swizzin

swizzin is a free, open-source collection of bash scripts that turns a Debian or Ubuntu server into a seedbox and manages its applications with one command, box. Its first commit is dated June 2017, it has shipped its own web panel since version 2.0.0 in March 2020, and the current release is 3.15.0 from 12 February 2026. In October 2026 its box list catalogue named 57 applications, among them torrent clients, Usenet downloaders and media servers.

swizzin at a glance
Type	Seedbox installer and management scripts
Licence	GNU General Public License v3
First commit	15 June 2017
First stable release	1.0 Stable, 18 November 2017
Current release	3.15.0, 12 February 2026
Supported systems	Debian 11 and 12; Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04 (README)
Architectures	amd64 and arm64 (project website)
Management command	`box`
Source	github.com/swizzin/swizzin
Website	swizzin.ltd

Origins: a QuickBox fork

swizzin started from QuickBox, an earlier open-source seedbox installer. The project's website puts it this way: "Originally based on QuickBox, swizzin forked away and brought new life to the project in the form of extended OS support, the nginx webserver, a custom built dashboard and extended application support." The README still notes that the QuickBox package repository "has been ported over", panel included.

The first commit, "Initial commit of WIP" by the GitHub user liaralabs, is dated 15 June 2017. The GitHub repository was created on 10 August 2017, and the swizzin organisation that now holds it on 29 October 2020. QuickBox's own free edition, QuickBox Community Edition, later stopped development: its README carries an undated notice sunsetting the free edition in favour of the paid QuickBox Pro, and its last commit is from March 2022.

The panel split from QuickBox came in version 2.0.0 on 30 March 2020. The changelog reads: "swizzin no longer uses the quickbox_dashboard for system and service information. Introducing a new in-house panel for swizzin by swizzin", and "quickbox_dashboard has been permanently removed."

The swizzin panel, written in-house since version 2.0.0 (March 2020) to replace the QuickBox dashboard. Users sign in here before reaching the dashboard.

Timeline

Date	Event
15 June 2017	First commit, "Initial commit of WIP"
10 August 2017	GitHub repository created
18 November 2017	1.0 Stable in the changelog
30 March 2020	2.0.0: in-house panel replaces the QuickBox dashboard
29 October 2020	swizzin GitHub organisation created
12 March 2024	3.11.1: pyLoad removed from installation over a remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2023-0297)
15 November 2024	3.13.0: Debian 10 (Buster) support removed
16 August 2025	3.14.0
12 February 2026	3.15.0: mango and autodl removed from the catalogue
13 February 2026	Latest commit on the master branch, a hotfix for a Calibre-Web dependency check
2 March 2026	Latest commit on the develop branch

swizzin does not publish GitHub releases. The releases list is empty and the tags list shows non-version tags such as old-master, eol-xenial and eol-stretch, so version numbers live in the README and the changelog. The installer at s5n.sh fetches the master branch, so an install runs master as it stands that day rather than a numbered package.

How it works

The project describes itself as "a collection of bash scripts for Debian-based servers which helps you automate ... installing, managing and administering a seedbox server." The scripts install ordinary Debian packages and services; after the first install, the same tasks run through box.

The installer

The installer is one bash script, fetched from s5n.sh. It updates the system first, then asks its questions in text-mode dialogs.

The welcome dialog: after the system update, every question comes as a text-mode dialog in the terminal the script was started from.

swizzin is organised around one administrative user, the "master", who logs in to the panel; box adduser adds further users to the same server.

The master user is named before any software is chosen: the panel login belongs to that account.

Each application is a separate choice. The first checklist covers torrent clients and core features, including nginx, rTorrent, Deluge, qBittorrent and the panel. A second list offers further applications. Anything left unticked can be added later with box install.

"Choose your clients and core features": the web server, each torrent client and the panel are separate lines, so each application is opt-in.

The second list holds the optional applications; any of them can be added after the install with box install.

Some clients come with a version choice: for qBittorrent the installer offers the distribution's own package or one of several upstream release branches.

