Plex

Connect Crow to your Plex Media Server to search your library, browse collections, and control playback through your AI assistant.

What You Get

• Search your media library (movies, TV shows, music)
• Browse recently added and On Deck content
• Control playback on connected Plex clients
• View what's currently playing
• Automatic integration with the Media Hub panel

Setup

Step 1: Get your Plex Token

Your Plex Token authenticates Crow with your server. To find it:

1. Open app.plex.tv in your browser and sign in
2. Play any media item or navigate to any library page
3. Open your browser's Developer Tools (F12 or right-click > Inspect)
4. Go to the Network tab
5. Look at any request to plex.tv or your server — find X-Plex-Token in the URL query parameters
6. Copy the token value

TIP

The token is a long alphanumeric string like abc123DEF456. It appears as ?X-Plex-Token=... at the end of API request URLs.

Alternatively, you can find the token in your Plex configuration files:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml — look for PlexOnlineToken
• Linux: /var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Preferences.xml
• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Preferences.xml

Step 2: Find your Plex server URL

This is the address of your Plex Media Server:

• Local: http://192.168.1.100:32400 or http://localhost:32400
• Tailscale: http://100.x.x.x:32400

Step 3: Add to Crow

Set the following in your .env file or via Crow's Nest > Settings > Integrations:

PLEX_URL=http://your-plex-server:32400
PLEX_TOKEN=your-plex-token-here

AI Tools

Once connected, interact with your Plex library through your AI:

"What movies did I add this week?"

"Show me what's On Deck"

"Search my library for sci-fi movies"

"Play Blade Runner on the living room Plex client"

"What's currently playing?"

Plex Pass Features

Some features require an active Plex Pass subscription:

Feature	Plex Pass Required
Library search	No
Browse collections	No
On Deck	No
Playback control	No
Lyrics	Yes
Hardware transcoding	Yes
Live TV & DVR	Yes

Crow's integration works with or without Plex Pass. Advanced features like Live TV are only available if your Plex subscription supports them.

Optional: Self-host Plex with Docker

If you don't already have Plex running, Crow can run one for you: open Extensions → Plex and start it there. Crow runs it from the Plex extension's own compose file, so there is nothing to copy. What to know:

• Host networking. The server uses the host's network (Plex's own recommendation), so devices on your local network can discover it. It listens on port 32400 and Plex's discovery ports on every network interface of this machine.
• PLEX_MEDIA_PATH is required. Point it at the folder that holds your media before you install. It is mounted into the server at /data.
• Claim the server before its first start. Get a claim token from plex.tv/claim and set it as PLEX_CLAIM_TOKEN. Until the server is claimed, the first person who opens it can claim it.
• Where the server keeps its settings. In the Docker volume plex-config, unless you set PLEX_CONFIG_PATH to a folder.
• PLEX_ADVERTISE_URL (optional). The URL other devices use to reach this server, for example http://192.168.1.10:32400. Leave it blank to let Plex discover it.

If an older self-hosted Plex advertises a broken http://http://… address, clear Custom server access URLs in Plex → Settings → Network.

Troubleshooting

"Connection refused" or timeout

Make sure the PLEX_URL is reachable from the Crow server. Plex defaults to port 32400.

"401 Unauthorized"

Your Plex Token may have expired or been revoked. Generate a new one using the steps above.

Library appears empty

Plex needs to scan your media folders. Open the Plex web UI, go to your library, and click the refresh icon to trigger a scan.