# Codex A comic archive browser and reader. > **Note:** The Docker image has moved to > [ghcr.io/ajslater/codex](https://github.com/ajslater/codex/pkgs/container/codex). > A final `docker.io` image was published on Docker Hub. ## ✨ Features ### πŸ“š Library - Reads **CBZ, CBR, CB7, CBT and PDF** comics. - **Fastest bulk importer** of any comic server. - **Watches the filesystem** and auto-imports new or changed comics. - **Custom covers** for Folders, Publishers, Imprints, Series, and Story Arcs. ### πŸ”Ž Browse & Search - Browse a tree of **Publishers, Imprints, Series, Volumes**, your **folder hierarchy**, or by tagged **Story Arc**. - **Full-text search** across comic metadata and bookmarks. - **Filter and sort** on any metadata field, including per-user unread status. - A **multi-sortable metadata table** view for power browsing. - **Save and load** named views and searches. - **Favorites** at the Publisher, Series, Volume, Folder, Story Arc, or Issue level β€” filterable per user. ### 🏷️ Edit & Tag - **Edit tags** on one or many comics right in the browser β€” credits, story arcs, identifiers, and more β€” written back to your comic files. Requires the comics directory mounted **writable** with filesystem write permission. - **Online tagging** looks up and applies metadata from online sources, with interactive match prompts and per-source credentials in the Admin Tagging tab. ### πŸ“– Read - Adapts to any screen with multiple **aspect ratios and reading directions**. - **Per-user bookmarks and reading settings**, preserved even without an account. ### πŸ‘₯ Users & Access - **Anonymous browsing** or registration-required mode β€” your choice. - **Private libraries** restricted to specific groups of users. - Optional **age restrictions** for age-tagged comics. - Optional **self-service password reset** by email (requires SMTP config). ### πŸ”Œ Integrations - **OPDS 1 & 2** syndication with streaming, search, and authentication. - **Remote-User HTTP header SSO** for reverse-proxy single sign-on. - **Fail2Ban** log for IP-banning failed login attempts. ### πŸͺΆ Operations - Runs in **1 GB of RAM** (faster with more). - **GPLv3** licensed. ### Examples - _Filter by_ Story Arc and Unread, _Order by_ Publish Date to create an event reading list. - _Filter by_ Unread and _Order by_ Added Time to see your latest unread comics. - _Search by_ your favorite character to find their appearances across different comics. ## πŸ‘€ Demonstration You may browse a [live demo server](https://demo.codex-reader.app/) to get a feel for Codex. ## πŸ“œ News Codex has a [NEWS file](NEWS.md) to summarize changes that affect users. ## πŸ•ΈοΈ HTML Docs [HTML formatted docs are available here](https://codex-comic-reader.readthedocs.io) ## πŸ“¦ Installation ### Install & Run with Docker Run the official [Docker Image](https://github.com/ajslater/codex/pkgs/container/codex) at ghcr.io/ajslater/codex. Read the [Docker instructions](docs/DOCKER.md) You'll then want to read the [Administration](#administration) section of this document. ### Install & Run on HomeAssistant server If you have a [HomeAssistant](https://www.home-assistant.io/) server, Codex can be installed with the following steps : - Add the `https://github.com/alexbelgium/hassio-addons` repository by [clicking here](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/supervisor_add_addon_repository/?repository_url=https%3A%2F%2Fgithub.com%2Falexbelgium%2Fhassio-addons) - Install the addon : [click here to automatically open the addon store, then install the addon](https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/supervisor) - Customize addon options, then then start the add-on. ### Install & Run as a Native Application You can also run Codex as a natively installed python application with pip. #### Binary Dependencies You'll need to install the appropriate system dependencies for your platform before installing Codex. ##### Linux Dependencies ###### Debian Dependencies ...and Ubuntu, Mint, MX, Window Subsystem for Linux, and others. ```sh apt install build-essential libimagequant0 libjpeg-turbo8 libopenjp2-7 libssl3 libyaml-0-2 libtiff6 libwebp7 python3-dev python3-pip sqlite3 unrar zlib1g ``` Versions of packages like libjpeg, libssl, libtiff may differ between flavors and versions of your distribution. If the package versions listed in the example