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The desktop manager

What the manager is​

AudioSilo Manager is a desktop app for your Mac, Windows, or Linux computer. It is the management side of AudioSilo: while the server and the player apps are deliberately read-only - nothing you do in the player can add, move, or delete audio files - the manager is how books get onto a server in the first place.

With it you can:

  • Set up a server if you don't have one yet - run one on your own computer (optionally reachable from anywhere via a free Cloudflare Tunnel), install one on a Linux machine or Unraid box you already run, or provision a small cloud server. See Managing servers.
  • Connect to and manage several servers, each with several libraries.
  • Organize and import books: pick a folder of audiobooks (or drag files onto the window), let the manager suggest tidy folder names that match your library's existing conventions, and transfer the files - over SFTP (SSH) for a remote server, or a plain copy for a folder on this computer or a mounted share. See Organizing and importing books.
  • Back up your own Audible purchases: sign in to your Audible account, download the books you own, remove Audible's DRM using your own account's keys, and place them on your server as ordinary M4B files. See Backing up your Audible library.
  • Keep series complete: find books you're missing from series you own, and watch a series so you're told when a new entry appears.

The manager's main window: a server list in the sidebar and the selected server's detail view

When you need it - and when you don't​

You don't need the manager to listen: the player apps and the web player only need a running server (Connecting). You also don't need it if you're happy managing your audiobook folders by hand - the server just serves whatever is on disk (Organizing your library).

Reach for the manager when:

  • you want a server but don't want to touch Docker or a terminal;
  • your server lives on another machine (a NAS, a VPS) and copying files to it is a chore;
  • you want consistent, series-aware folder naming without doing it manually;
  • you want a local, DRM-free backup of audiobooks you bought on Audible.

:::info The server stays read-only The manager never uploads through the server. Files are placed directly - over SSH (SFTP) or into a local/mounted folder - and the server is then asked to rescan. That's a deliberate design choice: a server that is safe to expose to the internet has no upload endpoint to attack. :::

Platforms​

The manager is a native desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Getting it today​

:::note Installers are planned Ready-made installers (a signed .dmg, Windows installer, and Linux packages) are planned but not shipped yet. Today the manager is built from source - this is the one part of AudioSilo that currently needs developer tools installed. :::

You'll need:

  • Go 1.25 or newer - go.dev/dl
  • Node.js 24 - nodejs.org
  • The Wails CLI (the desktop app framework the manager uses), plus its platform prerequisites - on macOS the Xcode Command Line Tools, on Linux the WebKitGTK packages, on Windows the WebView2 runtime (usually already present). See the Wails installation guide for your platform.

Then:

# 1) Install the Wails CLI (once)
go install github.com/wailsapp/wails/v2/cmd/wails@latest

# 2) Check out the manager AND the server, side by side -
#    the manager embeds the server (for the "create a local server" feature),
#    so both folders must exist next to each other
git clone https://github.com/KodeStar/audiosilo-server
git clone https://github.com/KodeStar/audiosilo-manager

# 3) Build
cd audiosilo-manager
wails build

The finished app appears in build/bin/ - on macOS an .app you can drag into Applications, on Windows an .exe, on Linux a binary.

:::tip ffmpeg for the Audible backup The Audible backup uses ffmpeg (version 4.4 or newer) to remove DRM and produce M4B files. Everything else works without it, so install it only if you'll use that feature - e.g. brew install ffmpeg on macOS, or your distribution's package on Linux. :::

First launch​

On first launch you'll see a welcome screen with two buttons:

  • Add a server - connect to a server you already run. You'll need its address and an auth code from its admin console (details).
  • Create a server - set one up: on this computer, on a Linux/Unraid machine over SSH, or on a cloud VPS (details).

After that, your servers live in the left sidebar; selecting one shows its status, libraries, and management actions. The Settings button (top right) holds app-wide defaults (currently your default SSH key and username, reused whenever the manager makes an SSH connection). When a newer manager release is published, a banner appears at the top with a Download button.

The manager keeps its own data in your user configuration folder (on macOS ~/Library/Application Support/audiosilo-manager, on Linux ~/.config/audiosilo-manager, on Windows %AppData%\audiosilo-manager). Secrets - server session tokens, SSH passwords, Audible credentials - are stored in your operating system's keychain, never in plain files.

Next steps​