📚 Shelfmark: Book Search & Request Tool

[!NOTE] Shelfmark is feature stable and maintained on a best-effort basis. Bug fixes, security updates, and small quality-of-life improvements are still shipped, and pull requests are reviewed — including new features. There is no roadmap for new features for now.

Shelfmark is a self-hosted web interface for searching and requesting books and audiobooks across multiple sources. Bring your own sources, metadata providers, and download clients to build a single hub for your digital library. Supports multiple users with a built-in request system, so you can share your instance with others and let them browse and request books on their own.

Works great alongside the following library tools, with support for automatic imports:

• Calibre
• Calibre-Web
• Calibre-Web-Automated
• Grimmory
• Audiobookshelf

✨ Features

• One-Stop Interface - A clean, modern UI to search, browse, and download from multiple configured sources in one place
• Multiple Sources - Configurable web, torrent, usenet, and IRC source support
• Audiobook Support - Full audiobook search and download with dedicated processing
• Flexible Search - Search metadata providers (Hardcover, Open Library, Google Books) for rich book and audiobook discovery, or query configured sources directly
• Multi-User & Requests - Share your instance with others, let users browse and request books, and manage approvals with configurable notifications
• Authentication - Built-in login, OIDC single sign-on, proxy auth, and Calibre-Web database support
• Real-Time Progress - Unified download queue with live status updates across all sources
• Network Flexibility - Configurable proxy support, DNS settings, and optional Cloudflare handling for protected sources

🖼️ Screenshots

Home screen

Search results

Multi-source downloads

Download queue

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Docker & Docker Compose
• At least 2 GB of RAM available to the container when using the standard image — see Memory Requirements

Installation

1. Download the docker-compose file:

   curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/calibrain/shelfmark/main/compose/docker-compose.yml
   

2. Start the service:

   docker compose up -d
   

3. Open http://localhost:8084

Open the web interface, then configure the sources and settings you want to use.

Volume Setup

volumes:
  - /your/config/path:/config # Config, database, and artwork cache directory
  - /your/download/path:/books # Downloaded books
  - /client/path:/client/path # Optional: For Torrent/Usenet downloads, match your client directory exactly.

Tip: Point the download volume to your CWA or Grimmory ingest folder for automatic import.

Note: CIFS shares require nobrl mount option to avoid database lock errors.

Non-root container mode

• Start the container as 1000:1000 with Docker user: "1000:1000" or docker run --user 1000:1000.
• For Kubernetes, set runAsUser: 1000, runAsGroup: 1000, and runAsNonRoot: true together.
• PUID/PGID keep the default root startup flow.
• Mounted paths must already be writable by 1000:1000.
• USING_TOR=true requires root startup.

⚙️ Configuration

Search Modes

Direct

• Queries configured sources directly

Universal (recommended)

• Search via metadata providers (Hardcover, Open Library, Google Books) for richer results
• Aggregates releases from multiple configured sources
• Full audiobook support

Hardcover API Key

Hardcover powers metadata search in Universal mode. Create a token at hardcover.app/account/api — current keys start with hc_pat_ and are far shorter than the JWTs Hardcover issued before August 2026.

Tick these seven scopes on the token screen:

The two write: scopes matter only if you set reading status from Shelfmark or leave Auto-Remove from List on Download enabled (it is on by default) — without them those actions fail silently. Everything else Hardcover offers (journal, goals, reviews, prompts, notifications, account) can stay unticked. The all scope works too, but it grants full account access including deletion, so prefer the list above.

Environment Variables

Environment variables work for initial setup and Docker deployments. They serve as defaults that can be overridden in the web interface.

See the full Environment Variables Reference for all available options.

