Show HN: CineCLI – Browse and torrent movies directly from your terminal

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Tool concept and reception

  • CineCLI is a terminal interface for browsing movies via the YTS API and opening magnet links in a torrent client.
  • Many commenters find the idea fun or nostalgic, especially for terminal enthusiasts, and compare it to past tools like Popcorn Time.
  • Others downplay it as “just a YTS API wrapper” and question its utility beyond being a learning project, given YTS’s reputation for low-quality releases.

Demo, UX, and documentation feedback

  • Multiple people criticize the demo GIF as too slow and meandering; they suggest speeding it up, planning the demo better, or using dedicated terminal recording tools.
  • There’s a suggestion to showcase a public-domain film in the demo for legal/optics reasons.
  • Several users comment that the README looks obviously LLM-generated; some dislike this as “slop” and say it signals low care or code quality, while others argue it’s fine to automate boring documentation tasks.
  • The README/LLM debate becomes quite heated, with some replies turning openly abusive.

Legal, ISP, and safety concerns

  • Questions arise about whether using this tool violates ISP terms or local law.
  • Multiple commenters stress that the legal risk depends on the downloaded content, jurisdiction, and torrenting behavior, not the CLI itself.
  • Several point out the lack of in-tool warnings compared to torrent sites that prominently urge VPN use and note IP exposure; they argue that making torrenting so frictionless without such disclaimers could mislead inexperienced users.
  • There’s brief discussion about copyright being enforced in both authoritarian and liberal countries.

Content sources, quality, and ecosystem

  • One critic notes that anyone comfortable with the CLI could use higher-quality sources and private trackers instead of YTS, and questions who the tool is for.
  • Others discuss alternative piracy ecosystems: public and private trackers, DHT indexers, Kodi + various plugins, *arr stacks, real-debrid/premium services, usenet streaming, and Jellyfin with .strm files.
  • There is some discussion of best practices and ethics around using Tor vs VPNs for accessing torrent sites, and concerns about misuse of the Tor network.

Naming and NSFW association

  • Several commenters note that the project/author name matches a banned, graphic subreddit and warn others it is NSFL; others dismiss the concern or react defensively.