iptv-api

Tutorial

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⚡️ IPTV live-source automatic update platform — 🤖 fully automated collection, filtering, speed-testing, and generation 🚀. Supports extensive personalized configuration; paste the resulting address into a player to watch.

There are four installation and running methods in total (Workflows, Command Line, GUI, Docker). Choose the one that suits you.

Workflow deployment

Use GitHub Actions workflows to deploy and manually trigger the update endpoint.

[!IMPORTANT] Because GitHub resources are limited, workflow updates can only be triggered manually. If you need frequent updates or scheduled runs, please deploy using another method.

Enter the IPTV-API Project

Open https://github.com/Guovin/iptv-api and click Star to favorite this project (Your Star is my motivation for continuous updates).

Fork

Copy the source code of this repository to your personal account repository.

1. Name your personal repository as you like (the final live source result link depends on this name), here we use the default iptv-api as an example.
2. Confirm the information is correct and click to create.

Update Source Code

Since this project will continue to iterate and optimize, if you want to get the latest updates, you can do the following:

1. Watch

Follow this project, and subsequent update logs will be released as releases, and you will receive email notifications.

2. Sync fork

• Normal update:

Go back to the homepage of your forked repository, if there are updates, click Sync fork, Update branch to confirm and update the latest code.

• No Update branch button, update conflict:

This is because some files conflict with the default files of the main repository, click Discard commits to update the latest code.

[!IMPORTANT] To avoid conflicts when updating the code later, it is recommended to copy files in the config directory and rename them by adding the user_ prefix before modifying.

Modify Template

When you click to confirm creation in step one, you will automatically jump to your personal repository after success. At this time, your personal repository has been created, and you can customize your live source channel menu!

1. Click the demo.txt template file in the config folder:

You can copy and refer to the format of the default template for subsequent operations.

2. Create a personal template user_demo.txt in the config folder:

1. Click the config directory.
2. Create a file.
3. Name the template file user_demo.txt.
4. The template file needs to be written in the format of (channel category, #genre#), (channel name, channel interface) with a comma. If you want to whitelist the interface (no speed test, keep it at the top of the result), you can add $! after the address, such as http://xxx$!. You can also add additional information, such as: http://xxx$! whitelist.
5. Click Commit changes... to save.

Modify Configuration

Like editing templates, modify the runtime configuration.

1. Click the config.ini configuration file in the config folder:

2. Copy the default configuration file content:

3. Create a personal configuration file user_config.ini in the config folder:

1. Create a file.
2. Name the configuration file user_config.ini.
3. Paste the default configuration. (when creating user_config.ini, you can only enter the configuration items you want to modify, no need to copy the entire config.ini. Note that the [Settings] at the top of the configuration file must be retained, otherwise the custom configuration below will not take effect)
4. Modify the template and result file configuration and CDN proxy acceleration (recommended):
   • source_file = config/user_demo.txt
   • final_file = output/user_result.txt
   • cdn_url = (go to the Govin public account and reply cdn to get it)
5. Click Commit changes... to save.

Adjust the configuration as needed, here is the default configuration description: Configuration parameters

[!NOTE]

1. For enabling interface information display, since some players (such as PotPlayer) do not support parsing interface supplementary information, causing playback failure, you can modify the configuration: open_url_info = False ( GUI: uncheck display interface information) to disable this feature.
2. If your network supports IPv6, you can modify the configuration: ipv6_support = True (GUI: Check Force assume the current network supports IPv6) to skip the support check.

Add data sources and more

• Subscription sources (config/subscribe.txt)

  Since no default subscription addresses are provided, you need to add them yourself; otherwise the update results may be empty. Both .txt and .m3u URLs are supported as subscriptions, and the program will read channel interface entries from them sequentially.

• Local sources（config/local.txt）

  Channel interface data comes from local files. If there are multiple local source files, you can create a local directory under config to store them; the program will read the channel interface data from them in order. Supports txt and m3u files.

• Logo source (config/logo)

  Directory for channel logo images. The program will match corresponding logo images in this directory based on the channel names in the template. If a remote library logo_url is used, the remote source will be preferred.

• EPG Source (config/epg.txt)

  The source of program guide information. The program will sequentially fetch the program guide data from the subscription addresses in the file and aggregate the output.

• Channel Aliases (config/alias.txt)

  A list of aliases for channel names, used to map multiple names to a single name when fetching from the interface, improving the fetch volume and accuracy. Format: TemplateChannelName,Alias1,Alias2,Alias3

• Blacklist (config/blacklist.txt)

  Interfaces that match the blacklist keywords will be filtered and not collected, such as low-quality interfaces with ads.

• Whitelist (config/whitelist.txt)

  Interfaces or subscription sources in the whitelist will not participate in speed testing and will be prioritized at the top of the results. Fill in the channel name to directly retain the record in the final result, such as: CCTV-1, interface address, only filling in the interface address will apply to all channels, multiple records are entered on separate lines.

