compendium-ils 1.0.0

A library card catalog system for physical items

Compendium

A library card catalog system for physical items — books, vinyl records, DVDs, CDs.

WARNING NOTICE CAVEAT EMPTOR: This project is 100% vibe coded. Not only did I not write the code, I've barely even looked at it. I guided the models (Sonnet and Opus, mostly) on design decisions and the like, but it's pretty much all AI-generated code and documentation. This paragraph here is about the only part of the project written by a human.

Status: v1.0.0 — core feature-complete. Catalog, circulation, holds, fines, notifications, bulk import/export, web UI, REST API, and CLI are all shipped. See docs/architecture.md for architecture and design decisions.

Features

• Catalog — add items by ISBN / UPC / MusicBrainz ID / TMDb ID / title search (Google Books / Open Library, MusicBrainz, TMDb) or manually for obscure items; search and browse works and copies; faceted discovery (media type, decade, availability)
• Circulation — checkout, checkin, loan renewal with category-aware per-media-type loan policies; lost / damaged / claims-returned states; self-checkout kiosk mode; library hours and holiday calendar so due dates never land on closed days and overdue fines skip closed days
• Holds — patron reservation queue; immediate promotion when a copy is available; suspend/resume; auto-expiry via maintenance command
• Fines — configurable per-policy overdue rates with caps and grace periods; lost/damaged fees; threshold-based checkout/hold blocking; pay/waive workflow; per-patron and bulk overdue assessment
• Notifications — outbox-pattern email delivery (hold-ready, due-soon, overdue) drained by a cron-invoked CLI; admin viewer + retry; per-patron opt-out; configurable retention
• Reports — checkouts/month, popular works, dormant items (weeding list), current overdues; CSV export; Chart.js trendlines
• Patrons & cards — patron categories (Adult/Child/Staff/Teacher seeded), card expiry with maintenance auto-deactivation, optional 1:1 patron↔user link for self-service
• Bulk import/export — round-trippable CSV; MARC21 binary + MARCXML import/export; LibraryThing TSV import; GoodReads CSV import (all with lenient encoding for messy real-world exports)
• Backup/restore — portable JSONL tarballs; backend-agnostic (SQLite ↔ Postgres); doubles as a DB migration path
• Labels — Avery-template item labels (spine / pocket) and patron cards (full / sticker) as PDFs. Spine templates: avery-5167-spine (½" narrow face), avery-5160-spine (1" medium face, rotated), avery-5160 (flat wrap-around, centered text), avery-22805/avery-22806 (square classification labels). Live in-page SVG preview updates as you change kind/template/fields — no PDF round-trip needed.
• Curated lists — librarian-editable named collections of Works ("Staff picks", "Summer reads") with slugs, per-work annotations, public/private and featured toggles; featured lists appear as a shelf on the OPAC landing page; public browse at /ui/lists
• Auth — five preset roles (ReadOnly, Patron, Librarian, SystemAdmin, Administrator) plus custom roles via the admin UI; JWT for API, cookie-based for web UI
• Audit log — synchronous trail of administrative mutations (Librarian + system tier); queryable via web UI, CLI, or REST
• DB-editable settings — most configuration knobs (library name, fines, kiosk timeout, SMTP, retention, configurable nav shortcuts, etc.) editable from the UI / CLI / API; env vars still win as a break-glass
• Web UI — HTMX + Jinja2 browser interface with catalog search, circulation desk (camera-based barcode scanning), patron self-service, light/dark/auto theme; per-user nav shortcut overrides via browser localStorage
• REST API — FastAPI; consumed by the web UI and available for integrations
• CLI — full librarian + sysadmin workflow without running a server, including stdin/stdout (-) for backup, import/export, and labels

Install

# Install the CLI as a standalone tool (recommended for production)
uv tool install compendium-ils           # SQLite only
uv tool install "compendium-ils[postgres]"  # + Postgres support

# Or with pip
pip install compendium-ils
pip install "compendium-ils[postgres]"

The installed command is compendium.

Quick start

Prerequisites

Python 3.11.4 or newer. (Backup restore uses the tarfile data filter from PEP 706, which was backported to 3.11.4.)

