[BUG] Torznab search fails with Prowlarr due to non-standard <prowlarrindexer> XML tag

[Afmer]

Describe the bug
Torznab search fails when using Prowlarr as an indexer. TorrServer cannot parse the XML response from Prowlarr due to a non-standard XML tag <prowlarrindexer> that Prowlarr adds to every search result item.

Error message:
invalid xml response: XML syntax error on line 54: attribute name without = in element

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Set up Prowlarr with any indexer (e.g. RuTracker)
2. In TorrServer go to Settings → Search → Enable Torznab search
3. Enter Prowlarr indexer URL (e.g. http://prowlarr:9696/1/api) and API key
4. Click Test — error appears

Expected behavior
TorrServer successfully parses the Torznab XML response from Prowlarr and search works correctly.

Screenshots
N/A

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Linux (Docker)
• TorrServer Version: MatriX.141

Smartphone or tvbox on Android (please complete the following information):
N/A

Additional context
The issue is caused by a non-standard XML tag that Prowlarr adds to every search result:

RuTracker.org

This tag is not part of the Torznab specification. TorrServer's XML parser fails on it instead of skipping unknown elements.

Jackett works fine as it returns standard Torznab XML without this custom tag.

Possible fix: TorrServer's Torznab XML parser should gracefully skip unknown XML elements instead of failing on them.

[Afmer]

Update / Additional context

After further investigation, the root cause of the issue is different from what was described initially.

TorrServer automatically appends /api to the Torznab host URL. So if you enter http://prowlarr:9696/1/api in the URL field, TorrServer sends requests to /1/api/api, which causes Prowlarr to respond with a 302 redirect to the login page instead of XML.

This was confirmed via Prowlarr trace logs:

[GET] /1/api/api?apikey=...&t=caps → 302.Found
[GET] /login?returnUrl=...

Workaround: Enter the URL without /api suffix: http://prowlarr:9696/1

TorrServer will then correctly request /1/api?t=caps and get a valid XML response.

This behavior is not documented anywhere and is very confusing. It would be helpful to either:

• Document that /api should not be included in the URL
• Or show a hint in the UI field placeholder

[VuzzyM]

For Prowlarr it works with this format, I agree that it is not documented

Torznab Host URL:
http://localhost:9696/1/api? (Prowlarr)