Playlist processing

Filter, rename, map, sort, and merge playlists from multiple providers into clean, curated outputs.

tuliprox applies a pipeline of processing steps to every playlist it ingests. You control which steps run and in what order through the target configuration in source.yml.

Processing pipeline

1. Ingest inputs

   tuliprox fetches one or more playlists from your configured inputs (M3U, Xtream, or local library).

2. Filter

   Channels and groups that do not match your filter expression are removed.

3. Rename

   Regex-based rename rules rewrite group names, channel titles, or other fields.

4. Map

   Mapping scripts apply rich transformations: variable assignments, regex captures, match/map blocks, and builtin functions.

5. Sort

   Sort rules reorder groups and channels by field value or an explicit sequence.

6. Publish

   tuliprox writes the result to one or more output targets: M3U, Xtream, HDHomeRun, or STRM.

You can change the order of Filter, Rename, and Map with the processing_order field. Valid values are frm, fmr, rfm, rmf, mfr, and mrf.

Filtering

Filters use a boolean expression DSL. Fields you can match on are Group, Title, Name, Caption, Url, Genre, Input, and Type.

Operator	Meaning
~	Regex match
==	Exact string equality
AND	Both conditions must be true
OR	Either condition must be true
NOT	Negates the following condition

Example — keep only French channels, excluding adult and series content:

(Group ~ "^FR.*") AND NOT (Group ~ ".*XXX.*" OR Group ~ ".*SERIES.*")

Example — keep German channels that are not shopping, or any Australian channel:

((Group ~ "^DE.*") AND (NOT Title ~ ".*Shopping.*")) OR (Group ~ "^AU.*")

You can also filter by content type:

Type = live

Valid Type values are live, vod, and series.

Use regex101.com with the Rust flavor selected to test your regex patterns before adding them to your configuration.

Renaming

Rename rules match a field with a regex and replace it with a new name. Capture groups from the pattern are available as $1, $2, etc.

rename:
  - field: group
    pattern: '^DE(.*)'
    new_name: '1. DE$1'

Supported field values are group, title, name, caption, and url.

Sorting

Sort rules control the order of groups and channels in the output. You can sort alphabetically or pin specific items to the top using a sequence list:

sort:
  rules:
    - target: group
      order: asc
      filter: Group ~ ".*"
      field: group
      sequence:
        - '^Freetv'
        - '^Shopping'
        - '^Entertainment'

Items matching the sequence entries (in order) appear first; remaining items follow in asc or desc order.

Merging multiple sources

A single source block can reference multiple inputs. tuliprox fetches all of them and merges the results before applying filters and mappings:

sources:
  - inputs:
      - provider_a
      - provider_b
      - local_library
    targets:
      - name: combined
        output:
          - type: m3u
          - type: xtream
        filter: "!ALL_CHAN!"

This lets you combine a live IPTV provider, a VOD provider, and your local media into a single unified playlist.

Templates

Templates let you define reusable regex fragments and reference them with !name! syntax. This keeps complex patterns readable and DRY.

Define templates in source.yml, mapping.yml, or a central file configured via template_path:

templates:
  - name: delimiter
    value: '[\s_-]*'
  - name: quality
    value: '(?i)(?P<quality>HD|LQ|4K|UHD)?'

Reference them in filters or mapping scripts:

^.*TF1!delimiter!Series?!delimiter!Films?(!delimiter!!quality!)\s*$

Templates can reference other templates. Template names must be globally unique across all loaded files.

You can also define a shorthand template for a frequently used filter expression and reference it directly as the target filter value. For example: filter: "!ALL_CHAN!"

Output types

M3U

Produces a standard M3U playlist. Compatible with VLC, Kodi, Jellyfin, and most IPTV players.

output:
  - type: m3u
    filename: my_playlist.m3u
    mask_redirect_url: false

Xtream

Exposes an Xtream Codes-compatible panel API. Use this for players that expect a server URL, username, and password.

output:
  - type: xtream
    skip_live_direct_source: false
    skip_video_direct_source: false
    skip_series_direct_source: false

HDHomeRun

Emulates an HDHomeRun tuner device for Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, and TVHeadend discovery.

output:
  - type: hdhomerun
    device: my_tuner
    username: user

STRM

Writes .strm stub files to a directory. Useful for media-server-oriented workflows where you want each channel to appear as a file.

output:
  - type: strm
    directory: /media/strm
    underscore_whitespace: true
    cleanup: true
    flat: false

Favourites

After mapping, you can define explicit favourite groups that collect channels matching a filter across all providers:

favourites:
  - cluster: series
    group: "My Favourites"
    filter: 'Name ~ "Cinema"'
    match_as_ascii: true

Duplicate removal

Set remove_duplicates: true in the target options to automatically deduplicate channels with identical URLs:

options:
  remove_duplicates: true