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-venv python3-dev build-essential
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
source $HOME/.local/bin/env

RedHat / CentOS / Fedora

sudo dnf install -y python3 python3-devel gcc
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
source $HOME/.local/bin/env

macOS

brew install python uv

Run

# Install dependencies
uv sync --extra dev

# Initialise the database (creates ./compendium.db with SQLite by default)
uv run compendium db init

# Create an Administrator account
uv run compendium user add --username admin --role Administrator

# Add a book by ISBN (looks up metadata from Google Books when key is set, else Open Library)
uv run compendium item add --isbn 9780441013593

# Add a patron
uv run compendium patron add --name "Alice Example"

# Start the server (web UI at http://localhost:8000/ui/catalog)
uv run compendium serve

Log in at http://localhost:8000/ui/login with the username and password you set above.

CLI reference

Run compendium --help for the full command tree, or compendium <group> --help for the subcommands of a specific group.

Catalog & cataloging

Group	Common subcommands
item	add (--isbn / --upc / --mbid / --tmdb-id / --title), add-manual, show, list, withdraw, set-loanable; note add/list/delete; declare-lost, mark-damaged, clear-lost, clear-damage
work	search, show, new-arrivals, recently-returned
creator	list, show, merge
curated-list	create, list, show, edit, delete, add-work, remove-work, reorder
branch	list, set
import	csv, marc (use - for stdin)
export	csv, marc (use - for stdout)

Circulation

Group	Common subcommands
loan	checkout, checkin, renew, active, list (system-wide), history, item-history
claim	returned (patron disputes), verify (found), write-off, list
hold	place, cancel, list, queue, suspend, resume, list-suspended
fine	list, pay, waive, assess, assess-overdue

Patrons & accounts

Group	Common subcommands
patron	add, list (--include-inactive), set, link-user, unlink-user, deactivate, reactivate
patron-category	list, create, update, delete
user	add (default --role Administrator), list (--include-inactive), set-role, set-password, deactivate, reactivate
role	list, create, update, clone
policy	list, create, set (configures fines, category-aware)

Reporting & labels

Group	Common subcommands
reports	checkouts, popular, dormant, overdues (each supports --format csv)
labels	templates, spine, pocket, barcode, patron-card, patron-sticker (output -o - writes PDF to stdout; use --show/--hide for field toggles, e.g. --show barcode on spine)
audit	list (filters: --entity, --id, --user-id, --limit)

Operations

Command	Description
compendium db init / db upgrade / db history	Migrate the database
compendium serve	Start the API + web UI server
compendium backup --output <path-or->	Write a portable JSONL tarball backup
compendium restore <path-or->	Restore from a backup tarball (lenient — auto-migrates)
compendium settings list/get/set/reset	Inspect & edit DB-backed site settings
compendium maintenance ...	Cron-invoked tasks: expire-holds, resume-expired-suspends, assess-overdue-fines, queue-due-soon-notices, queue-overdue-notices, send-queued-notifications, prune-notifications, prune-audit-log, deactivate-expired-patrons, prune-cover-cache, prune-metadata-cache, refresh-metadata
compendium metadata cache stats	Show metadata cache row counts by adapter and TTL status
compendium metadata cache clear	Delete all metadata cache rows (audited)

File-argument commands (backup, restore, import, export, labels spine/pocket/barcode/patron-card/patron-sticker) accept - for stdin/stdout. Status messages are routed to stderr in stdio mode so they don't corrupt binary output.

Web UI

Start the server with compendium serve and open your browser to http://localhost:8000/ui/catalog.

"Audience" lists the minimum preset that can access each route. Administrator can access everything. SystemAdmin gets the System-tier rows; slimmed Librarian gets librarian-tier rows but not System-tier.

