README

Hydra Download Manager (HDM)


  Fast, resilient, multi-source download manager and accelerator for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  https://hydra.javad.dev



  
  
  



  
  
  
  
  
  


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 Contents

- Overview
- Key Features
  - Engine
  - CLI
  - Desktop GUI
- Installation
  - Quick Install (Bash / PowerShell)
  - Homebrew (macOS / Linux)
  - Winget (Windows)
  - Linux Packages (Ubuntu PPA / Fedora COPR / Arch Linux AUR)
  - AppImage (portable, self-updating)
  - From Source
  - Browser Extension
- Uninstall
  - Quick Uninstall (prebuilt installs)
- Usage
  - Portable GUI Profile
- Plugins
  - Plugin architecture
  - Sandbox and native trust
  - Plugin inputs and authoring
- Benchmark
  - A fair 100 ms path
  - Four public mirrors
  - Desktop download managers
- Embedding HYDRA — libhydra
  - Platform guides
- Contributing
- Code signing policy
- License

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 Overview

Hydra Download Manager (HDM) is an open-source, high-performance network file retriever and download accelerator designed for speed, resilience, and adaptability. It dynamically partitions downloads across multiple connections and independent mirror sources, continuously rebalancing work to maximize throughput without stalling on slow peers. It ships as both a wget/curl-compatible CLI and a cross-platform desktop download manager with browser integration.


  


 Key Features




 Engine

- Adaptive Concurrency — splits files across connections and mirrors, rebalancing live
- Range Stealing — reassigns work from slow peers to fast ones automatically
- Stall Detection — statistical estimators catch degraded connections early
- Broad Protocol Support — HTTP(S), FTP, CONNECT tunneling, SOCKS4/4a/5
- Integrity Checks — checksum manifests plus Reed–Solomon bitrot protection
- Flat Memory Use — direct positioned writes keep RAM usage constant



 CLI

- hydra or hya — the same CLI under a short second name, on every platform
- wget / curl Compatible — drop-in flag and dialect support
- Interactive TUI — manage, pause, resume, and monitor queued downloads
- Smart File Sorting — content-based type detection and auto-sort
- Remote Checksum Lookup — verify server-advertised digests before or after download



 Desktop GUI

- Cross-Platform App — Windows, macOS, and Linux with categories and progress detail
- Browser Integration — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari extensions hand off downloads
- Queue & Scheduler — scheduled start/stop times with retry tracking
- Desktop Niceties — tray icon, sounds, launch-on-startup, localized UI
- Portable Profile — hydra-gui --config ./here keeps settings, downloads list and logs in that directory




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 Installation

 Quick Install (Bash / PowerShell)

macOS / Linux — installs the GUI bundle (GUI + CLI + browser extensions) by default:

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ja7ad/hydra/main/install.sh | bash


CLI only:

bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ja7ad/hydra/main/install.sh | bash -s -- --cli


Windows (Powe

Top issues

Latest release

What's Changed
 🚀 Features
 Fear add windows digital ceritficate by @ja7ad in https://github.com/ja7ad/hydra/pull/307
 Feat support manual path for ffmpeg by @m4siha in https://github.com/ja7ad/hydra/pull/310
 Improve gui persist preferences and table controls by @sensifai-team in https://github.com/ja7ad/hydra/pull/313
 Feat embed product version in Windows binaries by @ja7ad in https://github.com/ja7ad/hydra/pull/318
 Feat customizable toolbar with Plugins button by @ja7ad in https://github.com/ja7ad/hydra/pull/324
 Feat open the file on double-click of a finished download by @ja7ad in https