Some of the additional options available in Settings:

• Prowlarr - Configure indexers and download clients to download books and audiobooks
• Additional audiobook sources - Configure additional sources for audiobook discovery
• IRC - Add details for IRC book sources and download directly from the UI. Most networks serve audiobooks from the same channel as ebooks (on irc.irchighway.net that's #ebooks, while #bookz is effectively inactive), so leave the separate audiobook channel blank unless your network actually indexes one. IRC audiobooks usually arrive as ZIP/RAR archives — keep those enabled under Supported Audiobook Formats or the releases are filtered out of results
• Library Link - Add a link to your Calibre-Web or Grimmory instance in the UI header
• File processing - Customiseable download paths, file renaming and directory creation with template-based renaming
• Network Settings - Custom proxy support (SOCKS5 + HTTP/S) and configurable DNS
• Format & Language - Filter downloads by preferred formats, languages and sorting order
• Metadata Providers - Configure API keys for Hardcover, Open Library, etc.

🐳 Docker Variants

Standard

docker compose up -d

The full-featured image with all network capabilities included.

Memory Requirements

The standard image ships a real Chromium browser, which it launches to solve Cloudflare challenges for Direct Download. Chromium needs room to run:

• 2 GB of RAM available to the container is a safe minimum; 1 GB or less is where problems usually start
• Only relevant if you use Direct Download. Prowlarr, IRC and audiobook sources don't start the browser

When the container is starved of memory, Chromium fails to start and every Direct Download fails with unrelated-looking errors — repeated 403 detected; switching to bypasser followed by No download URL found, and downloads that never complete. If you're seeing that, check the container's memory limit and the host's free memory before suspecting your ISP or DNS.

If you can't spare the memory, use the Lite image with an external resolver (e.g. FlareSolverr) running elsewhere.

Tor Routing

Optional Tor support for network privacy:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/calibrain/shelfmark/main/compose/docker-compose.tor.yml
docker compose -f docker-compose.tor.yml up -d

Notes:

• Requires root startup
• Requires NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW capabilities
• Timezone is auto-detected from Tor exit node
• Custom DNS/proxy settings are ignored when Tor is active

WireGuard VPN Routing

Optional WireGuard support to route all external egress through a VPN tunnel with a fail-closed kill-switch:

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/calibrain/shelfmark/main/compose/docker-compose.wireguard.yml
# place your wg-quick config where the compose mounts /config, as wg0.conf
docker compose -f docker-compose.wireguard.yml up -d

Notes:

• Requires root startup
• Requires NET_ADMIN and NET_RAW capabilities
• Mount a standard wg-quick config at WIREGUARD_CONFIG (default /config/wg0.conf)
• All non-LAN egress is forced through the tunnel; if the tunnel drops, external traffic fails closed while LAN ranges (WebUI, Prowlarr, qBittorrent) stay reachable
• IPv4 and IPv6 both fail closed. On kernels without a usable ip6tables, disable IPv6 for the container (sysctls: net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1, as in the compose example) or the container refuses to start rather than risk an IPv6 leak
• A supervised healthcheck bounces the tunnel if the handshake goes stale, and refreshes the endpoint allow rules so a roaming/rotated peer endpoint can reconnect
• Mutually exclusive with USING_TOR
• DNS trust: WIREGUARD_DNS must be a resolver you trust on a trusted network segment. When it is a LAN resolver (kept reachable off-tunnel by LAN_NETWORK), the query to that resolver leaves as plaintext UDP/53 on the LAN — the resolver is responsible for encrypting upstream. Two resolver paths exist: (1) when Docker's embedded resolver (127.0.0.11) is present it is preserved so container names (Prowlarr, qBittorrent) resolve — you MUST pin its upstream to a trusted resolver via the container's compose dns: list, since WIREGUARD_DNS cannot repoint the embedded resolver from inside the container; (2) otherwise WIREGUARD_DNS/the config DNS = line is written to /etc/resolv.conf. Setting WIREGUARD_ENFORCE_DNS=false is a foot-gun: with no embedded resolver present the container then uses its inherited resolver, which forwards to the Docker daemon's upstream off-tunnel, leaking your DNS. Leave enforcement on unless you have pinned the resolver another way.