URL	Audience	Description
/ui/catalog	Anyone	Search catalog with facets (media type, decade, availability); featured curated lists shelf
/ui/catalog/{work_id}	Anyone	Work detail, items, place-hold button
/ui/lists	Anyone	Public OPAC browse of public curated lists
/ui/lists/{slug}	Anyone	Public curated list detail with annotated works
/ui/login	Anyone	Login form
/ui/me/loans	Patron	Active loans with inline renew + "I returned this" claim
/ui/me/holds	Patron	Active holds with inline cancel + suspend/resume
/ui/me/fines	Patron	Outstanding and historical fines
/ui/me/preferences	Patron	Notification opt-out
/ui/me/password	Patron	Self-service password change
/ui/circ	Librarian	Circulation desk — checkout / checkin / renew
/ui/kiosk	Librarian	Self-checkout kiosk landing/session (patron card-number-only auth)
/ui/items/new	Librarian	Add item by ISBN / UPC / MBID / TMDb ID / title search (with barcode scanner)
/ui/items/new/manual	Librarian	Manually add an item not found in external sources
/ui/items/{barcode}	Librarian	Item detail, loan history, withdraw, set-loanable, lost/damaged/claims actions
/ui/patrons	Librarian	Patron list
/ui/patrons/new	Librarian	Create patron (with category + expiry)
/ui/patrons/{card}	Librarian	Patron detail with active loans, holds, link/unlink user, deactivate, reactivate
/ui/patrons/{card}/loans	Librarian	Patron loan history (active / returned / all)
/ui/patrons/{card}/fines	Librarian	Patron fines with pay/waive
/ui/admin/loans	Librarian	All active loans (system-wide) with overdue/due-soon filters
/ui/admin/fines	Librarian	All outstanding fines (system-wide) with running total
/ui/admin/holds	Librarian	All active holds with status/branch/work filters
/ui/admin/claims	Librarian	Outstanding claims-returned investigations
/ui/admin/notifications	Librarian	Notification log + manual retry
/ui/admin/import	Librarian	Bulk CSV / GoodReads CSV / LibraryThing TSV / MARC import
/ui/admin/export	Librarian	Bulk CSV/MARC export
/ui/admin/patron-categories	Librarian	Manage patron categories
/ui/curated-lists	Librarian	Curated list admin CRUD (curatedlist.manage)
/ui/admin/settings/general	Librarian	Library name, default theme, guest search
/ui/admin/settings/circulation	Librarian	Currency, fine thresholds, hold/overdue/due-soon defaults
/ui/admin/settings/kiosk	Librarian	Kiosk idle timeout
/ui/policies	Librarian	Loan policy list with inline edit
/ui/policies/new	Librarian	Create loan policy (per media type + patron category)
/ui/branches	Librarian	Branch list with classification scheme
/ui/branches/{id}/edit	Librarian	Edit a branch's default classification scheme
/ui/reports	Librarian	Reports landing — checkouts, popular, dormant, overdues
/ui/labels	Librarian	Generate item-label and patron-card PDFs (Avery templates)
/ui/audit	Librarian	Audit log viewer
/ui/users	SystemAdmin	User list
/ui/users/new	SystemAdmin	Create user
/ui/users/{username}	SystemAdmin	User detail — change role, deactivate, reactivate, reset password
/ui/roles	SystemAdmin	Role list
/ui/roles/new	SystemAdmin	Create custom role
/ui/roles/{id}	SystemAdmin	Role detail — edit permissions, clone
/ui/admin/system/smtp	SystemAdmin	SMTP host/port/from settings
/ui/admin/system/secrets	SystemAdmin	Encrypted secrets (SMTP password, TMDb / Google Books API keys) — requires COMPENDIUM_SECRET_KEY
/ui/admin/system/retention	SystemAdmin	Notification + audit retention, batch sizes

Guest catalog search is enabled by default (toggle via /ui/admin/settings/general or COMPENDIUM_GUEST_SEARCH_ENABLED=false).

REST API endpoints

The API is mounted at the root. Authenticate with POST /auth/login and pass the result as Authorization: Bearer <token>. Interactive docs live at http://localhost:8000/docs when the server is running.

Below is a high-level inventory grouped by concern; the OpenAPI document is the source of truth for parameters and bodies.

