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What is magnetw?

xiandanin/magnetw — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-06-24

★ 11,335JavaScriptAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · moderate

In one sentence

magnetW was a cross-platform desktop app that searched for magnet links across multiple torrent sites in one unified interface. The project is no longer maintained and the author states it is no longer valid.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((magnetw))
    What it does
      Magnet link search
      Multi-site aggregation
      Unified desktop UI
    Platforms
      macOS
      Windows
      Linux
    Status
      No longer maintained
      Archived project
      No support
    License
      GPL v3
      Must stay open source
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Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Search for magnet links across multiple source sites from a single desktop interface on macOS, Windows, or Linux

USE CASE 2

Study how a cross-platform JavaScript desktop app aggregates search results by scraping external sites

What is it built with?

JavaScript

How does it compare?

xiandanin/magnetwdimsemenov/magnific-popuplockfale/osint-framework
Stars11,33511,33711,341
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultymoderateeasyeasy
Complexity2/51/51/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperresearcher

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min
You can use and modify this freely, but if you distribute a modified version you must release your changes as open source under the same GPL v3 license and not charge money for it.

So what is it?

magnetW is a desktop application for searching magnet links, the kind used to download files via torrent-style protocols. The project ran on macOS, Windows, and Linux. It fetched search results from external source sites and presented them in one place, functioning as a unified front-end for magnet link discovery. The README is written almost entirely in Chinese and is brief. It notes that the project has no affiliated chat groups, no donation channels, and no advertising. The repository was described as open source and free. The author included a disclaimer stating the tool was intended for learning about web scraping techniques, and that all search results were pulled from their original source sites. The project is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0, which requires that any modified versions distributed over a network must also be open source, must not include advertising or charge money, must credit the original project, and must carry the same license. The repository heading and description both state the project is no longer valid and no longer maintained. No further development or support is expected.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
The magnetW project aggregates magnet link search results from multiple sites using web scraping. Show me how I could adapt a similar multi-source aggregation architecture in JavaScript for a different type of publicly available data.
Prompt 2
Explain the GPL v3 license requirements for a project like magnetW: if I fork it, add features, and want to distribute my version, exactly what am I required to do?
Prompt 3
I want to understand how magnetW built a cross-platform desktop app in JavaScript. Explain the likely architecture and how it fetched and displayed results from external sites without a backend server.

Frequently asked questions

What is magnetw?

magnetW was a cross-platform desktop app that searched for magnet links across multiple torrent sites in one unified interface. The project is no longer maintained and the author states it is no longer valid.

What language is magnetw written in?

Mainly JavaScript. The stack also includes JavaScript.

What license does magnetw use?

You can use and modify this freely, but if you distribute a modified version you must release your changes as open source under the same GPL v3 license and not charge money for it.

How hard is magnetw to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is magnetw for?

Mainly general.

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