Lite

A lighter image without the built-in browser automation. Ideal for:

• External services - Already running FlareSolverr or similar for other applications
• Alternative sources - Using Prowlarr, IRC, or other configured sources
• Audiobooks - Using Shelfmark primarily for audiobooks
• Constrained hosts - No bundled browser, so it runs comfortably below the standard image's memory requirements

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/calibrain/shelfmark/main/compose/docker-compose.lite.yml
docker compose -f docker-compose.lite.yml up -d

If you need browser-based access with the Lite image, configure an external resolver in Settings.

🔐 Authentication

Authentication is optional but recommended for shared or exposed instances. Multiple authentication methods are available in Settings:

1. Single Username/Password

2. Proxy (Forward) Authentication

Proxy auth trusts headers set by your reverse proxy (e.g. X-Auth-User). Ensure Shelfmark is not directly exposed, and configure your proxy to strip/overwrite these headers for all inbound requests.

3. OIDC (OpenID Connect)

Integrate with your identity provider (Authelia, Authentik, Keycloak, etc.) for single sign-on. Supports PKCE flow, auto-discovery, group-based admin mapping, and auto-provisioning of new users.

4. Calibre-Web Database

If you're running Calibre-Web, you can reuse its user database by mounting it:

volumes:
  - /path/to/calibre-web/app.db:/auth/app.db:ro

Multi-User Support

With any authentication method enabled, Shelfmark supports multi-user management with admin/user roles. Users can have per-user settings for download destinations, email recipients, and notification preferences. Non-admin users only see their own downloads and can submit book requests for admin review. Admins can configure request policies per source to control whether users can download directly, must submit a request, or are blocked entirely.

Project Scope

Shelfmark is a manual search and download tool, the entry point to your book library, not a library manager. It finds books, downloads them, and sends them to a configured destination. That's the full scope.

Shelfmark intentionally does not:

• Track or manage your library - it doesn't know or care what you already own
• Integrate with library software - what happens after delivery is up to your library tool
• Monitor authors, series, or new releases - there is no background automation
• Queue future downloads - if a book isn't available now, Shelfmark won't watch for it

These are non-goals, not missing features.

Contributing

Shelfmark's core feature set is complete.

Pull requests are welcome and all of them get reviewed, new features included. If you want a feature, the fastest path is to send a PR for it rather than to file a request.

Feature requests that fall outside the project scope (library integration, automation, collection management) will be closed, and PRs implementing them won't be merged. If you're unsure whether something fits, open a discussion first.

Health Monitoring

The application exposes a health endpoint at /api/health (no authentication required). Add a health check to your compose:

healthcheck:
  test: ["CMD", "curl", "-sf", "http://localhost:8084/api/health"]
  interval: 30s
  timeout: 30s
  retries: 3

Logging

Logs are available via:

• docker logs <container-name>
• /var/log/shelfmark/ inside the container (when ENABLE_LOGGING=true)

Log level is configurable under Settings → Advanced or via the LOG_LEVEL environment variable (DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL; case-insensitive, defaults to INFO). The environment variable wins over the setting, and DEBUG=true forces DEBUG regardless of either. Changes take effect on restart.

Development

# Quality checks
make checks              # Run ALL static analysis (frontend + Python)
make python-checks       # Run Ruff, BasedPyright, and Vulture
make install-python-dev  # Sync Python runtime + dev tools with uv

# Frontend development
make install     # Install dependencies
make dev         # Start Vite dev server (localhost:5173)
make build       # Production build
make frontend-typecheck  # TypeScript checks

# Backend (Docker)
make up          # Start backend via docker-compose.dev.yml
make down        # Stop services
make refresh     # Rebuild and restart
make restart     # Restart container

The frontend dev server proxies to the backend on port 8084.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

⚠️ Disclaimer

Shelfmark is a search interface that displays results from external metadata providers and sources. It does not host, store, or distribute any content. The developers are not responsible for how the tool is used or what is accessed through it.

Users are solely responsible for:

• Ensuring they have the legal right to download any material they access
• Complying with copyright laws and intellectual property rights in their jurisdiction
• Understanding and accepting the terms of any sources they configure

Use of this tool is entirely at your own risk.

Support

For issues or questions, please file an issue on GitHub.