Aria Station

Aria Station is a modern aria2 dashboard inspired by Synology Download Station's layout design. It was created to provide a cleaner, more focused web interface for aria2 users who want a self-hosted download workspace suitable for home servers and NAS devices.

The project borrows the high-level information architecture—category navigation, an action toolbar, a task table, and a details panel—but uses its own visual language, icons, and interaction design. Aria Station is not affiliated with Synology and does not reproduce Synology trademarks, assets, or source code.

Current status

The current milestone provides a working React frontend and same-origin Node.js service that communicates with aria2 through JSON-RPC. It supports:

Downloading HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and Magnet links
Adding torrent files
Browsing active, queued, paused, completed, failed, removed, and seeding tasks
Searching, sorting, selecting, pausing, resuming, and removing tasks
Viewing task files and BitTorrent peers on demand
Selecting torrent files and setting a task download limit
Live refresh, connection diagnostics, and aria2 WebSocket notifications

Authentication is configurable for single-admin deployments. Application task history is not yet stored independently; aria2's active and queued tasks persist in its session file.

Project structure

.
├── apps/
│   ├── web/                 React + TypeScript + Vite frontend
│   └── server/              Fastify service and aria2 JSON-RPC adapter
├── deploy/docker/           Production and development container images
├── deploy/truenas/          TrueNAS Custom App YAML template
├── docs/                    Implementation plan and delivery notes
├── compose.yaml             Production two-container stack
├── package.json             Workspace scripts and dependencies
└── .github/workflows/       Multi-architecture image publishing

The browser only talks to the web service. The service owns the aria2 RPC secret and exposes a controlled API to the frontend.

Requirements

Node.js 22.12 or newer
npm
aria2 with JSON-RPC enabled for a complete local integration test

Run locally

Install dependencies and start the frontend and service in separate terminals:

npm install
npm run dev:server
npm run dev

Open http://localhost:5173. The Vite development server proxies /api requests to the service on port 55290.

Create a local environment file before starting the service:

cp .env.example .env

Set ARIA2_RPC_URL and ARIA2_RPC_SECRET in .env. The secret must match the secret used by aria2. A local aria2 instance can be started with the helper script:

The example also enables HTTP Basic authentication locally: use the configured AUTH_USER and AUTH_PASSWORD when the browser prompts. Replace the example password before exposing the service beyond your own machine.

./run-aria2.sh

Alternatively, start aria2 manually with RPC enabled and restricted to localhost:

aria2c \
  --enable-rpc=true \
  --rpc-listen-port=6800 \
  --rpc-listen-all=false \
  --rpc-secret="$ARIA2_RPC_SECRET"

Useful checks:

npm run typecheck
npm run build

Docker and TrueNAS

The production stack runs Aria Station and aria2 in separate containers. Only the web interface and aria2's BitTorrent listening port are published; RPC stays on the private container network. Configure AUTH_USER and a unique AUTH_PASSWORD of at least 16 characters. The browser will prompt for these credentials. Basic authentication should be used over HTTPS or on a trusted, firewalled LAN.

For a Docker host, copy .env.example to .env, replace both placeholder secrets, set writable data paths, then run:

docker compose up -d --build

Generate secrets with openssl rand -hex 32; use a different value for the web password and aria2 RPC secret. Downloaded files are stored under DOWNLOADS_PATH, and aria2's resume session is stored under ARIA2_CONFIG_PATH. These paths must be writable by PUID:PGID (default 568:568). The web process runs as the unprivileged node user.

On a Linux host, create new empty bind-mount directories and grant the aria2 identity access before the first start:

mkdir -p .data/aria2-config .data/downloads
sudo chown 568:568 .data/aria2-config .data/downloads

Do not apply that ownership change recursively to existing download data unless that is intended.

TrueNAS SCALE 24.10+ can install deploy/truenas/aria-station.yaml using Apps → Discover Apps → Install via YAML (Custom App). Replace the template dataset paths, set ACL access for UID/GID 568, and replace both secret placeholders. Versioned images are published to GHCR when a v* Git tag is pushed; the packages must be public or otherwise accessible to the NAS before installation. See deploy/truenas/README.md for setup, backup, and upgrade instructions.

The app is not yet a catalog release. The /api/ready health check indicates that the web process is alive; the app's Settings page separately reports aria2 connectivity. Application history and automatic database backups are not implemented yet.

License

An open-source license and third-party license inventory will be added before the first public release.

tranch/aria-station

README