The qBittorrent version picker: the distribution package or an upstream branch, chosen per install.

The box command

After installation, box is the command-line management interface:

box [ install | remove | upgrade ] pkg1 [ pkg2 ... ]
box [ adduser | deluser | chpasswd ] username [ password ]
box [ list | update ]

nginx and the panel

nginx is the front door for the web interfaces. The panel is a Python application that listens only on the loopback address and runs as its own system user, with nginx proxying it; the qBittorrent web interface is also reached through nginx, behind HTTP basic authentication.

The dashboard behind the login shows load, RAM, I/O wait and uptime, a service list with a restart button per application, and disk usage per mount, plus links to the project's GitHub, Discord and documentation.

Applications

In October 2026 box list named 57 installable applications. The list on the project website is older: it still names mango and AutoDL-irssi, which 3.15.0 removed. Grouped by use, as box names them:

Use	Applications
Torrent clients and web UIs	rtorrent, rutorrent, flood, deluge, qbittorrent, transmission, autobrr
Usenet	sabnzbd, nzbget, nzbhydra
Media servers	plex, emby, jellyfin, airsonic, navidrome
Library automation	sonarr, radarr, lidarr, bazarr, prowlarr, jackett, medusa, sickchill, sickgear, mylar
Files and sync	filebrowser, nextcloud, syncthing, rclone, btsync, vsftpd
Server and network	nginx, panel, letsencrypt, duckdns, wireguard, netdata, webmin, quota, shellinabox, x2go, librespeed
Other	calibre, calibrecs, calibreweb, ffmpeg, lounge, znc, quassel, organizr, ombi, tautulli, rapidleech, jfago, netronome, qui, xmrig

Supported systems

The README lists Debian 11 and 12 and Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04 and 24.04, and calls them the long-term-support branches it supports. The website's FAQ still names Debian Buster alongside Bullseye and Bookworm, but the 3.13.0 changelog (November 2024) records "Removed: Buster support", so the README is the current source. Debian 13 is not on the README's list as of 3.15.0. The website adds that swizzin supports amd64 and arm64 and "runs even on Raspberry Pis".

Community and funding

swizzin's community lives on Discord, with GitHub Discussions for feature requests and issues. The master branch holds 1,566 commits. The GitHub contributors list is led by:

Contributor	Commits
liaralabs	1,185
flying-sausages	176
brettpetch	50
stickz	46
userdocs	39

The project takes donations through GitHub Sponsors for liaralabs. For users without spare funds, the README offers another route: "you might consider donating the idle cycles on your CPU to my mining pool", by running box install xmrig. In the catalogue, box list describes xmrig as "A Monero mining utility." It is an opt-in application like any other, installed only when chosen.

Current status

As of October 2026, the repository is active and not archived, with 2,386 stars and 327 forks on GitHub, and its README carries no deprecation notice. The latest numbered release is 3.15.0 (February 2026); recent releases before it were 3.11.1 (March 2024), 3.13.0 (November 2024) and 3.14.0 (August 2025). The last commits on master and develop date from February and March 2026, and a push to another branch of the repository followed in September 2026.

Pulsed Media installed the current master on Debian 12 in October 2026 and found it working; the recorded run, with its timings, footprint and the gotchas met on the way, is in Installing swizzin.

At Pulsed Media

swizzin and PM Software Stack (PMSS), the platform Pulsed Media builds and runs, solve the same problem under the same GPL-3.0 licence. On a Pulsed Media seedbox, PMSS is already installed and kept up to date in Pulsed Media's own datacenters in Finland, so the server work that swizzin automates is done before the first login. Installing PM Software Stack covers running PMSS on your own server.

Sources

swizzin README: supported systems, the box commands, donations
swizzin CHANGELOG: version history from 1.0 Stable to 3.15.0
swizzin.ltd: project description, QuickBox origin, architectures
QuickBox Community Edition: QuickBox's free edition and its deprecation notice
Pulsed Media test install of swizzin master on Debian 12, 29 October 2026: the box list catalogue, installer dialogs and panel