Expression Layer

How Core Builds PSEs, ESEs, and ISEs work — the IQR Tukey fence, pow() decay, pin() expressions, sort architecture, and the full quality stack.

The Core Builds Expression Layer is the set of Stream Expressions (SEL) deployed across all active templates. It is what separates Core Builds from a default AIOStreams install.

The fleet deploys a curated set of ESEs, ISEs, and PSEs across active templates. Standard templates use the full quality gate stack; Lite variants keep safety filters while removing selected quality gates for broader coverage.

Expression Types

Type	Role	Execution order
ESE (Excluded Stream Expression)	Removes streams from results entirely	First
ISE (Included Stream Expression)	Pins streams to the top ahead of ranking	Second
PSE (Preferred Stream Expression)	Scores and ranks remaining streams	Third

A stream matched by an ESE never reaches PSE scoring. ISE-matched streams jump to the top regardless of their PSE score.

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ESEs — The Kill Stack

Standard templates run the full ESE quality stack; Lite templates retain safety filters while removing selected quality gates. The exact count varies by device, service, and template family.

Universal ESEs (all 42 templates)

These run on every template in the fleet:

ESE	What it does
Info & Other Unwanted	Removes info-type streams, Usenet samples (via -sample keyword and releaseGroup), non-sample Usenet streams, and streams with prohibited (🚫) messages. Replaces Bad NZBs with broader coverage.
Hard CAM Kill	Removes camera recordings: CAM, SCR, TS (Telesync), TC, and HC HD-Rip quality levels.
Late Pack Fallback	Runs last. It hides a multi-episode file or ambiguous season pack only after three playable single-episode results have survived every other filter. It never deliberately turns a valid episode request into zero streams.

Near-Universal ESEs (30–41 templates)

These run on almost all templates — some are omitted on Anime or Lite variants:

ESE	What it does	Coverage
RD Copyright (per DMM)	Hides Real-Debrid copyright-blocked streams (WEB-DL/WEBRip flagged by RD’s filter).	40/42
Late Pack Fallback	Keeps episode packs available as a fallback; only suppresses them after three surviving standalone episode results are available. Anime remains exempt.	42/42
AI Upscale Exclusion	Removes AI-upscaled streams from non-library, non-SeaDex results.	35/42
Foreign Language Kill	Removes non-English foreign-language-only streams on movie/series queries. Anime queries are exempt.	35/42
Usenet Propagation Guard	Suppresses Usenet NZBs younger than 2 hours when propagated alternatives exist — avoids corrupt early-propagation grabs.	35/42
Hard External Kill	Removes YouTube rips and all external-type streams.	34/42
Extra SeaDex	Hides excess SeaDex results beyond the best when better-ranked alternatives are available.	33/42
Final Limit (All)	Hard cap on total results after all other ESEs have run.	31/42
G’s Low Bitrate	Streams with bitrate below the statistical floor for that title — uses live computed thresholds.	31/42
Low Seeders	Removes torrents with fewer than 3 seeders.	31/42
Bad 4K Anime	4K anime where a better-quality SeaDex result exists.	30/42
Upscaled 4K	AI-upscaled 4K that isn’t native UHD — exempts WEB-DL/WEBRip for theatrical releases without a Blu-ray.	30/42

Quality Gates (Standard only)

These run only on standard templates — they can filter legitimate content on thin libraries:

ESE	What it gates
Bad Dual Audio Groups	Removes release groups known for poor dual-audio encodes — mislabelled or badly synced audio tracks.
Indexer Diversity	Caps results per scraper/indexer to prevent any single addon from flooding the list.
Low SEL Score	Removes streams that scored in the bottom tier across all stream expressions — the final quality floor.
Bad 4K BluRay	4K BluRay releases from known low-quality groups.
Bad 1080p BluRay	1080p BluRay from low-quality groups when better sources exist.
Extra Cached (HQ / LQ)	Caps how many cached HQ and LQ streams appear in the final list.
Extra Uncached (All)	Caps uncached stream count.
Per-Addon Flood Guard	Caps each scraper at its flood limit — Meteor ≤5, Comet RD ≤5, MediaFusion ≤4, EZTV/HdHub ≤3, Knaben/TorrentGalaxy ≤1.

