Sam

Sam is the assistant that comes with every ElfHosted account. Ask him about your apps in plain language and he can check their status, read their logs, restart them, and explain what he finds. He can also install onto your phone as an app, so you get a push notification when something needs your attention.

Sam is bundled with ElfBot, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to enable. He is already there.

How do I use Sam?

Sam lives at https://your-username-elfbot.elfhosted.com/sam, and in the corner of your apps dashboard.

Ask him things the way you would ask a person:

• Why won't my streams play?
• Can you check my AIOStreams setup?
• Is my stack healthy?
• Help me set up an app

Sam can see your stack and nothing else. He cannot see other customers, and he cannot see the platform. The first time you talk to him he explains what is sent to the model and asks you to agree before anything is.

Can I install Sam on my phone?

Yes. Sam is a progressive web app, which means your phone can install him from the browser without an app store.

Open https://your-username-elfbot.elfhosted.com/sam on your phone and Sam offers to install himself. On iPhone, use Share, then Add to Home Screen.

Installing gets you:

• A home screen icon, and a full screen app with no browser chrome
• Push notifications, which only work inside the installed app on iPhone
• Faster starts, because the app shell is cached on the device
• Offline tolerance, so a brief loss of signal does not lose your place

Sam works fine in a browser tab if you would rather not install him. You just cannot have notifications on an iPhone that way, because Apple only allows them for installed apps.

What are push notifications through Sam?

Once Sam is installed, he can offer to turn on notifications. Say yes, and when something in your account needs attention, your phone tells you.

Three things make this better than being emailed, or than wiring an app straight to a push service:

Nothing buzzes you until you say so. The first alert from any app is held, not delivered. Sam shows you what it was and asks whether you want alerts from that app. Say no and you never hear from it again. This matters because a monitoring tool fires on every state change, and an unfiltered feed of those is something people turn off within a day.

Every app gets its own switch. Tell Sam stop telling me about Plex and only Plex goes quiet. You can ask him what is currently allowed at any time.

Tapping an alert opens a conversation about it. The notification deep links into Sam with the question already written, so you can ask what a failure means instead of going to hunt for logs yourself.

If you miss one, open Sam and recent alerts are waiting under While you were away.

Which apps can notify me this way?

Most of them, and they need no new software. If an app has a notification settings screen, it almost certainly speaks one of the formats below already, and pointing it at Sam is a one-line change on that screen.

The addresses below only work from inside your account. They are not reachable from the internet, which is why they need no password.

If your app supports Discord

This covers nearly everything, including Sonarr, Radarr, Lidarr, Readarr, Prowlarr, Overseerr and Uptime Kuma.

Add a Discord connection and use this as the webhook URL, changing the last part to whatever you want the app called in Sam:

http://elfbot:3000/v1/push/discord/sonarr

No Discord account is involved. That last word is the name Sam gives the app, and it is what gets its own on and off switch.

If your app supports ntfy

Set the server URL to http://elfbot:3000/v1/push/ntfy and the topic to whatever you want the app called in Sam.

Priority works as you would expect: min or low files the message in Sam without buzzing your phone.

If your app supports Gotify

Set the server URL to http://elfbot:3000/v1/push/gotify, and put the app name where it asks for an app token.

Gotify normally uses that token to tell its apps apart, and nothing inside your own account needs a password, so Sam reads it as a name instead. That is what gives each app its own switch. Priority below 4 files without buzzing.

If your app supports Apprise

Use one of these as the Apprise URL, changing the last part to the name you want in Sam:

ntfy://elfbot:3000/sonarr
gotify://elfbot:3000/radarr

Bazarr is the common one here, since its notifications are Apprise-based.

What to expect

• The first alert from a new app is held. Look in Sam for Want alerts from these? and answer it. This is not a fault, it is Sam checking before letting something new start buzzing you.
• Links point back at ElfHosted. If an alert carries a link to another site, Sam drops the link. The alert still arrives.
• Sam delivers alerts to you. He does not replace a monitoring tool, and he does not keep a permanent archive of everything your apps have ever said.
• If you have something that does not speak any of these, ask us and we will help you point it at Sam.

Is Sam included?

Yes, with every ElfHosted account, at no extra cost.

Sam also works with

• Sonarr

• Radarr

• Bazarr

• Prowlarr

• Overseerr

• Plex

How do I get support for Sam?

1. Sam is an ElfHosted-exclusive, proprietary tool with no third-party upstream. For general usage questions, refer to the documentation above.

2. For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration / account, see the ElfHosted support options!

What users say..

We're rocking some excellent TrustPilot Reviews, and here's what some of our usersfriends say..

I am new here, but today I learned realized that Elfhosted is one of the best free and open source software communities I've seen, and FOSS communities have been at the center of my life since the 90s (Perl, PHP, Symfony, Drupal, Ethereum, etc.). Great open software built by great people who care = great community, and that is something special.

