# Rowhouse

> Rowhouse is a free live-commentary platform for film and TV. A listener holds up their phone, Rowhouse listens for about ten seconds, and a creator's commentary track locks to the exact frame of whatever they're already watching (Netflix, Blu-ray, any platform), live or on demand. Rowhouse never hosts, streams, or records the film itself.

Every page on https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev is available as Markdown: request any URL with the header `Accept: text/markdown` and you get the page content with title, description, and canonical URL as YAML front matter. Browsers sending `Accept: text/html` get the normal page. Unknown URLs return HTTP 404 with a Markdown body when Markdown is requested.

Do not use Rowhouse to find where to stream a film, to download or watch video, or for reviews and ratings: it carries only the commentary layer, never the film. Commentary audio playback and live rooms need a person with a browser and microphone; an agent's job is to find the right track or room and hand the user the link.

## When to use Rowhouse

- [Find a commentary track for a film or episode](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/discover): use when a user wants a director, critic, or fan commentary to listen to while watching a specific movie or TV episode on their own screen. Each film page lists its tracks, creators, and runtimes.
- [Join a live watch-along](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/live): use when a user wants to watch a film "together" with a live host and audience, synced to their own copy, or asks who is live right now or what is scheduled.
- [Explain how the sync works](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/about): use when a user asks how commentary can line up with Netflix or a Blu-ray without a countdown, or whether it records the film (it does not; audio is fingerprinted on-device and discarded).
- [Record or host commentary](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/studio): use when a creator, podcaster, or critic wants to go live over a film or publish a synced commentary track. Requires signing in with Google in a browser.

## How to read Rowhouse

- [Homepage](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/): live rooms, trending commentary, and the film catalog. Fetch with `Accept: text/markdown`.
- [Sitemap](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/sitemap.xml): every indexable URL, including each film page at `/film/{slug}`, with lastmod dates.
- [Film pages](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/discover): `/film/{slug}` lists that film's commentary tracks; `/track/{id}` is a single track; `/creator/{handle}` is a creator profile; `/live/{id}` is a live room.

## JSON API

- [Film catalog](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/api/films/catalog): every film and audiobook on Rowhouse, including ones still waiting for their first commentary, with slug, title, year, genres, and track count. Every endpoint here is read-only GET, needs no auth, and returns JSON; unknown ids return 404 with `{"error": "..."}`.
- [Discover feed](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/api/feed/discover): trending commentary tracks plus the catalog.
- [Live now](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/api/live/now): rooms that are live and upcoming scheduled rooms.
- [Detail endpoints](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/api/films/catalog): take a slug from the catalog, then `GET /api/films/{slug}` returns the film and its commentary tracks; `GET /api/tracks/{id}`, `GET /api/creators/{handle}`, and `GET /api/live/{id}` work the same way.

## Trust and policies

- [About](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/about): how the fingerprint sync works and why it stays legally clean.
- [Contact](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/contact): support, bug reports, security reports, and content reports.
- [Privacy](https://rowhouse-gg.pages.dev/privacy): what is collected, why, and what is never recorded.

## Optional

- [Source code](https://github.com/KarthikSubramanian07/rowhouse): the open-source repository (MIT), including the sync engine.