Specialized ESEs (device and resolution)

ESE	What it does	Templates
Hard Resolution Kill (1080p)	Removes 2160p and 1440p from 1080p-only templates — prevents 4K leaking through. Does not kill 720p on templates with a 720p fallback tier.	13
DV-Only Kill	Removes Dolby Vision-only streams for devices without DV support (Samsung TVs, Apple TV Nightly).	9
3D Content Kill	Removes 3D content — not playable on most modern setups.	8
Hard YouTube Kill	Removes YouTube source streams entirely.	8

LABS ESEs (Nightly only)

These are experimental and only appear on Nightly/Labs templates:

ESE	What it does	Templates
Score IQR Guard	Adaptive low-score filter using IQR fence on seScore — kills bottom-quartile streams when 8+ exist.	5
Adaptive Seeder Guard	Kills bottom-quartile-seeded uncached torrents on fresh titles (deep pools only); catalog titles 1yr+ exempt.	5
Unknown Quality/Resolution Kill	Removes streams with unknown quality or resolution only when 5+ known-quality alternatives exist.	5
Protect Library	Library-aware CAM/TS kill — uses passthrough() so library items survive even when tagged as low quality. Replaces Hard CAM Kill.	6
SeaDex Duplicates	perGroup() dedup keeps 1 per release group for best and non-best SeaDex tiers. Replaces Extra SeaDex.	6
rseMatched Tier Guards	Bad 4K Anime, Upscaled 4K, Bad 4K/1080P Bluray kills check ranked regex tiers (BD T1, Remux T1, Web T1, etc.) before firing — suppresses the kill when quality-verified groups match.	6
Low Quality w/ No Release Group	Removes low-quality streams (WEBRip, DVDRip, HDTV, CAM, etc.) with no identifiable release group — catches junk/spam uploads.	6
Bitrate Floor (4K/1080p REMUX)	Rejects REMUX streams below expected bitrate floor — animation exempt. A 1080p AV1 variant kills fake AV1 REMUXes (AV1 never appears on a Blu-ray disc).	2–3
perGroup() Extra Cached/Uncached	Replaces 20–35 clause merge/slice limits with a single perGroup() call — caps per resolution per quality band.	2–5
perGroup() Indexer Diversity	Caps 2 results per scraper using perGroup() — replaces multi-addon flood guard clauses.	2–5
Bad Dual Audio (releaseGroup)	Uses native releaseGroup() instead of -50 regex scoring for dual audio group kills.	2–3
x264 Hard Exclude	Native encode() exclusion replaces regex score -25 — more reliable than pattern matching.	2

If the standard template returns very few results, switch to the Lite variant. If Lite returns results, one of the quality gate ESEs is filtering your content — most commonly the bitrate floor or low-seeder kill.

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ISEs — Boost Stack

ISEs run after ESEs and before PSEs. Matched streams jump ahead of all ranked results regardless of their PSE score.

ISE	What it boosts	Coverage
Cached First	All cached debrid/Usenet streams above uncached — ensures instant-play results rank first.	42/42
Library	Streams from your AIOStreams library (continue watching).	42/42
REPACK/PROPER Passthrough	Pins REPACK and PROPER releases above the result limit so patched encodes always surface.	42/42
digitalRelease Bypass	Passes through streams on movie/anime.movie queries to prevent premature ESE filtering on digital release day.	42/42
SeaDex	SeaDex-verified anime releases jump to top — highest trust for anime quality.	14/42

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PSEs — The Ranking Engine

PSEs are the heart of Core Builds ranking. They use a tiered architecture — streams are matched against quality tiers from S (best) to E (fallback). The first PSE to match a stream determines its rank position. Two systems exist:

• CB-style PSEs — simple resolution + quality filters. Used on standard/lite/speed templates.
• IQR Tukey fence PSEs — statistical bitrate analysis with adaptive windows. Used on flagship templates (Apex, Essential 4K, Hybrid 4K, AllDebrid 4K).

Tier Architecture

4K Quality Tiers (IQR templates)

Tier	Quality	Method
S	BluRay REMUX	IQR fence on ranked bitrate pool, size floor 15GB
A	WEB-DL HDR	IQR Tukey fence with pow(0.95) age-decay window
B	WEB-DL SDR	IQR Tukey fence with pow(0.95) age-decay
C	WEBRip HDR	IQR Tukey fence with pow(0.95) age-decay
D	WEBRip SDR	IQR with min/max fallback only (no pow() decay)
E	Any 2160p	Catches everything that passed ESEs but didn’t match S–D

1080p Quality Tiers

Tier	Quality
S	BluRay REMUX (IQR variant: ranked bitrate pool, size floor 8GB)
A	WEB-DL 1080p (IQR variant: Tukey fence + pow(0.95) age-decay)
B	WEBRip or BluRay encode
C	Any 1080p (safety net)

Anime Quality Tiers

Tier	Quality
S	1080p WEB-DL with FLAC audio
A	1080p WEB-DL with AAC audio
B	1080p WEBRip
C	1080p BluRay REMUX
D	Any 1080p fallback

Three-tier adaptive logic (IQR Tukey fence)

Rather than fixed bitrate cutoffs (which break on thin libraries and new releases), IQR PSEs use live statistics computed from the actual pool of streams returned for each query.

