Your whole library as posters
Movies and TV Shows in one clean grid, with the artwork your server already has. Glimpse keeps its own copy of it, so the page loads fast every time.
Self-hosted · Free & open source
Share your library,
not your server.
Someone asks what you have. Instead of listing it from memory or handing out an account on your Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby server, you send them a link — and they get a glimpse of your shelves: the posters, the descriptions, and nothing else.
Screenshot: the library grid
assets/img/screenshots/library.png
Works with
Plex
Jellyfin
Emby
One at a time, or all three at once.
Features
Everything you need to show off your library
Your media server is built for playing things. Glimpse is built for the moment before that — when someone is deciding, scrolling, or finding out what you have in the first place. That includes you, on the sofa, at eleven at night.
You decide what they see
Name any library you would rather keep to yourself and Glimpse leaves it out entirely. It is never fetched, so there is simply nothing there to find.
Nothing to install or sign up
Whoever you send it to just opens the link. No account to make, no app to download, and nothing to explain about how it works.
Find anything, sorted your way
Start typing and the grid narrows as you go. Or filter to one genre, run it A–Z, or flip to newest-first to see what landed recently.
Roll the Dice
For the nights nobody can decide. One tap picks something at random from your movies or your shows, and that is what you are watching.
Every server, one app
Run Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby side by side. Switch between them with one tap, and Glimpse wears each server's own colors so you know where you are.
The details, without the digging
Open anything to read its description and see the cast and genres — enough to decide whether tonight is really the night for it.
Trailers, right there
Movies come with a trailer you can play on the page you are already on, so anyone can size something up before committing an evening to it.
Built for a phone first
Menus and details open as trays you swipe away, and you drag sideways to move between Movies and TV Shows. Add it to a home screen too.
How it works
Three steps and you have something to send
-
1
Point it at your server
Give Glimpse your server's address and an access token, then name the libraries you would rather not show anyone.
-
2
Let it fetch once
Glimpse reads your movies and shows, pulls down the posters and backdrops, and builds its own copy.
-
3
Send the link
On your own network the address just works. To reach someone outside it, put Glimpse behind a reverse proxy.
Run it on your own server
Glimpse is one self-hosted container sitting next to your media server. It is yours: no accounts, no third party in the middle, and nothing phoning home. You decide who gets the address. The full setup — the compose file, every option, and how to find your tokens — is on GitHub.
- Runs in Docker from a single compose file
- Everything it keeps lives in one folder you own
- Shares over your network or your reverse proxy
- Free and open source under the MIT license
A different app, same developer
If you run Plex, take a look at Marquee too
Marquee
Poster management for Plex
Marquee is a separate self-hosted app — not a part of Glimpse, and not something you need to run it. Where Glimpse shows the posters your library already has, Marquee is for changing them.
It pulls every poster out of Plex, lets you swap in better artwork for the ones that never looked right, and sends your choice back to Plex locked so an agent refresh cannot quietly undo it.
Plex only · Self-hosted · Free and open source
FAQ
Questions, answered
Can people watch my media through it?
No, and that is the whole point. Glimpse shares the catalog, not the content. Visitors see posters, descriptions, cast, and movie trailers — none of your media plays and none of it downloads. It answers "what do you have?" without answering "can I have it?"
How do I actually share it with someone?
You send them the address. On your own network that is all there is to it. To reach someone outside your house, put Glimpse behind the reverse proxy you already use for anything else you expose, give it a hostname, and share that.
Because Glimpse holds its own copy of your artwork and details, the link works even if your media server is asleep, busy, or unreachable.
Do they need an account? Is it protected?
No account — that is what makes it easy to hand out. It also means there is no sign-in standing in front of it, so treat the link itself as the key: anyone who has it, or who can reach the address, can browse what you published.
So decide deliberately how far it reaches, and set your library exclusions before you share it. If you want a password, add one at your reverse proxy the same way you would for anything else.
Can I keep some libraries out of it?
Yes, and it is a real exclusion rather than a filter you could slip past. Name the libraries to leave out and Glimpse never fetches them at all — no posters, no titles, nothing. They cannot appear in a search, behind a genre filter, or in a random pick, because none of it was ever there.
Can it change anything on my media server?
No. Glimpse only ever reads from your server, and the people you share it with never reach your server at all — they are looking at Glimpse's own copy. There is no path by which a visitor could rename, move, retag, or delete anything.
Can I connect more than one server?
Yes. Run Plex and Jellyfin and Emby side by side if you like. With two servers you get a toggle, with three you get a switcher, and each one also has its own address you can bookmark. You choose which one people see first.
Does it work on their phone?
That is where it is happiest, and it matters — most people will open your link on a phone. Menus and details appear as trays you swipe down to dismiss, you drag sideways to move between Movies and TV Shows, and anyone can add it to their home screen so it opens full screen with its own icon.
Will visitors put load on my server?
None at all. Everyday browsing never touches your media server — Glimpse serves its own copy, so ten people scrolling your library is ten people scrolling Glimpse. Your server only hears from it on the schedule you set, and even then it only downloads artwork that actually changed.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Glimpse is free and open source under the MIT license — no accounts, no subscriptions, no telemetry.
How do I install it?
It runs as a Docker container. The GitHub repository has the compose file, every configuration option, and step-by-step instructions for finding your Plex, Jellyfin, or Emby token.
Support Development
Glimpse is free and always will be. If it has earned a spot on your home screen, you can throw a few dollars at ongoing development — or, let's be honest, at another hard drive for the server that is definitely not running out of room.
Buy me a coffee