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---
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title: "Otter 0.1.0"
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date: 2025-06-12
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---
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Although life's been busy with university, I've found some time to finish
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things up with the current codebase and release a first version. This version's
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been running on my Raspberry Pi for a couple of months without problems, so it
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seems to be fairly stable.
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For context, Otter is a lightweight implementation of the [gpodder.net
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API](https://gpoddernet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/), specifically the parts
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required for synchronizing subscriptions between clients. Its goal is to be an
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easy-to-install alternative to gpodder.net, allowing self-hosters to easily
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use the various Gpodder-based clients available across devices.
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Version 0.1.0 has a fairly complete implementation of the parts of the Gpodder
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API that's required for synchronizing clients. I've currently got no plans to
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implement the more social media-related API routes, as these aren't necessary
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for the goal of this project.
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## Supported features
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Otter 0.1.0 implements the following API sections:
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* Authentication
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* Devices
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* Subscriptions
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* Episode actions
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* Device synchronization
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This includes both the basic routes and the "advanced" sections, as described
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in the API documentation. OPML and text output formats aren't supported yet, so
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currently the API only supports JSON. I am planning on adding support for the
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other output types later.
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In terms of client compatibility, Otter definitely works with AntennaPod and
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Kasts. Kasts does have the strange bug where it crashes if you agree to the
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"synchronize with all devices" popup when adding a new device. However, after
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manually marking the devices as being synchronized on the server, all syncing
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functionality works as expected. The Gpodder client also does not work, as it
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strangely uses a different form of authentication.
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Both of these issues should get fixed in a following release, as I'd like Otter
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to be generally usable with any client.
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### Ease of use
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Otter is distributed as a single binary configurable via a configuration file,
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environment variables and CLI arguments. Everything can be set up via any of
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these three methods (or a combination), allowing Otter to be easily used in
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both Docker containers and directly as a background service. For fun, I've also
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added support for listening on a Unix socket instead of a TCP socket.
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The goal is to always keep this setup, as a single binary is by far the easiest
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way this type of software can be distributed. I currently publish binaries for
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`x86_64` and `arm64`, as these are the platforms that I use. It should be
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possible however to compile Otter for any build target supported by Rust.
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## Plans
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Before Otter reaches version 1.0, there are still some features I'd like to
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add.
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### UI
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The biggest feature would definitely be a web UI. This UI will contain
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everything required to manage an Otter server, both as a user and an admin.
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Users should be able to see and remove sessions, manage their synced devices,
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and view and edit their subscriptions and other stored data. Admins also
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require the ability to add, remove and edit accounts, as well as seeing other
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global service data. The goal is to have an easy-to-use UI that contains
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everything you'd need to effectively use an Otter server.
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Important here is that I don't have any plans to recreate any of the social
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media-related aspects of Gpodder. Otter is just a sync server; it's not meant
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as a full-on replacement of the gpodder.net website.
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In terms of technology, I'm using [HTMX](https://htmx.org/) and
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[PicoCSS](https://picocss.com/) to develop the frontend, combined with a
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templating system in the backend. In my opinion, these two are the perfect
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combination for developing simple frontends, especially for someone like me
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that isn't the best at creating UIs.
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### CLI
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It's always useful to have a more technical CLI-focused way of accessing the
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data of an application. For this, I want to add a full CLI interface that
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allows an admin to interact with the server through the same abstractions used
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by the API. There's already some very basic functionality available right now
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on which I'd like to build to expose the full functionality of the API in CLI
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form.
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### Database support
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Otter currently only support SQLite as it's easy to develop with and install on
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the server. I do however know lots of people prefer running PostgreSQL, so
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support for this will be added. Due to the way the codebase is structured, this
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shouldn't be too hard, as all database-related functionality is hidden behind
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an abstraction that can simply be implemented for PostgreSQL as well.
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Those are my plans for this project! I'm hoping I can keep up the development
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pace, as I should be having a lot more free time the next couple of months.
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I've grown quite fond of this project, as it solves a specific problem I had
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while allowing me to screw around with some design patterns I hadn't used
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before. I hope to continue developing it into a mature application.
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As always, thank you for reading, and have a nice day.
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Jef Roosens