
CineDrift is a comprehensive, full-stack streaming platform that brings together movies, TV shows, anime, manga, drama, live sports, live TV, and radio — all under one unified experience. It is designed to serve as an all-in-one entertainment hub, offering a seamless browsing, discovery, and playback experience across every content category.
The platform is built on a modern, production-grade tech stack:
Frontend: Next.js (App Router), React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS, shadcn/ui, Zustand, TanStack Query
Backend: Laravel, MySQL, Redis, Sanctum (token-based auth)
Deployment: Docker Compose on a production server behind Nginx
External APIs: TMDB, ESPN, TheSportsDB
Real-time: Socket.io for live updates
The frontend and backend run as separate Docker containers with independent CI/CD pipelines. Environment variables for the frontend are baked at build time via Docker build args. Scheduled tasks — including content syncs, sports updates, and live score polling — are all managed through Laravel's scheduler inside the backend container.
Content discovery is a core strength of CineDrift. Movies and TV shows are automatically synced from TMDB with scheduled pipelines for trending, popular, and new release content. Users can:
Browse by genre, provider, or quality (including a dedicated 4K section)
Search globally with instant suggestions across all content types
Switch between multiple streaming servers per title — ensuring playback availability
Track watch progress, manage watchlists, and resume across devices
Every movie and TV show supports a multi-server playback system with a provider-switching UI, so users always have a fallback if one source goes down.
CineDrift goes beyond Western content. The platform includes dedicated sections for:
Anime & Manga — with trending and popular feeds
YouTube Dramas — full episode management and playback
Short Dramas — including GL and BL categories with tag-based browsing
Each content type has its own browse pages, detail views, and streaming interface.
Live sports integration is one of the most technically involved features of the platform.
Football matches are synced via TheSportsDB with automated status updates every 5 minutes.
Cricket is powered by a custom-built pipeline using ESPN's public API:
Auto-discovers active tournaments (IPL, PSL, ICC events, bilateral series) from ESPN's scoreboard header
Syncs match schedules, teams, venues, and logos every 10 minutes
Updates live scores every 1 minute via a dedicated cron job
Auto-generates stream links by scraping WebCric — resolving match pages, extracting iframe embed URLs from frame pages, and building direct streaming links
A sports search feature lets users find live and upcoming matches with real-time LIVE badges and score overlays directly from the global search.
Live TV and radio are fully integrated with category-based browsing and dedicated player interfaces. Users can browse channels and stations by category, making CineDrift not just a VOD platform but a true multi-format entertainment destination.
The platform supports full authentication via email/password and Google OAuth. Logged-in users get access to:
Personal watchlist
Watch history and continue-watching
Cross-device progress tracking
Collections and downloads
The progress tracking system is smart — it accepts both internal UUIDs and TMDB IDs, resolving them transparently on the backend.
A full admin dashboard provides control over:
Syncing movies and TV shows from TMDB
Managing streaming servers and providers
Configuring tags and content metadata
Handling YouTube drama entries
Monitoring the sports data pipeline
UUID-based user models with Sanctum personal access tokens
CSRF handling for stateful API sessions with excluded API routes
Automated TMDB sync pipelines (trending daily, releases every 2 hours, genres weekly)
ESPN cricket scraper with auto-discovery of new tournaments
WebCric stream resolution — multi-step scraping to extract embed URLs
Graceful error handling for dead streaming domains and API failures
Containerized deployment with Nginx reverse proxy and Docker Compose
CineDrift is a solo-built, full-stack project demonstrating end-to-end ownership — from database design and API architecture to frontend UI, real-time data pipelines, DevOps, and production deployment.