above are not available, try searching for ones that are with `apt-cache` or `aptitude`. ```sh apt-cache search libjpeg-turbo ``` ###### Alpine Dependencies ```sh apk add bsd-compat-headers build-base jpeg-dev libffi-dev libwebp openssl-dev sqlite yaml-dev zlib-dev ``` ##### Install unrar Runtime Dependency on non-debian Linux Codex requires unrar to read CBR formatted comic archives. Unrar is often not packaged for Linux, but here are some instructions: [How to install unrar in Linux](https://www.unixtutorial.org/how-to-install-unrar-in-linux/) Unrar as packaged for Alpine Linux v3.14 seems to work on Alpine v3.15+ ##### macOS Dependencies Using [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/): ```sh brew install jpeg libffi libyaml libzip openssl python sqlite unrar webp ``` #### Windows Installation Windows users are encouraged to use Docker to run Codex, but it will also run natively on the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Installation instructions are in the [Native Windows Dependencies Installation Document](docs/WINDOWS/). #### Run Codex Natively Once you have installed codex, the codex binary should be on your path. To start codex, run: ```sh codex ``` ### Use Codex Once installed and running you may navigate to ## πŸ‘‘ Administration ### Navigate to the Admin Panel - Click the hamburger menu ☰ to open the browser settings drawer. - Log in as the 'admin' user. The default administrator password is also 'admin'. - Navigate to the Admin Panel by clicking on its link in the browser settings drawer after you have logged in. ### Change the Admin password The first thing you should do is log in as the admin user and change the admin password. - Navigate to the Admin Panel as described above. - Select the Users tab. - Change the admin user's password using the small lock button. - You may also change the admin user's name with the edit button. - You may create other users and grant them admin privileges by making them staff. ### Add Comic Libraries The second thing you will want to do is log in as an Administrator and add one or more comic libraries. - Navigate to the Admin Panel as described above. - Select the Libraries tab in the Admin Panel - Add a Library with the "+ LIBRARY" button in the upper left. ### Reset the admin password If you forget all your superuser passwords, you may restore the original default admin account by running codex with the `CODEX_RESET_ADMIN` environment variable set. ```sh CODEX_RESET_ADMIN=1 codex ``` or, if using Docker: ```sh docker run -e CODEX_RESET_ADMIN=1 -v host-parent-dir/config:/config ghcr.io/ajslater/codex ``` ### πŸ’Ύ Backup & Restore User Data Codex's main SQLite database (`codex.sqlite3`) holds two very different kinds of data: comic metadata, which can always be rebuilt by re-scanning your library, and _user_ data β€” accounts, bookmarks, favorites, browser settings, library definitions, admin flags β€” which cannot. To make the second kind survive a database loss or rebuild, Codex snapshots every user-bound row into a separate SQLite file: the **user data sidecar**. #### Where it lives ```text /user_data.sqlite ``` β€” right next to `codex.toml`. #### What it contains Users (with hashed passwords), groups & permissions, group memberships, libraries and their access lists, bookmarks, favorites, per-user browser settings, admin flags, timestamps, and online-tagging defaults. It deliberately does **not** mirror anything derivable from a filesystem re-scan: comics, publishers, series, volumes, folders, story arcs, tags, credits, the full-text search index. Those rebuild themselves when the librarian re-imports your library. #### Taking a snapshot The sidecar is **not** continuously updated. A snapshot is taken: - automatically every night, as part of the existing Janitor sweep (right after the database backup); and - on demand, whenever you click **Snapshot Now** on the Admin Panel's **Restore** tab, or run `Snapshot User Data Sidecar` from the Jobs tab. Each snapshot **replaces** the previous contents β€” the file is always a true point-in-time mirror of the main DB, never a partial log. #### Backing it up offsite Copy `user_data.sqlite` somewhere safe. The file is a single self-contained SQLite database; no companion files are required to restore from it (the `-wal`/`-shm` siblings, if present, can be left behind). You can