Run Update

If your template and configuration modifications are correct, you can configure Actions to achieve automatic updates.

1. Enter Actions:

2. Enable Actions workflow:

Since the Actions workflow of the forked repository is disabled by default, you need to manually confirm to enable it, click the button in the red box to confirm enabling. After enabling successfully, you can see that there are no workflows running currently, don’t worry, let’s start running your first update workflow below.

3. Run the update workflow:

(1) Enable update schedule:

1. Click update schedule under the Workflows category.
2. Since the workflow of the forked repository is disabled by default, click the Enable workflow button to confirm the activation.

(2) Run the Workflow based on branches:

Now you can run the update workflow.

1. Click Run workflow.
2. Here you can switch to the branch you want to run. Since the fork defaults to the master branch, if the template and configuration you modified are also in the master branch, just choose master here, and click Run workflow to confirm the run.

(3) Workflow in progress:

Wait a moment, and you will see that your first update workflow is running!

[!NOTE]
The running time depends on the number of channels and pages in your template and other configurations, and also largely depends on the current network conditions. Please be patient. The default template and configuration usually take about 15 minutes.

(4) Cancel the running Workflow:

If you feel that this update is not quite right and you need to modify the template or configuration before running again, you can click Cancel run to cancel this run.

(5) Workflow executed successfully:

If everything is normal, after a short wait, you will see that the workflow has been executed successfully (green check mark).

At this point, you can visit the file link to see if the latest results have been synchronized: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/your-github-username/repository-name/master/output/user_result.txt

Recommended CDN-accelerated URL: {cdn_url}/https://raw.githubusercontent.com/your-github-username/repository-name/master/output/user_result.txt

If you can access this link and it returns the updated interface content, then your live source interface link has been successfully created! Simply copy and paste this link into software like TVBox in the configuration field to use~

[!NOTE]
If you have modified the template or configuration files and want to execute the update immediately, you can manually trigger (2)Run workflow.

Command Line

1. Install Python Please download and install Python from the official website, and select the option to add Python to the system environment variable Path during installation.

2. Run the update Open the terminal CMD in the project directory and run the following commands in sequence:

Install dependencies:

pip install pipenv

pipenv install --dev

Start the update:

pipenv run dev

Start the service:

pipenv run service

GUI Software

1. Download the IPTV-API Update Software, open the software, and click Start to perform the update.

2. Or run the following command in the project directory to open the GUI software:

pipenv run ui

Docker

1. Deployment with Compose

Download the docker-compose.yml or create one by copying the content (internal parameters can be changed as needed), then run the following command in the path where the file is located:

docker compose up -d

2. Manual deployment with commands

(1) Pull the image

docker pull guovern/iptv-api:latest

🚀 Proxy acceleration (use this command if pulling fails, but it may download an older version):

docker pull docker.1ms.run/guovern/iptv-api:latest

(2) Run the container

docker run -d -p 80:8080 guovern/iptv-api

Environment variables:

Variable	Description	Default
PUBLIC_DOMAIN	Public domain or IP address, determines external access and the Host used in push stream results	127.0.0.1
PUBLIC_PORT	Public port, set to the mapped port, determines external access address and the port used in push stream results	80
NGINX_HTTP_PORT	Nginx HTTP service port, needs to be mapped for external access	8080

If you need to modify environment variables, add the following parameters after the above run command:

# Modify public domain
-e PUBLIC_DOMAIN=your.domain.com
# Modify public port
-e PUBLIC_PORT=80

In addition to the environment variables listed above, you can also override the configuration items in the configuration file via environment variables.

Mounts: used to synchronize files between the host and the container. You can edit templates, configs, and access generated result files directly on the host. Append the following options to the run command above:

# Mount config directory
-v /iptv-api/config:/iptv-api/config
# Mount output directory
-v /iptv-api/output:/iptv-api/output

3. Update Results

Endpoint	Description
/	Default endpoint
/m3u	m3u format endpoint
/txt	txt format endpoint
/ipv4	ipv4 default endpoint
/ipv6	ipv6 default endpoint
/ipv4/txt	ipv4 txt endpoint
/ipv6/txt	ipv6 txt endpoint
/ipv4/m3u	ipv4 m3u endpoint
/ipv6/m3u	ipv6 m3u endpoint
/content	Endpoint content
/log/result	Log of valid results
/log/speed-test	Log of all interfaces involved in speed testing
/log/statistic	Log of statistics results
/log/nomatch	Log of unmatched channels

RTMP Streaming:

[!NOTE]

1. If deploying on a server, be sure to set the PUBLIC_DOMAIN environment variable to the server’s domain name or IP address and the PUBLIC_PORT environment variable to the public port; otherwise the streaming addresses will not be accessible.
2. When streaming is enabled, obtained interfaces (e.g., subscription sources) will be streamed by default.
3. To stream local video sources, create an hls folder under the config directory and place video files named after the channel; the program will automatically stream them to the corresponding channels.

