LazyLibrarian

LazyLibrarian is a SickBeard, CouchPotato, Headphones-like application for ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines.

Overview

LazyLibrarian uses a combination of Goodreads, Librarything, and optionally GoogleBooks as sources for author and book metadata. In QuickBox Pro, it is installed per user, runs as a systemd service, and is exposed through the nginx reverse proxy.

Key features

👤 Per-user service

Runs as a user-scoped systemd unit (lazylibrarian@username).

🌐 Reverse-proxy path

Default access path is /username/lazylibrarian via nginx.

🗂️ User-scoped config

Configuration lives at /home/username/.config/LazyLibrarian/config.ini.

🔐 Basic auth in nginx

The nginx template enables auth_basic with /etc/htpasswd.d/htpasswd.username.

When to use it

Use LazyLibrarian when

Manage ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines with metadata lookups.
Run LazyLibrarian as a per-user service with user-scoped settings.

You want to

Install with qb install lazylibrarian -u username.
Access it through the nginx path /username/lazylibrarian.

Installation

Install from the QuickBox CLI

LazyLibrarian uses the standard QuickBox software actions:


qb install lazylibrarian -u username

Install from the Dashboard

In the QuickBox dashboard software list, the LazyLibrarian row includes Install and Reinstall actions for eligible users.

Access and authentication

URL / route

LazyLibrarian is proxied through nginx at the per-user path:


/username/lazylibrarian

The service listens on the user port set during install (default is 5299) and the proxy forwards to:


http://127.0.0.1:port/username/lazylibrarian/

Credentials / tokens

If you generate an API key in LazyLibrarian, QuickBox reads it from:

/home/username/.config/LazyLibrarian/config.ini (look for api_key =)

Security notes

The nginx template enables HTTP basic auth for LazyLibrarian using:

/etc/htpasswd.d/htpasswd.username

Configuration and files

LazyLibrarian stores user configuration and logs under the user home directory.

LazyLibrarian user files

/home/username

.config/

└── LazyLibrarian/

│ ├── config.ini# Main LazyLibrarian configuration

│ └── Logs/# Application logs

tmp/# TMPDIR for LazyLibrarian (/home/username/tmp/LazyLibrarian)

Additional system locations used by QuickBox:

/opt/username/LazyLibrarian (application files)
/opt/username/lib/python/LazyLibrarian (Python venv)
/etc/nginx/software/username.lazylibrarian.conf (path-based proxy)
/etc/systemd/system/lazylibrarian@username.service

Common tasks


# Start or restart LazyLibrarian for a user
systemctl start lazylibrarian@username
systemctl restart lazylibrarian@username
 
# Stop LazyLibrarian for a user
systemctl stop lazylibrarian@username

Best practices

Do

Use the nginx path /username/lazylibrarian so the app matches the configured http_root.
Keep the user config at /home/username/.config/LazyLibrarian/config.ini so dashboard tools can read the API key.

Don't

Don’t enable both nginx auth and LazyLibrarian browser auth at the same time; the install notes warn they can conflict.
Don’t change the nginx proxy path without updating http_root in config.ini.

Troubleshooting

App loads but assets fail or redirect loops

The nginx proxy expects LazyLibrarian to run under /username/lazylibrarian. Confirm http_root in /home/username/.config/LazyLibrarian/config.ini matches the proxy path.

API key shows as not generated

QuickBox reads the API key from /home/username/.config/LazyLibrarian/config.ini using the api_key = line. Generate the key in LazyLibrarian and re-check the file.

Service not responding

Verify the user service is running: systemctl status lazylibrarian@username. The unit starts /opt/username/LazyLibrarian/LazyLibrarian.py with the per-user config and port.