copy it while Codex is running, but for the cleanest backup, take a fresh snapshot first (Restore tab β†’ Snapshot Now) and then copy the file. #### Restoring Two equivalent paths: **From the Admin Panel:** open the **Restore** tab and click _Restore Now_. A dry-run option reports what _would_ happen without writing. **From the command line:** ```sh codex restore_user_data # default sidecar in CODEX_CONFIG_DIR codex restore_user_data --dry-run # report only codex restore_user_data --from /path/to/another/user_data.sqlite ``` Both paths are idempotent: re-running a restore on top of an already-restored database is safe. Rows whose targets can't be resolved (a deleted comic, a renamed tag) are logged to `restore_user_data.log` in your config directory and skipped β€” the operation never aborts. #### Migrating to a new host 1. On the old host, take a fresh snapshot (Restore tab β†’ Snapshot Now). 2. Stop the old Codex. 3. Copy `user_data.sqlite` to the new host's config directory. 4. Start Codex on the new host with your comics mounted at the same library paths. 5. Let the librarian finish its initial filesystem scan, then run `codex restore_user_data` (or click _Restore Now_ in the admin panel). Bookmarks reattach by comic path, favorites by collection name-chain (e.g. publisher β†’ imprint β†’ series), and tag filters by tag name. As long as your library paths and tag names match, everything reattaches. ### Private Libraries In the Admin Panel you may configure private libraries that are only accessible to specific groups. A library with _no_ groups is accessible to every user including anonymous users. A library with _any_ groups is accessible only to users who are in those groups. Use the Groups admin panel to create groups and the Users admin panel to add and remove users to groups. #### Include and Exclude Groups Codex can make groups for libraries that exclude groups of users or exclude everyone and include only certain groups of users. ### PDF Metadata Codex reads PDF metadata from the filename, PDF metadata fields and also many formats of common complex comic metadata if they are embedded in the PDF `keywords` field. If you decide to include PDFs in your comic library, I recommend taking time to rename your files so Codex can find some metadata. Codex recognizes several file naming schemes. This one has good results: `{series} v{volume} #{issue} {title} ({year}) {ignored}.pdf` Complex comic metadata, such as ComicInfo.xml, can be also be embedded in the keywords field by using the [comicbox](https://github.com/ajslater/comicbox) command line tool. Codex will read this data because it relies on comicbox internally. Not many people use comicbox or embedded metadata in PDFs in this fashion, so you likely won't find it unless you've added it yourself. ### πŸ—οΈ API with Key Access Codex has a limited number of API endpoints available with API Key Access. The API Key is available on the admin/stats tab. ### πŸ“§ Email & Password Reset By default Codex has no outbound email and the "Forgot password?" link is hidden. To enable self-service password reset, configure SMTP in the Admin Panel's **Email** tab β€” editable without a restart. You must set at least a host and either a from-address or user; until then the feature stays off and the reset endpoints return 404. The `[email]` section in `codex.toml` (and the `CODEX_EMAIL_*` environment variables) is **deprecated**: those values are imported once on upgrade and otherwise only seed the initial Admin settings. See the [Full `codex.toml` Reference](#full-codextoml-reference) below. Provider-specific notes: - **Gmail**: requires a 16-character App Password (regular passwords are rejected by Google's SMTP). Account β†’ Security β†’ App Passwords. Use `port = 587`, `use_tls = true`, and set `from_address` to the same address as `user`. - **Amazon SES**: `from_address` MUST be a verified SES identity (the domain or address). Use the SMTP credentials from the SES console, not IAM keys directly. - **Mailgun / SendGrid / generic SMTP relays**: usually accept `user` as the authenticated sender; `from_address` defaults to that when blank. If `register_verification` is enabled (Admin β†’ Flags β†’ "Verify New User Email"), new sign-ups receive an activation email and stay inactive until they click the link. Has no effect until email (SMTP) is configured. Existing