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The system at a glance

AudioSilo is a self-hosted audiobook platform built as one product across three repositories. The server owns the data and the HTTP/JSON contract; the player is a thin, fully-typed read side over that contract; the manager is the desktop write/management side. Everything else in these docs hangs off that split.

RepoRoleStack
audiosilo-serverThe server — source of truth for content and the API. JSON API + baked-in admin/connect UI; serves the web player at /web. Safe to expose to the internet.Go 1.25, SQLite (modernc, pure Go), FTS5
audiosilo-frontendThe player — one codebase shipping to web PWA + iOS + Android. Read side of the product; its web export is served by the server at /web.Expo SDK 56, React Native 0.85 (new architecture), React 19, Expo Router, NativeWind v4
audiosilo-managerThe desktop manager — the write/management side: set up or connect to servers, organize and transfer books (SFTP or local copy), back up an owned Audible library. Consumes the server API read-only.Wails v2 (Go 1.25 + React/Vite/TypeScript)

The three code repos (plus this docs site) live side by side in a single workspace folder (~/dev/audiosilo), whose root is itself the small audiosilo-workspace meta repo holding the cross-repo glue (the integration contract, code-health checklist, release runbooks); see the workspace guide for how to check everything out and work across the repos.

Architecture​

Three structural facts to internalize before reading anything else:

  • The server is the only writer of the API contract. The frontend (and the manager's internal/serverapi) mirror its JSON shapes by hand — there is no codegen, so a wire change is always a multi-repo change. See Cross-repo contract.
  • The filesystem is the source of truth; the database is a rebuildable index. Content is addressed by (library_id, rel_path), never by a database id. See Invariants.
  • The manager never writes content over the network. All file writes happen client-side (SFTP or a local/mounted copy); the server stays read-only for content over the wire. For the local-server flow, the manager runs the server in-process via the server's public pkg/launcher.

The data flows​

Streaming. The player fetches a book's chapters (GET /libraries/{id}/chapters?path= → {chapters, files, duration}), then streams individual audio files — never a folder/book path — with HTTP Range requests (GET /libraries/{id}/stream?path=). Media auth rides as a ?token= query param because browsers can't set headers on <img>/<audio>. A transcode fallback exists (?transcode=1, ffmpeg → MP3, gated by the transcode capability); automatic transcode negotiation in the web player is planned, not yet wired.

Progress sync. The player saves position every 15 seconds while playing (and on pause/seek/rate/stop), path-keyed, via PUT /libraries/{id}/progress?path=. The server reconciles last-write-wins by updated_at (catalog.SaveProgress); the client keeps an offline replay queue (src/playback/progress-sync.ts). Realtime WebSocket sync is planned (Phase C remainder) — the websocket capability flag is already reserved for it.

Pairing. An admin mints an invite code; the code rides a URL fragment (/connect#code=…) so it never reaches server logs. The connect page redeems it (POST /auth/redeem → single-use pairing token) and offers two carriers: an HTTPS web_url (QR / Universal Links) and an audiosilo://connect?... custom-scheme deep link. The app or web player exchanges the pairing token for a device-scoped session (POST /auth/exchange).

File placement. The manager places files itself — over SFTP or into a local/mounted copy of the library — then asks the server for a non-destructive reindex (POST /admin/libraries/{id}/scan). Its only server-side write is path-keyed metadata enrichment (PUT /admin/libraries/{id}/enrichment?path=, ASIN/ISBN), which touches no file. A server-side POST /uploads endpoint is planned (Phase B), not shipped.

Design priorities​

The server's priorities, in order — when they conflict, the earlier one wins:

  1. Safe to expose to the internet. Secure defaults, no default passwords, hashed secrets, app-layer hardening, configurable TLS. Inexperienced users will port-forward this.
  2. Fast regardless of library size. FTS5 search + keyset pagination; never OFFSET on large tables.
  3. No-wait first connection. The filesystem view (/fs) needs no indexing — a fresh server is browsable and playable immediately, with the index catching up in the background.
  4. Portable. The filesystem is the source of truth; the database is a rebuildable index/cache. Delete the DB and nothing of value is lost.

How these docs are organized​

If you just want to run AudioSilo rather than hack on it, the user guide covers installation and everyday use.

:::info The normative contract lives in the workspace ~/dev/audiosilo/CROSS-REPO.md (checked into the workspace root, alongside CLAUDE.md and CODE-HEALTH.md) is the normative integration contract between the repos. These docs are a readable tour of the same material — when a seam changes, CROSS-REPO.md is updated first and these pages follow. :::

Where to start​

  • "I want to add or change an API endpoint" → Cross-repo contract, then cross-repo changes.
  • "I want to understand why the code is shaped this way" → Invariants.
  • "Something won't play / wrong Content-Type / scope leak / scanner issue" → the server docs.
  • "UI looks wrong / navigation / timeline math / offline" → the frontend docs.
  • "Pairing, media auth, a new wire field, transcode" → both repos; read the contract before starting.