Instruction 03-sonarr-quality-profiles-searching-and-importing: Reading

Sonarr makes acquisition decisions by combining several layers of policy. Quality definitions describe categories and size limits, while a quality profile says which categories are allowed and how they are ordered. A custom format does not create a quality category; it detects additional release characteristics and contributes a score configured in the selected profile. This distinction matters because an allowed quality can still be rejected for falling below the minimum custom-format score, exceeding a size limit, being blocklisted, being unparsable, or failing another eligibility rule.

Monitoring is permission, not an immediate search request. A monitored missing episode can be considered when RSS processing discovers a newly posted release, but RSS processing normally examines recent announcements rather than searching all historical results. An automatic search actively queries indexers and lets Sonarr select an eligible result. An interactive search exposes the candidates and rejection reasons to the operator. Interactive search is therefore the preferred diagnostic tool when a release exists but Sonarr does not choose it.

Upgrade behavior must be evaluated against the episode's current file. Sonarr considers whether upgrades are enabled, whether the candidate quality is preferred over the current quality, whether configured targets have already been reached, and whether custom-format scoring permits or favors replacement. Quality order remains meaningful; a large positive score should not be treated as permission to ignore every other profile rule. Administrators should inspect the rejection icons and decision details rather than assuming that the numerically highest score always wins.

After a download completes, Sonarr must be able to resolve the path reported by the download client, identify a video file, parse or otherwise map it to the correct episode, and write to the series folder. If Sonarr and the download client see different path namespaces, a remote path mapping may be required. Container deployments frequently fail here because the two applications mount the same storage at different internal paths. Consistent paths are simpler and reduce configuration mistakes.

An import can copy, move, or hardlink a file depending on download state, configuration, and filesystem layout. Hardlinks require the source and destination to reside on the same filesystem. They share an inode but remain independently named directory entries. Removing one name does not remove the underlying file while another hardlink remains. Hardlinks are especially useful when a completed torrent must continue seeding while the episode also appears under an organized library name. This lesson models the decision and hardlink import process entirely under the class sandbox; it does not claim to reproduce every Sonarr protocol or tie-break rule.