users created before this feature won't have an email on file and can't request a reset; admins can backfill addresses on the Users admin tab, or users can set their own via Profile (the user menu). ## πŸŽ›οΈ Configuration ### Config Dir The default config directory is `config/` directly under the working directory you run codex from. You may specify an alternate config directory with the environment variable `CODEX_CONFIG_DIR`. The config directory contains a file named `codex.toml` where you can specify ports and bind addresses. If no `codex.toml` is present Codex copies a default one to that directory on startup. e.g. ```toml [server] host = "0.0.0.0" port = 9810 url_path_prefix = "" ``` The config directory also holds the main sqlite database, the `user_data.sqlite` sidecar (see [Backup & Restore User Data](#-backup--restore-user-data)), a Django cache, and comic book cover thumbnails. ### Full `codex.toml` Reference All available options with their defaults. Uncomment to override. Codex writes this file to the config directory on first startup if one is not already present. > **Deprecated since v2.0.0:** the `[browser]`, `[throttle]`, and `[email]` > sections (and their matching `CODEX_*` environment variables) are now managed > in the Admin Panel β€” browser page size and rate limits on the **Settings** > tab, SMTP on the **Email** tab β€” and are editable without a restart. Values > here are imported once on upgrade and otherwise only seed the initial Admin > settings. The `[server]`, `[logging]`, `[cache]`, and `[auth]` sections are > still configured here. ```toml # Codex Configuration File # Copy to config/codex.toml and edit as needed. # Environment variables override values in this file. # See README.md for full documentation. # [server] # Granian ASGI server settings # host = "0.0.0.0" # port = 9810 # Number of worker processes. 1 is recommended for containerized environments. # workers = 1 # HTTP version: "auto", "1", or "2" # http = "auto" # Enable websockets (required for Codex live updates) # websockets = true # HTTP path prefix for codex (e.g. "/codex" for reverse proxy sub-path) # url_path_prefix = "" # [logging] # Log level: TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, SUCCESS, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL # loglevel = "INFO" # log_retention = "6 months" # log_to_console = true # log_to_file = true # Directory for log files. Defaults to /logs. # log_dir = "" # [cache] # Directory for the file-based cache (covers, query results, etc). # Defaults to /cache. # dir = "" # [browser] # Deprecated: now set on the Admin Settings tab (seeds the initial default). # max_obj_per_page = 100 # [throttle] # Deprecated: now set on the Admin Settings tab (seeds initial defaults). # Rate limiting (requests per minute). 0 = disabled. # anon = 0 # user = 0 # opds = 0 # opensearch = 0 # Password reset requests per hour, per IP. Defaults to 5. # reset_password = 5 # [email] # Deprecated: now set on the Admin Email tab (seeds initial defaults). # SMTP configuration for outbound email. When unset, password-reset and # email-verification features stay disabled and the related endpoints # respond 404. Set `host` AND `from_address` (or `user`) to enable. # # IMPORTANT: codex.toml stores credentials in plain text. Restrict file # permissions (chmod 600) and consider environment variable overrides # (CODEX_EMAIL_PASSWORD) for secrets management systems. # # host = "" # port = 587 # user = "" # password = "" # use_tls = true # use_ssl = false # timeout = 10 # Sender address. If blank, `user` is used as the From address. Many # providers accept the auth user as sender; SES and similar require an # explicit verified identity here. # from_address = "" # subject_prefix = "[Codex] " # [auth] # Allows authentication without authorization via the Remote-User header. # Only enable if you have authorization in front of Codex. Dangerous. # remote_user = false # Log failed login attempts to a separate file. Useful as input for # banning tools like fail2ban, CrowdSec, or sshguard. # Line format: " | Failed login from user=" # Example fail2ban failregex: # ^\s*\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2} \| Failed login from user=.