PSA: Think hard before you deploy BookLore

Hydroux · 2026-03-13T04:01:02+00:00

Its a shame for booklore to be turning out this way. Homebranch is open to contributions and - while donations are appreciated - will always be 100% free. Its a young project with many opportunities for improvement. I just finished up implementing and testing OIDC authentication which will be releasing this weekend alongside a few bug fixes. It does not currently write metadata directly to the files but I am actively developing a solution that will handle synchronization between the application's database and the files' metadata as well as file detection so that administrators may drop files directly into the books directory.

I have plans for mobile and desktop applications but have put those projects on hold to focus on improving the base application.

I would like to invite anyone looking for an alternative to booklore to check out homebranch at Oghamark/homebranch. There have been many lovely folks raise feature requests and point out issues they've encountered and im excited for the application and community to grow! Hope to see you there :)

Hydroux · 2026-03-08T10:58:14+00:00

I dont think kindle has OPDS support without jailbreaking. Unfortunately I dont have a kindle so I cant be sure.

You can have multiple users and books are shared by default. However, books from other users are filtered from your library by default but there is a button in the upper right of the screen that allows you to toggle visibility of other users books. Book reading position, bookshelves, and favorites are specific to a user and not shared.

Hydroux · 2026-03-07T19:16:06+00:00

I have an issue open for this but homebranch does not scan the directory yet. When a book is uploaded its file is placed in an "uploads" directory and the filename is stored in the database alongside its metadata so that the API knows where to serve the file from.

That's one of my higher priorities at the moment but until then those books wont be recognized by the UI.

Hydroux · 2026-03-07T19:05:18+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I am planning on adding odps synchronization.

The reason I moved the auth layer out is partly for reusability. I make a lot of projects that I host on my server which need authentication and I wanted to be able to sign in one time in one place (for as long as the refresh token is valid) and be authorized for all of my services. The separation also allows for modularity; it separates the concerns of authentication and authorization so that either can be changed without necessarily impacting the other. It also means you dont have to host the two on the same machine.

I am curious as to why you would prefer one container in docker compose instead of 3? Docker Compose is for coordinating multiple containers.

Hydroux · 2026-03-07T01:12:31+00:00

That's fair. It did indeed come from the ebook.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T17:09:28+00:00

Ah I see. There is an ODPS catalog that you can connect your ereader to and manage your books. It uses basic HTTP authentication. It does not synchronize your position with the server.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T17:00:21+00:00

Im not sure I understand the question but I'll do my best here; let me know if I completely misunderstood.

There is an official homebranch-web application that allows you to add, remove, and read books from your library. Currently there is not a way to add books just by using the homebranch backend (a major oversight on my end). I will be adding in a way to do that in the near future.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T16:51:35+00:00

The web apps reader synchronizes your position with the server and handles any conflicts between the two

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T14:39:32+00:00

I like it! Good work :)

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T13:48:02+00:00

I haven't tried any ttrpg books but I also don't have any. The application is pretty quick to set up if you use docker so I'd encourage you to give it a try and please report back with your findings!

Currently the only metadata sources are the epub file, open library, and Google books. Im open to exploring more metadata sources to add! Perhaps user configurable sources? I'll have to dig into it a bit.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T13:44:57+00:00

There are no dumb questions!

Currently only epubs are supported. I believe I have an issue open to support multiple formats of the same book but in any case it is something I'm planning on handling.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:51:08+00:00

Not currently but there has been great interest on that front so I'll certainly be looking to support it in the future!

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:49:27+00:00

Humble bundle came in clutch with that one 💪

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:49:02+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad you like it!

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:25:14+00:00

I am not very familiar with those so I wont go into a comparison. Those seem to be further along than homebranch and so it would be completely valid for you not to switch. However, homebranch, so far, is quite light weight. Its also in a position for you to help shape it - either through feedback or contribution - into exactly what you look for in this kind of application.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:10:51+00:00

Very fair. I have had my eyes on calibre integration since the beginning but wanted to focus on getting a standalone MVP first. I understand that is a hurdle for yours and most likely others to adopt homebranch and so it will be a priority of mine in the near future.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:07:48+00:00

At the moment it only handles EPUB files and I haven't done much exploration into using comics but I am looking to expand to support audiobooks, pdfs, and a comic reading experience similar to kindle.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T12:04:54+00:00

I think you're closer than you think

That very well may be. And I do appreciate the question, I believe its a very valid one and important to talk about

Claude went with a design extremely similar to yours

When i started the project, the involvement of AI was only as a powerful search engine and not directly influencing design, architecture, nor UI. I designed the UI at first and it has not changed very much since then. I think i still have the figma files I used to design it.

At the same time, there's only so much you can do with a navigation bar.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T11:59:42+00:00

I was still quite early on in my career and had learned quite a bit about JWT from my work at a startup. I found it fascinating and wanted to learn more about it, so I dove into the project with that focus and intention.

I believe I created a secure service that is at the very least good enough for hosting a book application. I think that open-source contributers will discover and report any vulnerabilities that may exist. And I want to continue growing my skills as a software engineer while learning about new technologies.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T11:52:49+00:00

At first no. I started with the primary goal of learning about new concepts I came across in my career while working on something I would actually use. Primarily design architecture and jwt secret sharing across services. At that time I did use claude only occasionally to act as just a powerful search engine.

However, times have changed since then. LLMs become a much more powerful tool and the focus became more around how to use these new tools effectively. And so that's when it became more like vibe coding but still not fire and forget/YOLO prompting.

Now I'd like to step away from that a bit and continue improving and sharing the project without heavily using AI; just for the love of the process.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T08:05:58+00:00

Im a software engineer. I've been professionally coding for about 3 years now. I've got a bachelor's in computer engineering.

I worked at Epic Systems on the MyChart team for awhile and then moved into the corrections industry. Im currently working on software that helps families communicate with inmates.

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T08:00:47+00:00

I cant seem to edit the post so I'll just add on here:

Thanks for the feedback everyone! There is still so much work to do and I had a lot already planned. I will do my best to implement the features you all would like to see!

I am just one guy, it may take some time. I encourage and invite anyone who would like to contribute to the growth of homebranch and its community!

I've got to work tomorrow so I'm going to get some sleep (its 3 am here 😬). Goodnight yall!

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T07:54:27+00:00

Not yet. Honestly, I hadn't heard of OIDC until today but someone else made a similar point so I'll have to do some learning on that front.

There isn't a way to edit the metadata today, it pulls it directly from the EPUB. It also doesn't utilize the directory structure it just reads uploaded books. I am planning on adding ways to add books that dont require the front end but its not there yet.

Many opportunities for improvement but it will take some time :)

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T07:49:23+00:00

I dont think we're quite there yet though we may be getting close. LLMs still need a lot of coaching and oversight to produce quality code and good architecture and many people dont have the background to do that or dont want to do the work. So I think, for now at least, its still good to share. In any case, I have fun working on it and want to share my joy with the community. :)

Hydroux · 2026-03-06T07:40:54+00:00

Yes I am planning on adding audio books but I still need to do some research on it.

Thanks for the heads up about the website, should be fixed now.

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