Documentation
Everything comic-dl can do, grouped by task. Start withInstallation orQuick Start.
Getting Started
Introduction
What comic-dl is, what it does, and whether it fits your setup.
Installation
Install comic-dl from a release binary or from source.
Quick Start
Install comic-dl, download a gallery, and read the archive it produces.
Frequently Asked Questions
What comic-dl is, which readers open its archives, licensing, and a map to the right guide.
Configure
Configuration File
Save download defaults in TOML, resolve option precedence, and manage per-host settings.
Cookies & Anti-Bot Handling
Understand cookie storage, session lifetimes, and the available HTTP settings.
Environment Variables
Configure paths, terminal colors, diagnostics, and display settings through environment variables.
Rate Limiting
Set per-host request rates and understand how throttling interacts with concurrency and retries.
Usage
Downloading
Every way to download content with comic-dl — single URLs, URL files, chapter selection, and scripting.
Library Management
List downloaded series, check recent chapters, update subscriptions, and remove or restore series.
Version and Updates
Show the installed version and update comic-dl through the tool that installed it — package manager, pip, uv, or a source checkout.
Output & Archives
Find downloaded files, choose an archive format, and understand metadata, deduplication, and resume.
Metadata
See which ComicInfo.xml fields are written inside archives and beside them, with per-site mappings.
Site Support
Per-site adapter versions, update checks, and live checks through comic-dl self site.
Plugins
Install and inspect third-party sources, validate plugins, and understand priority and trust boundaries.
Writing a Plugin
Implement a source, return chapter and series metadata, and register a plugin package.
Reference
CLI Reference
Every command and flag in comic-dl, plus JSON output and exit codes.
Exit Codes
Interpret process exit codes, classify failures, and handle interruptions or mixed batch results in scripts.
Supported Sites
The 34 built-in scrapers supported by comic-dl, their URL patterns, and per-site notes.
Troubleshooting
Common comic-dl failures — blocked access, missing pages, rate limits — and how to fix them.
Develop
Development Guide
How to work on comic-dl itself — reporting, workflow, setup, review, and releasing.
Contribution Workflow
The issue-to-merge path — branching, signed commits, gates, PRs, and squash merge.
Development Setup
Take a fresh machine to a working checkout — uv, the venv, the gate scripts, and signing.
Code Review
What reviewers check, how to review, responder etiquette, and when a maintainer merges.
Reporting
Where each kind of report goes — questions, bugs, features, and the private security advisory flow.
Releasing
The repeatable release runbook — staging validation, version bumps, signed tags, and release.yml.
Architecture
Follow a URL from scraper selection to a verified archive — pipeline, module map, concurrency, and security.
API Reference
Find Python modules for data models, scraping, downloads, archives, configuration, and errors.
Testing
Run the offline suite, find the right test file, and write regression tests that stay offline.
Error Style Guide
Write actionable errors — wording, streams, exit codes, diagnostics, glyphs, and live-render rules.
Security Testing
The offline security suite — SSRF net, filesystem/database hardening, and the fakes that power it.