You've done an amazing job @Funky Penguelf with the platform you provide and this place has an awesome mix of active community caretakers and software creators that I've seen here so far like BSM, Spoked, LayeZee and other elf vengers. Keep up the energy, productivity and community and take time to enjoy it and appreciate each other!

@skwah (Discord)

As a happy Elfhosted customer—who also self hosts MANY things across about 10 severs (dedicated, VPSes, and VMs running on Synology), I wouldn’t switch to self hosting the services I get from Elfhosted. They just work with very little effort configuring things, and the support the owner and his team provides is second to none. Plus I love being part of a fledgling—but quickly growing—enterprise.

/u/jatguy. (Reddit)

I’ve been using this service for a while now, and honestly, it’s a game-changer compared to anything else I’ve tried for managing my media library. The support is fantastic—super quick, and if the staff aren’t around (which rarely happens), the community steps up right away. I can’t imagine going back to any other platform.

Before this, I had my own setup with a NUC, NAS, and tools like Sonarr and Radarr. It worked pretty well for a while, and my internet speed was high enough to stream without any buffering. But in the end, it wasn’t worth the time or headache of managing all the storage and keeping everything running smoothly.

Now, with this service, everything runs smoothly in 1080p+ with no buffering issues. The interface is really easy to use, which makes managing everything a breeze. Plus, having a whole community of smart people available for guidance is a huge bonus.

I was sold from the start, which is why I quickly upgraded from a 1-month to a 3-month subscription, and I’m planning to switch to a 1-year plan soon. This service totally pays for itself, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It’s been really impressive.

@seapound (Discord)

Best possible options for anyone looking for the do-it-all option along with the best customer service ive experienced in this space so far. Id rate it a 6 if I could but its limited to 5/5...

@hashmelters (Discord)

(responding to a discussion re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):

I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.

That being said, paying for services is the 'easy button'. There is a real world cost incurred for the time saved. Time is money. Time is the most valuable currency that exists. Once time is spent, it's forever lost, one cannot retrieve it again (yet). In my mind, there are 3 options for use of time with respect to: mainstream, selfhosting, elfhosted.

• mainstream - my time is valuable and I don't want curated content and I don't care what content that I have the ability to consume. I only like what's popular.

• elfhosted - my time is valuable, I want my own curated content without being forced to browse past the same damn entry 500 times just to find out that I can't watch the movie I want because it's not available in my current location or was removed last week from mainstream providers.

• selfhost - I care about costs and I have nothing but time to waste or I want to learn about the backend of the systems involved. I'll pay for my own VPS/homelab, electricity, manage the OS, manage app updates, figure out how to make the apps talk nice to each other, create my own beautiful frontend.

I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.

I know I don't need elfhosted at all for my use case. I choose to stay with elfhosted because it's my 'easy button'. It's an efficient capital expense for the amount of time it saves me managing my own hardware, apps and saves me electricity costs. I'm also in a situation where I don't have upload bandwidth from my home to serve HD content to myself remotely. If I lived back in a city, I would still be here. My time is worth $$/hr.

@cobra2 (Discord)

"Just wanted to check in here and let @Darth-Penguini and anyone/everyone else know...WOW. I have been struggling with storage for years, maintenance of Docker containers, upkeep, all of it. Elfhosted is so freeing. It's an amazing service that I hope to be a member of for a long, long time!"

@Fingers91 (Discord)

"I would recommend ElfHosted to anyone. It has been great so far and made life a lot easier than running my own setups. If you’re in the fence give them a try and help support this great community."

Zestyclose_Teacher20 (Reddit)

"thanks for the help and must say this is the best host I every had for my server 🙂 10/10 🙂 All other places I have try have I got a lot buff etc. Your host can even give me full power on a 4K Remux on 200GB big movie file . That's damn awesome 😄"

@tjelite (Discord)

"What an amazing support system these guys have Chris and Layzee i think it was! Both are very patient with me even though I am a newbie at all this. Very thorough and explained everything step by step with me

I couldn’t ask for anything better than the service I have received by these guys! Happy happy client❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"Very happy customer. Great service"

@ronney67 (Discord)

"Very good customer service, frequent updates, and excelent uptime!!!!!"

@ed.guim (Discord)

"I had my own plex-arrs setup on hetzner for years. Yesterday I deleted everything as elfhosted has gone above and beyond it. And it has a fantastic, active community as well! Very friendly, helpful and like-minded folks always willing to help and improve the system. Top notch!"

@alon.hearter (Discord)

"Absolutely Amazed with the patience and professionalism of all Elf-Venger Staff including bossman penguin❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"@BSM went above and beyond to make sure I had all the one on one support needed with my sub. Thank you for your patience! Elfhosted continues to be Elftastic !!"

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@allan.st.minimum (Discord)

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@y.adhish (Discord)

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@badfurday0 (Discord)

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@.mxrcy (Discord)