Quick Start
Assumes you've completed the setup wizard. If not, see First Run.
Start the engine
The engine starts paused after setup. Click Start in the header bar. If the header shows Stopping, the engine is draining; wait for active jobs to finish or use the Runtime controls to stop drain mode.
Watch the queue
Go to Jobs. Files move through:
Queued → Analyzing → Encoding → Completed
Skipped files appear in the Skipped tab with a plain-English reason. A high skip rate is normal — it means files are already efficiently compressed. See Skip Decisions.
Check hardware detection
Go to Settings → Hardware. Confirm your GPU is the
active backend. If you see CPU (Software) with a supported
GPU, open the probe log first, then see
GPU Passthrough.
On repeat boots, a valid cached hardware result may appear immediately while the full probe refreshes in the background.
See your savings
Once jobs complete, Statistics shows total space recovered, compression ratios, and a savings chart.
Key controls
| Action | Where |
|---|---|
| Pause new job claims | Settings → Runtime → Pause |
| Drain (finish active, stop new) | Header → Stop |
| Cancel a job | Jobs → ⋯ → Cancel |
| Boost priority | Jobs → ⋯ → Boost |
| Trigger manual scan | Settings → Library → Scan |
| Change engine mode | Settings → Runtime |
See also
- Alchemist for Jellyfin — pre-transcoding a Jellyfin library.
- Profiles — per-library targets.
- Scheduling — restrict encoding to off-peak windows.
- Troubleshooting — queue stuck, GPU not detected, unexpected skips.