Network shares
SMB share management belongs to flixer, not flixer-indexer. Flixer has a NetworkSharesService and shareMounter (src/api/networkShares/networkSharesService.ts, src/api/networkShares/shareMounter.ts) that stores share configuration, connects/reconnects shares, and offers connected shares as media roots. Saved passwords are encrypted in flixer's network_shares entity and are not included in the public share response.
The current flixer mount implementation uses Windows UNC paths and net use on Windows. On Linux it mounts CIFS under SMB_MOUNT_DIR (default ./data/mounts) and on macOS uses mount_smbfs; flixer's saved readOnly setting defaults to true. On Linux, mounting generally needs root or the SYS_ADMIN capability; flixer reports that constraint if it cannot mount. These SMB credentials and mount operations are not passed to the indexer.
What the indexer receives
The indexer calls flixer's signed GET /api/indexer/libraries. Flixer builds each library folder's absolutePath from its media root plus the folder-relative path (src/api/mediaLibraries/mediaLibrariesService.ts). The indexer uses that absolute path for ordinary filesystem reads and writes; its internal/models.Folder also holds rootId and relative path. It has no SMB client, share credential fields, mount helper, or share-specific environment variable.
For an SMB-backed library, make the media path flixer reports accessible in the indexer's own filesystem namespace. A path that exists only in the flixer process/container is insufficient for a separate indexer container. Do not assume that mounting a share in one container automatically mounts it in another.
Docker and native deployments
The indexer's docker-compose.yml mounts ${MEDIA_PATH:-../flixer-data/media} at /media; its comment requires the path to match the path used by flixer and flixer-streamer. This mapping alone does not mount an SMB share configured inside flixer. Arrange for the share contents to be mounted/exposed to the indexer at the same path flixer returns—for example, share a host-level mount into both containers or configure equivalent container mounts—then use that path in the flixer media-root/library configuration. SMB_MOUNT_DIR is a flixer-side setting, not an indexer variable.
For native runs, flixer may mount the share on its host (or you may mount it at the operating-system level). The indexer process must independently have read access to the resulting files, and write access if using alongside artwork or subtitle/lyrics sidecars. A Windows UNC path is valid only if it is reachable from the account running the indexer. The image store can fall back to CACHE_PATH when an alongside artwork write fails, but subtitle and lyrics downloads require writable media directories. See docker-compose.yml, internal/images/images.go, internal/subtitles/subtitles.go, and Deployment.