Group	Common endpoints	Min permission
Auth	POST /auth/login	none
Catalog	GET /works/search, /works/new-arrivals, /works/recently-returned; GET /items/{barcode}; POST /items/{barcode}/{withdraw,loanable,lost,damaged,clear-lost,clear-damage}	guest / item.view / item.delete / fine.manage
Patrons	GET/POST /patrons, PATCH /patrons/{card}, POST /patrons/{card}/{deactivate,reactivate}, POST /patrons/{card}/account, GET/POST /patron-categories, PATCH/DELETE /patron-categories/{id}	patron.manage / patron.account.manage for account endpoints
Loans	POST /loans/checkout, /loans/{id}/{checkin,renew}; GET /loans (system-wide), /loans/patron/{card}, /loans/item/{barcode}	loan.* (see below)
Claims	GET /claims; POST /claims/{barcode}/{returned,verify,write-off}	loan.checkin
Holds	GET /holds, /holds/queue/{work_id}; POST/DELETE /holds, /holds/{id}; POST /holds/{id}/{suspend,resume}	hold.*
Fines	GET /fines, GET/POST /patrons/{card}/fines, POST /fines/{id}/{pay,waive}, POST /patrons/{card}/fines/assess-overdue	fine.manage / fine.view.self
Self-service	GET /me/loans, /me/holds; POST /me/holds, /me/holds/{id}/{suspend,resume}; DELETE /me/holds/{id}; POST /me/loans/{id}/{renew,claim-returned}	*.self permissions
Notifications	GET /notifications, POST /notifications/{id}/retry	notification.manage
Reports	GET /reports/{checkouts,popular,dormant,overdues}	report.view
Bulk import/export	POST /import/{csv,goodreads,librarything,marc} (multipart), GET /export/{csv,marc} (streaming)	catalog.import / item.view
Labels	GET /labels/items, /labels/patrons (PDF)	labels.generate
Policies	GET/POST /policies	item.view / policy.edit
Users	POST /users, POST /users/{username}/{deactivate,reactivate}, POST/DELETE /users/{username}/patron	user.manage
Curated lists	GET/POST /curated-lists, PATCH/DELETE /curated-lists/{slug}, POST/DELETE /curated-lists/{slug}/works	guest / curatedlist.manage
Settings	GET /settings/, GET/PATCH/DELETE /settings/{key}	patron.manage (librarian-tier) / system.manage (system-tier)
Calendar	GET /library-hours/, PATCH /library-hours/{weekday}; GET/POST /closed-dates/, PATCH/DELETE /closed-dates/{id}	calendar.manage
Audit	GET /audit/	audit.view

The "min permission" column lists the lowest preset role that's allowed. Administrator (wildcard) covers everything. Slimmed Librarian covers librarian-tier endpoints; SystemAdmin covers user/role/system-tier endpoints.

Configuration

Compendium settings come from three layers, in order of precedence:

1. Environment variable (COMPENDIUM_<KEY>) — break-glass override, wins over everything.
2. site_setting table — DB-backed, editable from /ui/admin/settings/*, the CLI (compendium settings ...), or the API (PATCH /settings/{key}). Changes take effect on the next page render — no restart.
3. Registry default — fallback hard-coded in services/settings_registry.py.

Most settings (library name, theme, fine thresholds, hold/overdue defaults, kiosk timeout, SMTP host/port/from, retention) are DB-editable. A handful stay env-only because they're either secrets or required before the DB is reachable:

Env var	Why env-only
COMPENDIUM_DATABASE_URL	Bootstrap — needed before any DB read
COMPENDIUM_JWT_SECRET_KEY	Secret — required; server refuses to start with the built-in default. Generate with python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_urlsafe(48))". Set COMPENDIUM_ALLOW_INSECURE_JWT=1 to bypass for first-run/dev only.
COMPENDIUM_JWT_ALGORITHM / COMPENDIUM_JWT_EXPIRE_MINUTES	Auth deployment knobs
COMPENDIUM_SSL_CERTFILE / COMPENDIUM_SSL_KEYFILE	OS-level paths
COMPENDIUM_SECURE_COOKIES	Default true; set false only for plain-HTTP LAN deployments (browsers won't send Secure cookies over non-HTTPS, except localhost).
COMPENDIUM_SECRET_KEY	Encryption key for secrets stored in the DB (SMTP password, API keys). Optional — set to enable the /ui/admin/system/secrets page. Generate with compendium keygen --secret.
COMPENDIUM_TMDB_API_KEY	TMDb API key. Override — also settable via Admin → System → Secrets when COMPENDIUM_SECRET_KEY is configured.
COMPENDIUM_GOOGLE_BOOKS_API_KEY	Google Books API key (primary book metadata source when set). Override — also settable via Admin → System → Secrets when COMPENDIUM_SECRET_KEY is configured.
COMPENDIUM_BOOK_METADATA_SOURCE_PREFERENCE	Primary book metadata source: googlebooks (default; uses GB when key is set, else OL) or openlibrary. DB-editable at Admin → System → Metadata Sources.
COMPENDIUM_BOOK_METADATA_FALLBACK_ENABLED	When true (default), a miss from the primary book adapter automatically tries the secondary (GB→OL and OL→GB symmetric). Set false to disable. DB-editable at Admin → System → Metadata Sources.
COMPENDIUM_METADATA_CACHE_TTL_DAYS	Positive-hit TTL for the metadata cache in days (default 30). Negative (not-found) entries always expire after 24 hours. DB-editable at Admin → System → Metadata Sources.
COMPENDIUM_SMTP_PASSWORD	SMTP password. Override — also settable via Admin → System → Secrets when COMPENDIUM_SECRET_KEY is configured.
COMPENDIUM_MAX_UPLOAD_BYTES	Hard cap on bulk-import upload size (default 100 MB / 104857600). Env-only so a compromised admin token can't raise it.
COMPENDIUM_LOGIN_MAX_FAILURES	Max consecutive failed logins before the identity is throttled (default 10). DB-editable at System → Security.
COMPENDIUM_LOGIN_FAILURE_WINDOW_SECONDS	Sliding window for counting failures in seconds (default 300 = 5 min). DB-editable at System → Security.

For everything else, run compendium settings list to see the current value, source (env vs db/default), and per-key help text. The web admin UI shows the same with an "⚠ Overridden by env var" indicator on rows where an env var is currently masking the DB value.

See docs/deployment.md for full deployment guidance, or docker/README.md for the bundled Docker Compose setup (app + Postgres + nginx with auto-generated self-signed TLS).

PostgreSQL

SQLite is the default and fine for home or classroom use (up to ~10k items). For larger collections or multiple concurrent writers, use PostgreSQL:

uv sync --extra postgres

Then set:

COMPENDIUM_DATABASE_URL=postgresql+psycopg://compendium:<password>@localhost:5432/compendium

and run compendium db init to apply migrations. Full setup (creating the role and database, TLS, backups) is in docs/deployment.md.

Scheduled maintenance

Several maintenance commands need to run on a cadence — most importantly the email outbox drain (send-queued-notifications), without which queued notifications never go out. Install the bundled crontab via:

scripts/install-cron.sh

By default this writes the project path into the crontab and points logs at $HOME/.local/state/compendium/maintenance.log. Override either with flags:

scripts/install-cron.sh --project-dir /opt/compendium --log-file journal
scripts/install-cron.sh --log-file /var/log/compendium/maintenance.log

--log-file journal routes output to the systemd journal (view with journalctl -t compendium-maintenance -f). For paths the installer can't create unprivileged (e.g. /var/log/...), it prints the one-time sudo command and exits without touching the crontab.

See docs/crontab.sample for the full schedule and docs/compendium.service.sample for running the daemon under systemd.

Running tests

uv run pytest -q

Tests are split into tests/unit/ (no DB, mock repos) and tests/integration/ (SQLite in-memory).

Browser tests (E2E)

Browser tests run against a real compendium serve subprocess in Chromium. They are excluded from the default pytest run and require a one-time install:

uv sync --extra e2e
playwright install chromium

Then:

uv run pytest -m e2e

Expected wall time: 30–60 seconds. Tests live in tests/e2e/. The test_csp_no_console_errors.py test is the keystone: it navigates to every major page and asserts no console errors, which catches CSP/HTMX loading regressions that unit tests miss.

Layout

src/compendium/
├── domain/        # models, enums, permissions, errors
├── repositories/  # base protocols + SQLAlchemy implementations
├── services/      # business logic (catalog, circulation, holds, patrons, policies, auth, audit)
├── api/           # FastAPI routes + Pydantic schemas + JWT auth
├── web/           # HTMX + Jinja2 web UI + CSRF protection
├── cli/           # Typer CLI commands
├── config/        # settings, seed data
└── db/            # engine factory, session lifecycle

License

MIT (to be finalised before first release).