*$ # failed_login_log = false # Path to the failed-login log. Defaults to /failed_logins.log. # failed_login_log_path = "" # When behind a reverse proxy, trust X-Forwarded-For for the client IP. # Disable if Codex is exposed directly (otherwise clients can forge their IP). # failed_login_log_trust_forwarded_for = true ``` ### Environment Variables Environment variables override values set in the TOML config file. #### General - `TIMEZONE` or `TZ` will explicitly set the timezone in long format (e.g. `"America/Los Angeles"`). This is useful inside Docker because codex cannot automatically detect the host machine's timezone. - `DEBUG_TRANSFORM` will show verbose information about how the comicbox library reads all archive metadata sources and transforms it into a the comicbox schema. - `CODEX_CONFIG_DIR` will set the path to codex config directory. Defaults to `$CWD/config` ##### Server - `GRANIAN_HOST` the IP or hostname to serve Codex from. Defaults to "0.0.0.0", all interfaces. - `GRANIAN_PORT` the port to serve Codex from. Defaults to 9810. - `GRANIAN_WORKERS` Number of worker processes. 1 recommended for containerized environments. - `GRANIAN_HTTP` HTTP protocol to use. "auto", "1" or "2". Defaults to "auto". Generally you want to serve codex from behind nginx or traefik which will handle the protocol, even HTTP 3, so this should stay on "auto". - `GRANIAN_WEBSOCKETS` Enable websockets. Required for codex live updates. Default true. - `GRANIAN_URL_PATH_PREFIX` HTTP path prefix for codex (e.g. "/codex" for reverse proxy sub-path). Defaults to "". ##### Repair - `CODEX_RESET_ADMIN=1` will reset the admin user and its password to defaults when codex starts. - `CODEX_FIX_FOREIGN_KEYS=1` will check for and try to repair illegal foreign keys on startup. - `CODEX_INTEGRITY_CHECK=1` will perform database integrity check on startup. - `CODEX_FTS_INTEGRITY_CHECK=1` will perform an integrity check on the full text search index. - `CODEX_FTS_REBUILD=1` will rebuild the full text search index. #### Logging - `LOGLEVEL` will change how verbose codex's logging is. Valid values are `CRITICAL`, `ERROR`, `WARNING`, `SUCCESS`, `INFO`, `DEBUG`, and the overly noisy `TRACE`. The default is `INFO`. - `CODEX_LOG_DIR` sets a custom directory for saving logfiles. Defaults to `$CODEX_CONFIG_DIR/logs` - `CODEX_LOG_RETENTION` how long to keep logs. Defaults to "6 months". - `CODEX_LOG_TO_FILE=0` will not log to files. - `CODEX_LOG_TO_CONSOLE=0` will not log to the console. #### Cache - `CODEX_CACHE_DIR` sets a custom directory for the file-based cache (Django cache entries and comic book cover thumbnails). Defaults to `$CODEX_CONFIG_DIR/cache`. Useful for placing the cache on a separate (e.g. faster or ephemeral) volume from the rest of the config directory. ##### Browser > **Deprecated:** set Browser Page Size on the Admin **Settings** tab instead; > this only seeds the initial default. - `CODEX_BROWSER_MAX_OBJ_PER_PAGE` the maximum number of objects per page. Defaults to 100. #### Throttling > **Deprecated:** set rate limits on the Admin **Settings** tab instead; these > variables only seed the initial defaults. Codex contains some experimental throttling controls. The value supplied to these variables will be interpreted as the maximum number of allowed requests per minute. For example, the following settings would limit each described group to 2 queries per second. - `CODEX_THROTTLE_ANON=30` Anonymous users - `CODEX_THROTTLE_USER=30` Authenticated users - `CODEX_THROTTLE_OPDS=30` The OPDS v1 & v2 APIs (Panels uses this for search) - `CODEX_THROTTLE_OPENSEARCH=30` The OPDS v1 Opensearch API #### Authentication - `CODEX_AUTH_REMOTE_USER` will allow unauthenticated logins with the Remote-User HTTP header. This can be very insecure if not configured properly. Please read the Remote-User docs devoted to it below. - `CODEX_AUTH_FAILED_LOGIN_LOG=1` will append every failed login attempt (form login and OPDS Basic auth) to a separate log file for consumption by banning tools like fail2ban, CrowdSec, or sshguard. Disabled by default. See the [Failed-Login Log](#failed-login-log) section below. - `CODEX_AUTH_FAILED_LOGIN_LOG_PATH` overrides the failed-login log path. Defaults to `$CODEX_LOG_DIR/failed_logins.log`. - `CODEX_AUTH_FAILED_LOGIN_LOG_TRUST_FORWARDED_FOR=0` makes the failed-login log use `REMOTE_ADDR` instead of the leftmost `X-Forwarded-For` entry. Default is `1` (trust XFF), which is correct when Codex sits behind a reverse proxy. Set to `0` when