FictionReaper

Download Royal Road fiction as Markdown and/or EPUB.

Works on macOS and Linux (Python 3.12+). Ships a CLI and a small HTTP API.

Install (end users)

Pick one. All put a fictionreaper command on your PATH.

Option A — uv tool (recommended)

Install uv, then:

uv tool install git+https://github.com/Fluder-Paradyne/FictionReaper.git
fictionreaper --version

Upgrade later:

uv tool upgrade fictionreaper
# or reinstall from git tip:
uv tool install --force git+https://github.com/Fluder-Paradyne/FictionReaper.git

Option B — pipx

pipx install git+https://github.com/Fluder-Paradyne/FictionReaper.git
fictionreaper --version

Option C — pip (venv)

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install "git+https://github.com/Fluder-Paradyne/FictionReaper.git"
fictionreaper --version

Option D — PyPI (after first publish)

pip install fictionreaper
# or:  uv tool install fictionreaper
# or:  pipx install fictionreaper

Publishing notes for maintainers: docs/PUBLISHING.md.

Requirements

Native wheels for dependencies (lxml, etc.) are published for common Mac/Linux platforms; a normal install does not need a compiler in most cases.

Quick start

# One chapter → Markdown + EPUB (default)
fictionreaper download \
  "https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning/chapter/301778/1-good-morning-brother"

# Whole fiction (many chapters — be polite with --delay)
fictionreaper download \
  "https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning" \
  --delay 1.0

# Formats
fictionreaper download "<url>" --format markdown
fictionreaper download "<url>" --format epub
fictionreaper download "<url>" --format markdown,epub
fictionreaper download "<url>" -f markdown -f epub

# Output directory
fictionreaper download "<url>" --output-dir ~/Books/rr

Output layout:

downloads/<fiction-slug>/
  0001-chapter-slug.md
  0002-chapter-slug.md
  ...
  <fiction-slug>.epub

HTTP API

fictionreaper serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8000
# docs: http://127.0.0.1:8000/docs

curl -sS -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:8000/download' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21220/mother-of-learning/chapter/301778/1-good-morning-brother",
    "output_dir": "downloads",
    "delay_seconds": 1.0,
    "formats": ["markdown", "epub"]
  }'

Development

git clone https://github.com/Fluder-Paradyne/FictionReaper.git
cd FictionReaper
uv sync --all-groups
uv run pytest
uv run mypy src
uv run ruff check src tests
uv build

Ethics & legal

• For personal archival / offline reading of content you are allowed to access.
• Be polite: keep a non-zero --delay, don’t hammer the site.
• Respect Royal Road’s Terms of Service and copyright.
• Default User-Agent: FictionReaper/0.1 (+https://github.com/Fluder-Paradyne/FictionReaper).

License

MIT — see LICENSE.