Tier 1 — IQR Tukey fence (≥4 peers)

When 4 or more streams exist for a title, the fence is statistically sound:

size(
  bitrate(STREAMS,
    q1(values(bitrate(STREAMS,'5Mbps'),'bitrate')) - 1.5 * iqr(values(...)),
    q3(values(bitrate(STREAMS,'5Mbps'),'bitrate')) + 1.5 * iqr(values(...))
  ),
  '15GB'
)

The window is [Q1 - 1.5×IQR, Q3 + 1.5×IQR]. Streams inside the fence are ranked; outliers (suspiciously low bitrate or bloated) are skipped by this PSE tier and fall to lower tiers.

Tier 2 — Min/max ±20% (1–3 peers)

On thin results (rare titles, niche content), full IQR isn’t statistically meaningful. The PSE switches to a simpler min/max window:

size(bitrate(STREAMS, min(values(...)) * 0.80, max(values(...)) * 1.20), '15GB')

Tier 3 — pow() decay fallback (0 peers)

When no peers exist (brand-new release, no comparison data), the PSE falls back to an age-decaying window around the median:

bitrate(STREAMS,
  MEDIAN * (1 - 0.4 * pow(0.95, daysSinceRelease)),
  MEDIAN * (1 + 0.4 * pow(0.95, daysSinceRelease))
)

pow() decay explained

pow(0.95, daysSinceRelease) produces smooth exponential decay:

Day	Tolerance
0 (release day)	±40%
7	±28%
14	±20%
30	±9%
60	±2%
90+	~0%

On release day, a wide window accepts most encodes — you want something to play. Over 90 days, the window converges on the median as more encodes appear and the statistical picture stabilises. This replaces the old hard 60-day cliff that caused all streams to drop in rank exactly on day 61.

Booster PSEs

After the quality tiers, these additional PSEs run across most templates:

PSE	What it boosts	Coverage
Audio Pinnacle	Promotes lossless and object-based audio: Atmos/TrueHD → DTS-HD MA/DTS:X → EAC3/DD+	40/42
HDR/DV Priority	Within 4K results, surfaces DV/HDR10+/HDR10 ahead of SDR. Samsung variant excludes DV.	40/42
Codec Efficiency Booster	Surfaces HEVC/x265 encodes ahead of AVC/x264 at equivalent quality	39/42
Boost Cached Usenet	Catches cached TorBox Usenet NZBs that slipped outside the IQR window and promotes them above uncached results	35/42

720p Fallback PSEs

On 1080p templates with a 720p fallback tier, two PSEs catch lower-resolution content:

PSE	What it does	Coverage
720p Fallback | WEB-DL	Ranks 720p WEB-DL as the preferred fallback quality	14/42
720p Fallback | Any	Catches any remaining 720p content	14/42

Pin Expressions

pin() is a side-effect function — it registers streams for reordering after PSE scoring completes. Elite group pins float specific release groups to the top; LQ group pins sink poor groups to the bottom.

PSE	What it does	Coverage
Elite 4K Remux pin	Pins top-tier 4K REMUX groups (FraMeSToR, SURCODE, EPSiLON, etc.) to the top	5/42
Elite 1080p Remux pin	Same for 1080p elite groups	5/42
IMAX pin	Pins IMAX-tagged streams to top — IMAX versions have unique framing and audio	5/42
LQ group pin bottom	Pins known low-quality release groups to the bottom	5/42
T1 Pattern Pin (LABS)	Uses rseMatched() to pin Vidhin05 T1-matched releases beyond hand-listed groups	2/42

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Hybrid TorBox-Priority PSEs

The 4K Hybrid template adds a TorBox-cached twin PSE before each IQR tier:

service(
  size(bitrate(STREAMS, IQR_LO, IQR_HI), '15GB'),
  'torbox'
)

This returns only TorBox-cached streams that match the IQR window. If no TorBox streams match, it returns [] and the all-service PSE runs as a fallback. Result: TorBox cache is always preferred over RD/other services when quality is equivalent.

The 4K Hybrid template runs the most PSEs in the fleet (24) because each quality tier has both a TorBox-priority twin and an all-service fallback.

