First run, in order

Signing in

The first account to sign in claims the install and creates its admin in the same step, provided that account owns the server.

On a fresh install the button reads Sign in with Plex to set up Reaper.

Note

Plex unreachable? On a Docker install, create the account on the host instead: docker compose exec reaper reaper-admin create-admin --username admin. Use this when plex.tv is down, or when you would rather set Reaper up before linking it.

The four steps

Reaper then walks you through four cards, one decision at a time. It remembers where you got to on the server, so you can close the tab and come back to the step you left.

1. Set your password.

   Reaper asks for this before anything else and waits for it. The password signs you in when Plex is unreachable, it confirms every deletion, and a restore checks it. Twelve characters minimum. Your local account is called admin.

2. Connect Plex.

   Pick the server and choose which libraries Reaper reads. Skipping it leaves Reaper able to scan and show you what it would remove; removing anything waits until Plex is connected.

3. Connect your library.

   Sonarr, Radarr, Tautulli, Seerr. Keys are entered here and stored encrypted, and the API returns them redacted from then on. Reaper calls you scan-ready once Tautulli plus at least one of Radarr or Sonarr exist. A movie-only or TV-only deployment is a real deployment.

4. Run your first scan.

   Unless your deploy armed it, deletion is off, so this first scan reads and scores. Every candidate shows its score and, more usefully, every protection that was checked and did not fire.

Caution

That password is your way back in. A plex.tv outage, a revoked token, or a rebuilt Plex server each leave it as the key that still works. See Not getting locked out.

Turning deletion on

Arming is a separate act, done later and on purpose. Read Turning deletion on when you trust what the scan is showing you.

Running more than one Plex server

Reaper links one server at a time, so it asks which one rather than guessing.

Pick the server during sign-in, or pass --server <name> to reaper-admin link-plex. To change it later, unlink in Settings.

Coming back to the wizard

An install that predates the password step meets the wizard once more, on that step alone, with everything after it already satisfied.