/v1/metrics, Prometheus exposition, reached by the api:metrics permission area and by nothing else.

Mirror — a second link in the same package pointing at the same file. One downloads; the rest wait as its fallback rather than fetching the same bytes twice. If the one that is downloading dies, another takes over.

Mirror group — the links of one package that were recognised as the same file, shown as one row with a choice. Recognised from what the page declared, a name and a size that agree, or a name alone — the last only as a possible mirror. A wrongly recognised group can be taken apart and is not grouped again. A mirror is not a duplicate: two links with the same address are never mirrors of each other.

Multipart archive — a set like file.part1.rar, .part2.rar or .7z.001. Grouped into one package automatically, and never treated as mirrors of each other.

NZB — a file describing where a post's articles live on Usenet. Imported through the LinkGrabber, up to 64 MiB.

Package — the unit that carries a category, a priority, an archive password and a post-processing level. Every package gets its own directory: <storage root>/<category path>/<package name>/.

Package withdrawal — refusing one exact plugin build, while the author's signing key and every other package signed with it stay trusted; takes effect at the next start. Revoking the key instead takes down everything that author ever signed.

PAR2 — Usenet's parity format. Verifies a post arrived intact and repairs it if not. Detected by content, not extension.

Passkey (WebAuthn) — an alternative to the password, not an addition to it. Bound to the installation's external URL, which is what makes it unphishable.

Pending restart — a change that runs only from rDownloader's next start, such as a plugin installed or updated. Shown as Restart pending with Restart now. See Restarting when needed.

Permission area — one of seven scopes an API token can carry: api:read, api:intake, api:queue, api:config, api:secrets, api:admin and api:metrics. The last is off the ladder: it reaches the metrics endpoint alone. See Accounts, sessions and permissions.

Postponed — how the queue labels a Usenet recovery volume held back until a PAR2 repair turns out to need it.

Plugin cache — the compiled code of the installed plugins in plugin-cache/, kept so a start need not compile them again. What no installed plugin uses, what an older plugin engine wrote and what lies beyond 256 MiB is removed; see Cleaning up the data folder.

Plugin repository — a signed index of plugin packages that rDownloader checks for updates and offers. It only delivers: every package still needs a plugin key you trust. The official one is built in; others are added with their address and public key.

Post-processing level — None, +Repair, +Unpack or +Delete, inherited package → category → global default.

Proven update — an update whose new version started and answered as itself. Only then are the older backups from before it removed, keeping the newest. See Cleaning up the data folder.

.rdplug — a plugin package: manifest, WebAssembly component, optional translations, Ed25519 signature.

Readiness card — the checklist on Settings → System → Status stating whether setup is finished: login, storage destination, category, wizard completed.

Reconnect — a script you write that asks your router for a new IP address when free downloads are stuck behind a per-address limit. Off by default.

Remote job — work handed to a provider account — a magnet, .torrent, .nzb or link — that runs there rather than here, keeps running while this machine does not, may stop to ask which files you want, and stays in the account afterwards until somebody deletes it. Followed on the Remote jobs page. Ending one at the provider and removing it from the list are two separate actions.

Resolver — a plugin that turns a hoster page address into a downloadable link.

Rollback target — the plugin version that ran before the active one; Roll back in the plugin's Versions panel returns to it from the next start.

Runner — the component that actually carries out one kind of transfer: HTTP, Usenet, torrent, media, gallery, stream, remote.

SFV — a CRC32 checksum index. Verified before extraction, for every package kind.

Site rule — a declarative description of how to read a release page: which hosts it claims, which steps to run, and where the links are — no JavaScript is executed. rDownloader brings a few switched-off rules of its own for free sources (origin Bundled); rules travel between installations as exports, with their switches. Managed under Settings → Site rules; see Site rules.

Staging — the area extraction runs in before completed contents are moved into the package directory.

Storage root — an allowlisted absolute base directory downloads are written to. Exactly one is always the default.

Stream transform — a plugin type for a provider that encrypts on the client, such as MEGA: the plugin describes how the bytes become a file, and rDownloader decrypts and checks the provider's integrity value itself.

Structured log store — the searchable copy of every log event, redacted before it is stored, read through Logs in the sidebar.

Subscription — a source polled on its own schedule: a channel, playlist, gallery profile, feed or indexer. Every item is acted on exactly once.

Transfer service — one of the six switchable services: torrent, Usenet, media, gallery, recording, remote. All on by default.

Trust on first use (TOFU) — showing a third-party plugin key's fingerprint and asking for approval before trusting it persistently. SSH host keys work the same way.

Under test (plugin version) — an installed plugin version that runs only for downloads started with it on purpose, beside the active one, until it is activated or discarded.

Vendor folder — where helper binaries are looked for before PATH: the configured directory, vendor/ beside the executable, vendor/ in the data directory.

Watched folder (hotfolder) — a directory rDownloader monitors for .nzb, .torrent, .dlc, .ccf and .rsdf files. See Watched folders.

WIT — the WebAssembly Interface Type definition that is the plugin contract: rdownloader:[email protected], with thirteen plugin worlds (the intake type has two).

yEnc — Usenet's binary encoding. Decoded and CRC-checked per segment and per complete file.

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