Codex is exposed directly so that clients can't forge `X-Forwarded-For` to poison the log. ### Reverse Proxy [nginx](https://nginx.org/) is often used as a TLS terminator and subpath proxy. Here's an example nginx config with a subpath named '/codex'. ```nginx # HTTP proxy_set_header Host $http_host; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Host $server_name; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Port $server_port; proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme; proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr; proxy_set_header X-Scheme $scheme; # Websockets proxy_http_version 1.1; proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade; proxy_set_header Connection "Upgrade" location /codex { proxy_pass http://codex:9810; # Codex reads http basic authentication. # If the nginx credentials are different than codex credentials use this line to # not forward the authorization. proxy_set_header Authorization ""; } ``` Specify a reverse proxy sub path (if you have one) in `config/codex.toml` ```toml [server] url_path_prefix = "/codex" ``` #### Nginx Reverse Proxy 502 when container refreshes Nginx requires a special trick to refresh dns when linked Docker containers recreate. See this [nginx with dynamix upstreams](https://tenzer.dk/nginx-with-dynamic-upstreams/) article. #### Single Sign On and Third Party Authentication ##### OAuth & OIDC Codex is not an OIDC client at this time. However the following Remote-User and Token Authentication methods may assist other services in providing Single Sign On. ##### Remote-User Authentication Remote-User authentication tells Codex to accept a username from the webserver and assume that authentication has already been done. This is very insecure if you haven't configured an authenticating reverse proxy in front of Codex. Here's a snipped for configuring nginx with tinyauth to provide this header. This snipped it incomplete and assumes that the rest of nginx tinyauth config has been done: ```nginx auth_request_set $tinyauth_remote_user $upstream_http_remote_user; proxy_set_header Remote-User $tiny_auth_user; ``` ⚠️ Only turn on the `CODEX_AUTH_REMOTE_USER` environment variable if your webserver sets the `Remote-User` header itself every time for the Codex location, overriding any malicious client that might set it themselves. ⚠️ ##### HTTP Token Authentication You can also configure your proxy to add token authentication to the headers. Codex will read β€œBearer” prefixed authorization tokens. The token is unique for each user and may be found in the User Profile accessible from the sidebar. You must configure your proxy or single sign on software to send this token. ```nginx set user_token 'user-token-taken-from-web-ui'; proxy_set_header Authorization "Bearer $user_token"; ``` ### Failed-Login Log Codex can append every failed login attempt to a dedicated log file in a format easy for IP-banning tools (fail2ban, CrowdSec, sshguard, etc.) to parse. The feature is off by default. Enable it by setting `CODEX_AUTH_FAILED_LOGIN_LOG=1` or in `codex.toml`: ```toml [auth] failed_login_log = true # failed_login_log_path = "" # defaults to /failed_logins.log # failed_login_log_trust_forwarded_for = true # set false if exposed directly ``` A single signal receiver covers both the form login at `/api/v4/auth/login` and OPDS HTTP Basic auth β€” no separate setup per endpoint. The IP-bearing line is written **only** to `failed_logins.log`; the main `codex.log` still records Django's standard `"Unauthorized: /api/v4/auth/login"` (or `"Forbidden: ..."`) WARNING for the same request, so the failure is visible in the main log without the client IP. This keeps PII (IP + username) concentrated in one file that you can chmod, forward to a SIEM, or retain on its own schedule. Each line looks like: ```log 2026-05-10 12:34:56 | Failed login from 192.168.1.42 user=alice ``` #### X-Forwarded-For trust The client IP is taken from the leftmost `X-Forwarded-For` entry when `failed_login_log_trust_forwarded_for = true` (the default), falling back to `REMOTE_ADDR`. This is correct when Codex sits behind a reverse proxy that sets the header (the typical Docker deployment). If Codex is exposed directly on its port, set `failed_login_log_trust_forwarded_for = false` β€” otherwise a client can set their own `X-Forwarded-For: 8.8.8.8` and your banning tool will ban that address instead of the real attacker. #### Example fail2ban filter `/etc/fail2ban/filter.d/codex.conf`: ```ini [Definition] failregex = ^\s*\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2} \d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2} \| Failed login from user=.