Shared libraries

Many households point several Kodi instances at one MySQL or MariaDB library database, so watched status and resume points follow you from room to room. Encore notices this and gives those instances one library index between them: the library is loaded once, titles are matched once, and the skill model counts each title once however many instances show it.

Automatic detection

Detection never writes to Kodi or its library. It works in two stages.

1. Fingerprint. Once an instance is reachable, Encore samples up to 200 movies and 200 episodes from its library: their library IDs, file paths and dates added. Two instances whose samples agree on at least 95% of at least 20 items are grouped as likely shared. (On Kodi versions that report their database name, instances naming different databases are never grouped.)
2. Passive confirmation. Encore then watches playback. When one member saves a play count or resume point, every other member reading the same database must show the same change a moment later. Members that do are confirmed shared; a member that doesn’t is split off and won’t be grouped with that library again.

A group’s state is shown on the Kodi page: solo, likely shared, confirmed shared or manual, with the evidence (“200 of 200 sampled items match”).

Library source and failover

Each group syncs its library from one member, the source: by default the instance added first, or the one you choose on the Kodi page. While the source is asleep or unreachable, Encore syncs from another reachable member, so a sleeping Kodi isn’t woken just to read the library, and switches back when the source returns. Library notifications from every member are used, since with a shared database only the Kodi that made a change reports it.

Voice requests still play on the Echo’s own Kodi instance: sharing a library only changes where titles are looked up.

Choosing yourself

On the Kodi page, Share a library groups instances that detection missed (the first one you tick becomes the source), Add an instance on a shared library’s panel adds another, and Not shared? Split takes one out. Detection never undoes a choice made by hand.

In config, library_group decides instead:

encore.yml

kodi:
  - name: Lounge
    url: http://192.168.1.20:8080/jsonrpc
    library_group: house                   # same name: one shared library
  - name: Bedroom
    url: http://192.168.1.21:8080/jsonrpc
    library_group: house
  - name: Garage
    url: http://192.168.1.22:8080/jsonrpc
    library_group: none                    # always its own library, even if it looks shared

• Instances with the same library_group name share one library.
• none keeps an instance on its own.
• Leaving it empty lets Encore detect sharing.

Groups set in config are read-only in the web interface.

Library snapshots

After syncs Encore saves each library’s catalog to the configured storage (at most every five minutes, and on shutdown). After a restart the snapshot is loaded first, so voice requests work before Kodi has been asked again; the live sync that follows corrects anything that changed.