Polka

Your home e-book library — fast, private, and beautiful.

Polka (Russian for "bookshelf") is a self-hosted library for e-book collection. Point it at a folder of books — or import a huge .inpx catalog — and get a polished web interface with search, covers, annotations, an online reader, reading lists, ratings, recommendations, and an OPDS feed for every mobile reading app.

---

Highlights

• Built for big collections. A 690,000-book catalog imports in about a minute and stays instant to browse and search (SQLite + FTS5 under the hood).
• Read in your browser. A clean, newspaper-style reader for FB2, EPUB and TXT with continuous scrolling, themes (light / sepia / dark), adjustable fonts, footnotes, live tables of contents, and per-user reading progress. PDF opens in a dedicated reader with the same progress tracking.
• Find your next book. Personal shelves: Reading now, Want to read, Continue the series, and For you — recommendations scored from your ratings, lists, and reading history. Plus "similar books" on every book page, optionally enriched by external sources (FantLab, TasteDive).
• Search everything. Titles, authors, series, genres — and ISBN: paste an ISBN in any format and Polka finds the book locally or resolves it via Open Library / Google Books.
• Reading lists & ratings. Build custom lists, mark books you want to read, rate books 1–5 — average ratings are visible to everyone on your server. External ratings (LiveLib, Google Books, Open Library) can be enabled per source by the admin.
• OPDS catalog. Connect Moon+ Reader, KOReader, FBReader, or any other OPDS-capable app: new books, browse by author, series and genre, your "reading now" shelf, and search.
• Send to your e-reader. Configure SMTP once and e-mail any book straight to your Kindle / Kobo / PocketBook from its page (the SMTP password is stored encrypted).
• Multi-user. Accounts with admin/reader roles, per-user progress, lists and ratings. Or run it fully open on a trusted home network.
• Add books from the browser. Upload fb2 / epub / pdf / djvu / txt / mobi; metadata is extracted automatically and three-level duplicate detection (file hash → text hash → fuzzy metadata) keeps your collection clean.
• Two languages. English and Russian UI, switchable in one click; genre names and the OPDS feed are localized too.
• Mobile-friendly + PWA. Add Polka to your phone's home screen and it behaves like an app.
• Desktop apps that don't need a server. Native-feel clients for Windows and Linux work fully standalone: your library, reader, lists and ratings live right on your machine — no server, no account, no internet required. Optionally connect them to your Polka server later and get two-way sync of progress, ratings, and lists, including offline copies of selected books.

Quick start

Docker (recommended for servers)

docker run -d --name polka \
  -p 12791:12791 \
  -v polka-data:/data \
  -v /path/to/your/books:/books \
  ghcr.io/vestigiumincaligne/polka:latest

Open http://localhost:12791, sign in with the bootstrap admin account (created on first run — see the container log: docker logs polka), and start exploring. Or use docker-compose.yml:

docker compose up -d

Desktop app — no server required

If you just want a personal library on one computer, skip the server entirely: install the desktop app from the releases page (polka-setup-<version>.exe on Windows, .deb/.rpm on Linux) and launch Polka. It opens in its own window, stores everything locally, and works offline. You can connect it to a server later at any time — nothing to reconfigure.

Prebuilt binaries and installers

Grab the latest release:

Platform	What you get
Windows	polka-setup-<version>.exe — installer for the desktop app (server included)
Linux	.deb / .rpm packages (amd64, arm64), plus standalone binaries
Raspberry Pi	64-bit OS → polka-linux-arm64 (or the arm64 .deb / Docker); 32-bit OS → polka-linux-arm
Any	polka server binary — single file, no dependencies

Run the server directly:

polka serve --library-dir /path/to/books

Build from source

Requires Go 1.26+ and Node 20+.

git clone https://github.com/vestigiumincaligne/polka
cd polka
make build        # builds web UI + bin/polka + bin/polka-desktop
./bin/polka serve --library-dir /path/to/books

Importing a large catalog

Polka understands .inpx index files (MyHomeLib / Flibusta format) — both from the command line and from the web UI (Manage → Import):

polka import --inpx collection.inpx --data-dir /path/to/data --library-dir /path/to/archives

You can also import an inpx that already sits on the server (e.g. a mounted or NFS collection) straight from the web UI — paste its path in Manage → Import instead of uploading. The book archives are looked up under --library-dir.

Book files may sit in plain folders or inside ZIP or 7z archives (the usual Flibusta layout, e.g. f.fb2-…​.7z) — Polka reads them directly, no unpacking needed.

Hundreds of thousands of records import in about a minute. Re-importing replaces the catalog but never touches user data — accounts, progress, ratings and lists live in a separate database and survive re-imports.

The desktop apps

polka-desktop opens Polka in its own window (WebView2 on Windows, Chromium app window on Linux) and can work two ways:

• Standalone (default) — a personal library on your computer. No server, no sign-in, works completely offline.
• Connected — point it at your Polka server (Server page in the app): the full catalog is available online, selected books are downloaded for offline reading, and progress / ratings / lists sync both ways automatically.

OPDS

Point your reading app at http://your-server:12791/opds — no converting or copying files, the books open straight on the device. Authentication is HTTP Basic with your Polka account. The catalog has new books, browse by author, by series, and by genre (alphabetical), search, and a personal "Reading now" feed; downloads work in fb2, zip, epub, and pdf. The admin can turn OPDS on or off and copy the connection address in Manage → OPDS.

Configuration

Everything has a sensible default. The most useful flags of polka serve:

Flag	Default	Meaning
--addr	:12791	listen address
--data-dir	~/.polka	database, settings, covers cache
--library-dir	—	folder with books (or inpx archives)
--auth	users	users (accounts) or none (open access)

External rating/recommendation sources are configured in the web UI (Manage → External ratings / Similar books) and are off by default except local recommendations — nothing is queried without the admin's consent.

Tech notes

• Single Go binary; the React frontend is embedded at build time.
• SQLite (pure-Go driver) with WAL and FTS5 — no database server to run.
• User data (accounts, sessions, progress, ratings, lists) is stored separately from the catalog and survives re-imports.
• Sync between desktop clients and the server is state-based with last-write-wins per record.

Support the project ❤️

Polka is free and MIT-licensed. If it made your library nicer, you can support development through the Sponsor button on this repository — it genuinely helps.

Bug reports and feature ideas are welcome in Issues.

License

MIT