eMule Qt is a free, open-source file sharing client for the ED2K and Kademlia networks, with a full Usenet engine built in — rebuilt from the ground up with Qt 6 and modern C++23.
Cross-platform. Fully compatible with the existing eMule network.
Website: emule-qt.org
- ED2K & Kademlia — Server-based and decentralized DHT networks for maximum source availability
- Protocol Obfuscation — TCP/UDP encryption enabled by default
- AICH Verification — Chunk-level integrity checks with automatic corruption recovery
- Queue & Credit System — The proven eMule reward system for fair sharing
- Built-in Web Server — Remote control from any browser via the classic web interface
- Advanced Search — Expression-based queries across multiple networks
- IRC Chat & Messages — Built-in IRC client and peer-to-peer messaging
- IP Filtering — Dynamic blocklists with automatic updates
- Media & Archive Preview — Preview video files and browse archives before download completes
- Statistics — Real-time bandwidth graphs, connection metrics, and Kademlia visualization
- Internationalization — 9 languages out of the box
Not found in the original eMule.
- Usenet Downloads — A complete NNTP engine in the daemon: up to 16 providers on a priority and failover ladder, TLS, allowance tracking, PAR2 repair, and unpacking that finishes as the download does (details)
- Indexer Search — newznab indexers queried in parallel from the same Search tab and de-duplicated, with the grab done daemon-side so the GUI never holds an API key or a download URL
- Auto-Download Feeds — A saved indexer query or an RSS URL polled on a schedule, filtered by regex, size and age, and queued into the category you chose
- Cross-Platform — One codebase running natively on Windows, macOS, and Linux; the original is MFC and Windows-only
- Daemon/GUI Split — Headless
emulecored+emuleqtGUI over an encrypted CBOR IPC link; run the core on a server or NAS and attach the GUI locally or remotely - IPv6 — Dual-stack across client-to-client, client-to-server, Kademlia, and eD2K links, so IPv6-only and CGNAT users can participate fully — additive and legacy-safe (spec)
- HTTP Cache — When several peers want the same part, encrypt and upload it once, then hand each peer a URL and key; the cache server never sees plaintext (spec)
- PCP & NAT-PMP Port Mapping — Three backends raced at startup — PCP, NAT-PMP, and UPnP IGD1/IGD2 with IPv6 pinholes — graded on whether the exact port was actually granted (details)
- REST API — A JSON
/api/v1/*interface with API-key auth alongside the classic web UI, for scripts and dashboards; browser apps on another origin are opted in withwebserver.corsAllowedOriginsinpreferences.yml - CLI Control — Drive a running daemon from the shell:
--add-link,--add-nzb,--connect,--disconnect,--connect-kad - MCP Server for AI Assistants — A Model Context Protocol endpoint at
/mcpon the web server's port, so an assistant can search, queue and manage downloads through 51 tools that share the REST API's validation and code; read-only switch, API-key auth, and anemuleqt-mcpstdio bridge for clients that only start a local program (details) - Extended Source Exchange — Source exchange widened with each source's server endpoint, user hash, and obfuscation options, negotiated per peer
- Save/Load Sources — Each part file's best sources are written to disk and re-injected on restart, so a download resumes at speed instead of rebuilding its source list
- Country Flags — MorphXT-style flags next to every client, source, server, Kad contact, friend and news server, from a MaxMind GeoLite2 database the daemon keeps up to date (details)
- Fake-File Detector — A Confidence column in search results, indexer results and downloads that scores how likely a file is not what its name says — conflicting names, a program or archive named like a video, implausible media data, spam and fake ratings — with every reason in the tooltip; it warns, never hides or blocks (details)
- Upload Queue Persistence — The waiting list survives a restart with every peer's earned wait time intact, so queued peers keep their position (details)
- Hardened Kademlia — Node reputation with one-node-per-IP enforcement, variance-based adaptive timeouts, and a public IP adopted only once several independent peers agree on it
- Persistent Statistics — Graph history is collected in the core rather than the window, so traces survive a GUI restart and two GUIs on one daemon see the same picture
- Modern Foundation — C++23 and Qt 6 throughout, human-readable YAML configuration with encrypted secrets, a cross-platform crash handler, and 150+ automated test executables
Requirements:
- Qt 6.8+
- CMake 3.25+
- C++23 compiler (Clang 16+, GCC 13+, MSVC 2022+)
scripts/build.shBinaries are output to build/.
Open src/eMuleQt.sln in Visual Studio 2022 (or later) and build. See docs/windows-build.md for dependency setup (should be done by Visual Studio automatically).
The Usenet module builds by default and pulls two extra libraries on first configure: rapidyenc for SIMD yEnc decoding and par2cmdline-turbo for PAR2 verify and repair. Both are optional — -DEMULE_USENET_RAPIDYENC=OFF selects the built-in scalar decoder and -DEMULE_USENET_PAR2=OFF drops verify and repair — and the queue still downloads, assembles and shares either way. On Windows both arrive as vcpkg overlay ports from src/vcpkg-ports/.
Start the GUI (launches the daemon automatically):
build/emuleqtOptionally run the daemon standalone for headless/server use — the GUI can connect remotely over IPC (default port 4712):
build/emulecoredTo create a distributable app bundle, use the platform-specific scripts: scripts/bundle-macos.sh, scripts/bundle-linux.sh, or scripts/bundle-win.ps1.
emuleqt (GUI) ←— IPC/CBOR over TCP —→ emulecored (Daemon)
├── ED2K Protocol
├── Kademlia DHT
├── Usenet (NNTP / NZB)
├── Indexer Search & Feeds
├── Web Server / REST API
└── File Management
- Report bugs and suggest features via GitHub Issues
- Submit pull requests
- Add translations using Qt Linguist (see
lang/)
GPL-2.0 — see LICENSE.
Based on the original eMule by Merkur.