Torrent-stream is a core library that underpins peerflix (and similar tools), providing low-level torrent downloading and streaming capabilities in Node.js. It handles connecting to the BitTorrent swarm, negotiating peer connections, fetching torrent pieces, and exposing individual files inside a torrent as streams. This enables developers to build custom torrent-based applications — not just streaming video, but also file downloaders, partial-download managers, or peer-to-peer file distribution tools. The library supports selecting which files to download (useful in multi-file torrents), serves requested pieces on demand, and allows streaming large files without fully writing them to disk upfront — ideal for memory-efficient or on-the-fly consumption contexts. Because torrent-stream is a plain Node.js module, you can embed it in any JavaScript-based backend or tool, integrate it with HTTP servers to serve torrent content, or combine it with other processing pipelines.
Features
- Connects to BitTorrent swarms and manages peer connections
- Parses torrent files or magnet links and enumerates contained files
- Provides file-level streams so you can read file contents while pieces download
- Selective download: choose which files in a torrent to fetch (skip others)
- On-demand piece streaming: no need to download whole torrent before access
- Compatible with Node.js – usable in custom backends, servers, and media-serving apps
Project Samples
