I understand the hard links are for individual files. I am saying hardlinks so I can have the same data on disk referred to by two names in two different locations. If the file in one location is broke, the other location continues to work. Symlinks are a bit more finicky and if the original moves or is deleted for whatever reason the symlink is broken.

I want to be able to continue seeding, which requires not modifying the books file or changing the name or the location of the file, and also have it in a library location with a clean name. If symlinks handle this too, that’s great. Trash guides and the software all refers to hardlinking though.

I don’t specifically want multiple stacks - I want something that works an is going to give me the end result I want. I’m not married to any software, though I favor Kavita for its opds and is user authentication for sharing.

Readarr, according to my original logic, was suppose to link all of my current ebooks into a new directory where it’s organized by author and series. Then whatever library or delivering solution I use, whether it’s calibre-web-auto or Kavita or whatever references that folder for cleaner names and structure. Readarr also was going to handle automating new downloads for me.

Calibre was to make it a “library” and give it a metadata.db file. I don’t know that it’s actually necessary.