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Execution Flow

The full pipeline from raw scraped streams to the final ranked list:

1. ESEs execute first — each ESE returns streams to exclude. Matched streams are permanently removed. Infrastructure ESEs (flood guards, limits) run before quality gates (bitrate floors, seeder kills). Lite templates skip quality gates.
2. ISEs execute second — matched streams jump to the top regardless of PSE score. Library, REPACK, cached-first, and digitalRelease streams always surface.
3. PSEs execute third — each PSE returns matched streams. The first PSE to match a stream determines its tier position. Higher tiers (S) rank above lower tiers (E).
4. pin() side-effects apply — after scoring, pin() calls registered during PSE evaluation reorder specific streams. Elite pins float to top; LQ pins sink to bottom.
5. Sort chain applies — the 16-key stable sort breaks ties across all remaining dimensions. Per-type overrides (movies, anime, uncached) adjust key priorities.

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Sort Architecture

AIOStreams uses a stable multi-key sort — position 1 is the primary sort; each subsequent key only breaks ties from prior comparisons. Core Builds templates use 16 sort keys across 7 sort sections: global, movies, series, anime, cachedMovies, uncachedMovies, uncachedSeries.

4K Global Sort Chain (16 keys)

cached → seMatched → seScore → seadex → resolution → quality → regexScore → visualTag → audioTag → audioChannel → language → encode → library → seeders → bitrate → size

Key Differences by Section

Section	Key Change vs Global
1080p Global	visualTag moved from pos 8 → 10 (HDR less relevant at 1080p)
Movies / Series	library promoted to pos 5 (continue watching priority)
Anime	seadex promoted to pos 2, before seMatched/seScore
Uncached (Movies/Series)	seeders promoted to pos 11 (health signal for uncached)
Hybrid	17 keys: service added after seadex (TorBox-first provider priority)

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Release Group Scoring

Two systems work together: preferredRegexPatterns for top-tier boosts and rankedRegexPatterns for the full scoring ladder.

preferredRegexPatterns

Template-specific patterns with a strong positive boost. Score range: 70–100.

Template type	Count	Patterns
4K	7	Radarr Remux T1, Sonarr Remux T1, Radarr UHD Bluray T1, Radarr UHD Bluray T1 — DON, Anime BD T1, Anime BD T1 [sam], FraMeSToR
1080p	5	Web T1, 126811, FLUX, SiC, BHDStudio
Anime	0	SeaDex/AnimeTosho handle quality

rankedRegexPatterns

107 inline scoring patterns sourced from Filtering/ranked-regex-patterns.json and applied on all non-Anime templates. These override Vidhin05’s synced zero-score entries by name matching — AIOStreams shows them as regexOverrides in the config diff.

Tier	Score	Count	Examples
S	+100	3	FraMeSToR, SURCODE, EPSiLON
A	+80	8	KRaLiMaRKo, HONE, 126811, FLUX, W4NK3R
B	+60	14	DON, NCmt, BHDStudio
C	+40	24	Various mid-tier groups
D	+20	32	Broad quality groups
Penalty	−25	8	Known upscale/x264 groups
Bad	−50	8	Consistently poor encode groups
Very Bad	−75	4	Very poor quality groups
Blacklist	−200	6	Scene groups releasing defective content

4K templates carry 107 patterns (including UHD Bluray-specific entries). 1080p templates carry 103. Anime templates carry 0 — SeaDex handles quality selection.

Every pattern string is an exact verbatim copy of a current Vidhin05 entry (elfhosted whitelist requirement).

syncedRankedRegexUrls

Points to Vidhin05’s file on all non-Anime templates. Supplements ranked patterns with Vidhin05’s 176-pattern set at score 0; the inline rankedRegexPatterns entries override scoring by name.

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Dynamic Addon Fetching

All 42 templates use dynamic addon fetching (DAF) — adaptive exit conditions that control when AIOStreams stops waiting for scrapers. Instead of a fixed timeout, templates exit when enough cached results are available.

Template type	Exit condition
4K (Apex, Essential, Hybrid)	count(cached(resolution(totalStreams, "2160p"))) >= 10 or totalTimeTaken > 5000
4K (AllDebrid)	count(cached(resolution(totalStreams, "2160p"))) >= 10 or count(totalStreams) >= 45
1080p (Standard)	count(cached(resolution(totalStreams, "1080p"))) >= 15
Anime 4K	count(cached(resolution(totalStreams, "2160p"))) >= 6
Anime 1080p	count(cached(resolution(totalStreams, "1080p"))) >= 12

Templates with addon groups define count(cached(previousStreams)) < 3 conditions that let slow scrapers run longer when cached results are scarce, then cut them short once enough results exist.

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SEL Character Limits

AIOStreams enforces hard limits on expression size:

Limit	Value	Current highest
Max per expression	3,000 chars	2,953 chars (Final Limit ESE — 47 headroom)
Max total (all expressions)	50,000 chars	~35,000 chars
Max expression count	200	Well under

Do not grow the Final Limit (All) ESE further — it is already at 2,953 characters. Any addition risks hitting the 3,000 char hard limit and breaking import.