Glossary
The words that show up in every Stremio thread, in plain language.
A–C
Add-on — A small web service that gives Stremio content: streams, catalogues, metadata or subtitles. Stremio ships nearly empty and you install what you need.
Add-on collection — Your personal list of installed add-ons, stored on your Stremio account and synced across devices.
Cache (debrid) — A torrent the debrid provider has already downloaded. A cached torrent starts playing instantly; an uncached one has to be fetched first.
Catalogue — A browsable list of titles (Trending, Netflix, IMDb Top 250…) shown on the Board and Discover pages. Catalogues come from metadata add-ons.
Cinemeta — The default metadata add-on, built into Stremio. Provides posters, descriptions and episode lists.
Client — The app you actually use: Stremio for Windows, Stremio Web, a fork, or a compatible app like Nuvio.
D–M
Debrid — A paid service that downloads torrents on its servers and gives you a direct HTTPS link. Removes the need to seed.
Direct streaming / HTTP streaming — Playing a file from a plain web server rather than from BitTorrent peers. Often used by add-ons that scrape streaming sites.
Fork — A modified copy of an open-source project. Stremio forks change the UI, add features or target specific hardware.
Indexer — A searchable database of releases, mostly used in the Usenet world to find NZB files.
Manifest — The manifest.json file every add-on exposes. It describes the add-on's name, version, and the resource types it provides. Installing an add-on means adding its manifest URL.
Meta add-on — An add-on that queries other add-ons and merges the results (AIOStreams is the best-known example).
Metadata add-on — Supplies titles, posters, descriptions, cast and episode information.
N–S
NZB — The Usenet equivalent of a torrent file: an index of the articles that make up a release.
P2P (peer-to-peer) — Downloading pieces of a file from other users. Fast and free, but your IP is visible to the swarm.
PWA — Progressive Web App. Stremio Web installed to your home screen; the closest thing to a native app on iOS.
Provider — In this context, the service behind your setup: a debrid provider or a Usenet provider.
RPDB — RatingPosterDB. Puts IMDb/other ratings directly onto posters.
Scraper — An add-on that searches torrent indexes or streaming sites for a given title and returns the results as streams.
Seeder — A peer that has the complete file and uploads it to others. Zero seeders means the torrent will not download.
Stream add-on — An add-on whose job is to return video sources for a title.
StremThru — A companion service that adds debrid and Usenet support to add-ons that lack it.
T–Z
Torrentio — The classic stream add-on. Scrapes public indexes and supports most debrid services.
Trakt — A watch-tracking service; Stremio can sync your progress and watchlist with it.
Usenet — A distributed discussion and file-transfer network, older than the web. Downloads come from servers, so speed does not depend on seeders.
VPN — Encrypts your traffic and hides your IP from your ISP and from other peers. Relevant for P2P, unnecessary for debrid-only setups.
WebView2 / Electron / Qt — The technologies used to wrap Stremio's web UI into a desktop app. That is why desktop forks mostly differ in UI polish and player features.