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Brian Sunter

Caliber

A web reader for your Calibre library. Cursor pagination and virtualised lists keep it fast on million-book collections; EPUB and PDF readers are built in.

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TypeScript Bun React SQLite TanStack Tailwind CSS MCP
Cover image for Caliber

Overview

Caliber is a small web app that points at your existing Calibre library (same SQLite database, same on-disk layout) and gives you a fast browser UI on top of it. The Calibre desktop app starts to drag once your library gets large; Caliber uses cursor-based pagination instead of OFFSET queries and virtualises the list view so scrolling stays smooth even on million-book collections. It also has built-in EPUB and PDF readers, so you can actually read in the browser instead of downloading first.

Features

  • Cursor pagination instead of OFFSET for speed at any library size
  • Built-in EPUB reader (epub.js) and PDF viewer (pdf.js)
  • Download any format Calibre has stored
  • Virtualised list rendering with TanStack Virtual
  • CLI for searching, browsing, and downloading from the terminal
  • MCP server so Claude can search the library
  • REST API: paginated listing, search, covers, downloads, stats

Technology Stack

  • Bun for runtime, bundling, and SQLite (bun:sqlite)
  • React 19 with TanStack Router, Query, Virtual, and Table
  • Tailwind CSS v4 with shadcn/ui
  • epub.js and pdf.js for in-browser reading
  • Biome for lint and format