*$ ignoreregex = ``` `/etc/fail2ban/jail.d/codex.conf`: ```ini [codex] enabled = true filter = codex logpath = /path/to/codex/config/logs/failed_logins.log maxretry = 5 findtime = 10m bantime = 1h ``` Validate the filter against a real log with `fail2ban-regex` before enabling the jail: ```sh fail2ban-regex /path/to/codex/config/logs/failed_logins.log /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/codex.conf ``` ### Restricted Memory Environments Codex can run with as little as 1GB available RAM. Large batch jobs –like importing and indexing tens of thousands of comics at once– will run faster the more memory is available to Codex. The biggest gains in speed happen when you increase memory up to about 6GB. Codex batch jobs do get faster the more memory it has above 6GB, but with diminishing returns. If you must run Codex in an admin restricted memory environment you might want to temporarily give Codex a lot of memory to run a very large import job and then restrict it for normal operation. ## πŸ“– Use ### πŸ‘€ Sessions & Accounts Once your administrator has added some comic libraries, you may browse and read comics. Codex will remember your preferences, bookmarks and progress in the browser session. Codex destroys anonymous sessions and bookmarks after 60 days. To preserve these settings across browsers and after sessions expire, you may register an account with a username and password. You will have to contact your administrator to reset your password if you forget it. ### α―€ OPDS Codex supports OPDS syndication and OPDS streaming. You may find the OPDS url in the side drawer. It should take the form: `http(s)://host.tld(:9810)(/path_prefix)/opds/v1.2/` or `http(s)://host.tld(:9810)(/path_prefix)/opds/v2.0/` #### OPDS v1 Clients - iOS - [Panels](https://panels.app/) - [PocketBooks](https://pocketbook.ch/) - [KYBook 3](http://kybook-reader.com/) - [Chunky Comic Reader](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/chunky-comic-reader/id663567628) - Android - [Moon+](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreader) - [Librera](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.foobnix.pdf.reader) Kybook 3 does not seem to support http basic authentication, so Codex users are not supported. #### OPDS v2 Clients - iOS & macOS - [Stump](https://www.stumpapp.dev/guides/mobile/app) - Technically an Alpha, but stable and featureful. - Multi Platform Mobile & Desktop - [Readest](https://readest.com/) - Desktop - [ComicCatcher](https://github.com/comiccatcher/comiccatcher) #### OPDS Authentication ##### OPDS Login The few clients that implement the OPDS 1.0 Authentication spec present the user with a login screen for interactive authentication. ##### HTTP Basic Some OPDS clients allow configuring HTTP Basic authentication in their OPDS server settings. If the don't, you will have to add your username and password to the URL. In that case the OPDS url will look like: `http(s)://username:password@codex-server.tld(:9810)(/path_prefix)/opds/v1.2/` ##### HTTP Token Some clients allow adding a unique login token to the HTTP headers. Codex will read "Bearer" prefixed authorization tokens. The token is unique for each user and may be found in the Web UI sidebar. #### Supported OPDS Specifications ##### OPDS v1 - [OPDS 1.2](https://specs.opds.io/opds-1.2.html) - [OPDS-PSE 1.2](https://github.com/anansi-project/opds-pse/blob/master/v1.2.md) - [OPDS Authentication 1.0 (draft)](https://drafts.opds.io/authentication-for-opds-1.0.html) ##### OPDS v2 - [OPDS Catalog 2.0](https://specs.opds.io/opds-2.0.html) - [OPDS 2.0 Digital Visual Narratives Profile (DiViNa)](https://github.com/readium/webpub-manifest/blob/master/profiles/divina.md) - [OPDS Authentication 1.0 (draft)](https://drafts.opds.io/authentication-for-opds-1.0.html) - [OPDS Progression 1.0 (draft)](https://drafts.opds.io/opds-progression-1.0.html) - [OPDS 2.0 Authentication (proposal)](https://github.com/opds-community/drafts/discussions/43) ##### OpenSearch v1 - [OpenSearch 1.1 (draft)](https://github.com/dewitt/opensearch) ## [🩺 