Streaming Endpoint	Description
/hls	hls streaming endpoint
/hls/txt	hls txt streaming endpoint
/hls/m3u	hls m3u streaming endpoint
/hls/ipv4	hls ipv4 default streaming endpoint
/hls/ipv6	hls ipv6 default streaming endpoint
/hls/ipv4/txt	hls ipv4 txt streaming endpoint
/hls/ipv4/m3u	hls ipv4 m3u streaming endpoint
/hls/ipv6/txt	hls ipv6 txt streaming endpoint
/hls/ipv6/m3u	hls ipv6 m3u streaming endpoint
/stat	Streaming status statistics endpoint

Streaming Usage Tutorial

Docker enables streaming with minimal configuration and placing local video files in the right folder. Below are two common streaming scenarios: subscription (online) sources and local video files.

1) Preparations before start (example: Docker Compose)

• Use the repository’s docker-compose.yml and confirm the following environment variables before starting:
  • PUBLIC_DOMAIN: public domain or public IP used in stream Host headers.
  • PUBLIC_PORT: public port mapped on the host (affects final access addresses).
  • NGINX_HTTP_PORT: container internal HTTP port (normally keep default).
• Make sure the config directory is mounted into the container (default /iptv-api/config) so you can edit templates, add local videos, and place subscription files on the host.

Example (excerpt from compose for reference):

services:
  iptv-api:
    image: guovern/iptv-api:latest
    container_name: iptv-api
    restart: unless-stopped

    ports:
      - "80:8080" # host_port:container_http_port

    volumes:
      - /iptv-api/config:/iptv-api/config # Change to host configuration folder path:container configuration folder path
      - /iptv-api/output:/iptv-api/output

    environment:
      PUBLIC_SCHEME: "http"
      PUBLIC_DOMAIN: "192.168.1.95" # Change to your server domain or IP address. Here it uses my LAN IP as an example.
      PUBLIC_PORT: "80" # Change to public port
      NGINX_HTTP_PORT: "8080" # Default HTTP service port inside the container
      CDN_URL: ""
      HTTP_PROXY: ""

2) Subscription source streaming (online sources)

• Add subscription URLs (txt or m3u) to config/subscribe.txt. On startup the program will read the subscriptions and publish streams for the channels found.
• Streaming endpoints to view streamed channels:
  • /hls/txt, /hls/m3u (and their ipv4/ipv6 variants)

3) Local video streaming (server video files)

• Create an hls folder under the mounted config directory (for example /iptv-api/config/hls on the host).
• Put video files named exactly as the channel titles used in your template (e.g., 海洋.mp4). The program will automatically stream the corresponding file for that channel.

Example layout:

iptv-api/
├── config
│   └── hls
│       └── 海洋.mp4

• Add the channel in config/demo.txt (or your template) as usual; the program will map the local file to the channel and stream it.

Example template fragment:

📺Main channels,#genre#
CCTV-1

📡Satellite,#genre#
Guangdong Satellite

🚀Local video,#genre#
海洋

4) Start and verify

• Start the service (example using Compose):

docker compose up -d

• Verify:
  • Check startup logs for successful initialization.
  • View streaming results (txt): visit /hls/txt to see current stream addresses and descriptions.
  • Use /hls/m3u to load the playlist into a player or /hls/txt for a plain list.

5) Monitoring and logs

• Use the /stat endpoint to see current streaming counts, traffic, and basic statistics.
• Container logs provide detailed stream start/stop messages:
  • Logs show when a channel starts streaming and when idle channels stop.

6) Common tips and tuning

• Public access & firewall: Make sure PUBLIC_PORT is open to the outside (firewall, cloud security groups, etc.). RTMP/HTTP ports must be accessible externally.
• Domain and certificates: If using a domain with HTTPS, set PUBLIC_DOMAIN to your domain and PUBLIC_SCHEME to https. Manage TLS/HTTPS via an external reverse proxy or your hosting setup.
• Performance & concurrency: Local streaming consumes CPU and bandwidth. Adjust rtmp_max_streams to limit concurrent streams and avoid overloading the server.
• Idle stop: rtmp_idle_timeout controls how long a stream stays active with no viewers (in seconds); tune it per your needs.

7) Useful RTMP-related configuration options

# RTMP channel idle stop timeout (seconds)
rtmp_idle_timeout = 300
# Maximum concurrent RTMP streams to avoid excessive server load
rtmp_max_streams = 10

Above is a compact guide to using streaming. Adjust configuration and verify using /hls/* and /stat endpoints to confirm streaming availability and status.

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