*ARRgh!

v0.1.7 · A self-hosted East Asian comics and novel manager, downloader, and reader for your home server. Supports manga, manhwa, manhua, novels, and hentai from multiple sources via a plugin system. Built to run on a NAS, Raspberry Pi, or any always-on box.

⚠️ Port change (v0.1.3+) — the host-exposed port is now 8282 (was 8080 in v0.1.2 and earlier). Update any firewall rules, bookmarks, or reverse proxy configs. The internal container port remains 8080 — only the host-side mapping changed.

I'm a solo dev who built this for myself — tired of juggling browser tabs, download scripts, and folder structures just to keep up with series. If you find it useful or want to contribute, you're very welcome. See Contributing.

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Features

• Discover — fan-out search across 6 authorities: MangaUpdates (manga), AniList (manhwa), MangaDex (manhua), NovelUpdates + WuxiaWorld (novels), nhentai (hentai). Results deduplicated by authority precedence; animated source-chip progress while searching
• Trending lanes — Home screen shows 4 independent trending rows: Manga (MangaUpdates), Manhwa, Manhua, and Adult Manhwa (AniList); each lane caches independently
• Title aliases from MangaUpdates associated names — improves cross-source matching for series with multiple romanisations
• Chapters aggregated across all registered sources — completeness doesn't depend on any one source being up to date
• Automatic download fallback — if the preferred source fails, arrgh tries the next by priority
• Hentai source routing — explicit sources only matched for titles tagged hentai; non-explicit sources skipped for them
• Source plugin system — add new download sources without recompiling or redeploying
• Browse and install community plugins from the Settings UI
• Download chapters to your server for offline reading
• Real-time download progress with per-chapter percentage bars
• Library sort & filter — sort by recently added, title A–Z/Z–A, or year; filter by content type (manga/manhwa/manhua/novel) and status (ongoing/completed/hiatus/cancelled); active filter count badge
• Live sync progress — library card and title detail page show step-by-step sync status while building
• Sync warnings — amber badge when a source couldn't be matched; re-sync to retry
• Web reader (paged or scroll mode for comics; prose mode for novels)
• Multi-user support — per-user libraries with shared file storage, per-user reading progress
• Auto-download new chapters on a schedule
• Explicit content controls — admin grants access per user; 18+ badge shown on all title cards (library, home, Discover, trending)
• Shared download queue — visible to all users, members cancel own items, admins cancel any

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Quick start (Docker)

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/t2vi/arrgh/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d

Open http://<your-server-ip>:8282 — the setup wizard runs on first launch.

Upgrading from v0.1.2 or earlier? The host port changed from 8080 to 8282. Run docker compose pull && docker compose up -d and update any firewall rules or reverse proxy configs pointing to the old port.

The default Compose file includes the Mangapill and MangaDex plugins. They auto-register on first boot via PLUGIN_URLS — no manual configuration needed.

See docs/deploy/docker-compose.md for full configuration.

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Upgrading

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Migrations run automatically on startup. No manual DB steps needed.

From v0.1.2 or earlier — the host port changed from 8080 to 8282. Update firewall rules, bookmarks, and any reverse proxy config that referenced :8080.

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Sources

*ARRgh! uses a plugin system for content sources. Each source is an HTTP server implementing the Source Plugin Protocol.

Bundled plugins

All default sources compile into a single plugin-host container — no per-plugin ports or sidecars:

Source	Content	Directory	Notes
Mangapill	Manga	plugins/mangapill/
MangaDex	Manga, Manhwa, Manhua, One-shot	plugins/mangadex/
Toonily	Manhwa	plugins/toonily/	CF-protected — uses CloakBrowser
AsuraScans	Manhwa	plugins/asurascans/
Manga18fx	Manhwa (explicit)	plugins/manga18fx/	default_explicit=true
NovelFull	Novel	plugins/novelfull/	CF-protected — uses CloakBrowser
WuxiaWorld	Novel	plugins/wuxiaworld/	Official API — no CF protection
nhentai	Hentai doujinshi	plugins/nhentai/	CF-protected — uses CloakBrowser; explicit-only source

CF-protected plugins route through the CloakBrowser sidecar (stealth Chromium, source-level fingerprint patches). Plugin Host holds the CDP connection; plugins call ctx.getBrowser() via PluginContext.

Adding a source

1. Write an HTTP server implementing the Source Plugin Protocol
2. Run it (locally or as a Docker service)
3. Register it: Settings → Sources → Add (or set PLUGIN_URLS for auto-registration on startup)

Source Plugin Protocol

Plugins are download-only backends. Metadata (search, descriptions, covers, trending) comes from the discover fan-out authorities (MangaUpdates, AniList, MangaDex, NovelUpdates, WuxiaWorld, nhentai) — plugins only need to serve chapter lists and page content.

Every plugin must implement:

GET /info                         → { id, name, default_explicit, content_types }
GET /manga/:source_id/chapters    → [ChapterResult]
GET /chapter/:source_id/pages     → [image_url]

Optional:

GET /chapter/:source_id/text      → Markdown string (novel/light-novel chapters only)

Plugins can be written in any language. See plugins/mangadex/ (API-backed) and plugins/toonily/ (scraper + CloakBrowser) for reference implementations.

Note: older plugins that implement /search, /trending, /meta, or /cover continue to work — arrgh ignores those routes but doesn't reject plugins that expose them.

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Architecture

arrgh/
├── server/          # .NET 9 / ASP.NET Core API server
├── web/             # React + TypeScript SPA
├── plugin-host/     # Node.js plugin host (loads compiled plugin bundles)
└── plugins/         # Plugin source bundles (esbuild → single .js)
    ├── mangadex/
    ├── mangapill/
    ├── toonily/
    ├── novelfull/
    ├── nhentai/
    └── manga18fx/

• Backend: .NET 10, ASP.NET Core, EF Core (SQLite)
• Frontend: React 18, TypeScript, Vite, Tailwind
• Plugins: Node.js bundles loaded by plugin-host; CF-protected sources use CloakBrowser via CDP

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Contributing

Issues and PRs are welcome. A few things to know:

• This is a personal project — I may be slow to review, but I do look at everything
• Check open issues before starting large features; comment to claim one
• Run dotnet test (server) and npm test (web) before submitting
• Follow the existing code style — see CLAUDE.md for dev setup

No CLA, no process overhead. Just open a PR.

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Roadmap

See ROADMAP.md.

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License

GNU GPL v3