Troubleshooting](#troubleshooting) ### πŸ“’ Logs Codex collects its logs in the `config/logs` directory. Take a look to see what th e server is doing. You can change how much codex logs by setting the `LOGLEVEL` environment variable. By default this level is `INFO`. To see more verbose messages, run codex like: ```sh LOGLEVEL=DEBUG codex ``` ### Watching Filesystem Events with Docker Codex tries to watch for filesystem events to instantly update your comic libraries when they change on disk. But these native filesystem events are not translated between macOS & Windows Docker hosts and the Docker Linux container. If you find that your installation is not updating to filesystem changes instantly, you might try enabling polling for the affected libraries and decreasing the `poll_every` value in the Admin console to a frequency that suits you. ### Emergency Database Repair If the database becomes corrupt, Codex includes a facility to rebuild the database. Place a file named `rebuild_db` in your Codex config directory like so: ```sh touch config/rebuild_db ``` Shut down and restart Codex. The next time Codex starts it will back up the existing database and try to rebuild it. The database lives in the config directory as the file `config/codex.sqlite3`. If this procedure goes kablooey, you may recover the original database at `config/backups/codex.sqlite3.before-rebuild.bak`. Codex will remove the `rebuild_db` file. ### Warnings to Ignore #### StreamingHttpResponse Iterator Warning ```pycon packages/django/http/response.py:517: Warning: StreamingHttpResponse must consume synchronous iterators in order to serve them asynchronously. Use an asynchronous iterator instead. ``` This is a known warning and does not represent anything bad happening. It's an artifact of the Django framework slowly supporting asynchronous server endpoints and unfortunately isn't practical to remove yet. ## πŸ“šAlternatives to Codex - [Kavita](https://www.kavitareader.com/) has light metadata filtering/editing, supports comics, eBooks, and features for manga. - [Komga](https://komga.org/) has light metadata editing and duplicate page elimination. - [Ubooquity](https://vaemendis.net/ubooquity/) reads both comics and eBooks. ## πŸ”§ Popular comic utilities - [Mylar](https://mylar.nerdfirehurricane.com/) is the best comic book manager which also has a built in reader. - [Comicbox](https://comicbox.readthedocs.io/) is a powerful command line comic metadata editor, multi source online tagger, and multi metadata format synthesizer. It is what Codex uses under the hood to read comic metadata. - [Metron Tagger](https://github.com/Metron-Project/metron-tagger) is a command line comic metadata editor. It will tag identified comics from online database sources. - [Comictagger](https://github.com/comictagger/comictagger) is a comic metadata editor. It comes with a command line and desktop GUI. It will tag identified comics from online database sources. ## 🀝 Contributing ### πŸ› Bug Reports Issues and feature requests are best filed on the [Github issue tracker](https://github.com/ajslater/codex/issues). ## πŸ’¬ Support I and other Codex users answer questions on the [Codex Comic Server Discord](https://discord.gg/CU5kKxv7kg) ### πŸ›  Develop Codex's git repo is mirrored on [Github](https://github.com/ajslater/codex/) Codex is a Django Python webserver with a VueJS front end. `/codex/codex/` is the main django app which provides the webserver and database. `/codex/frontend/` is where the vuejs frontend lives. Most of Codex development is now controlled through the Makefile. Type `make` for a list of commands. ## πŸ”— Links - [Docker Image](https://github.com/ajslater/codex/pkgs/container/codex) - [PyPi Package](https://pypi.org/project/codex/) - [GitHub Project](https://github.com/ajslater/codex/) ## πŸ™πŸ» Thanks - Thanks to [AurΓ©lien Mazurie](https://pypi.org/user/ajmazurie/) for allowing me to use the PyPi name 'codex'. - To [ProfessionalTart](https://github.com/professionaltart) for providing native Windows installation instructions. - Thanks to the good people of [Mylar](https://mylar.nerdfirehurricane.com/) continuous feedback and comic ecosystem education. ## 😊 Enjoy ![These simple people have managed to tap into the spiritual forces that mystics and yogis spend literal lifetimes seeking. I feel... ...I feel...](docs/strange.jpg)