Libraries
Shisho organizes your collection into libraries, each pointing at one or more directories on disk. This page covers how to create, configure, and delete a library.
Creating a Library
Go to Admin → Libraries → Add Library. Choose a name, pick a cover aspect ratio (book, audiobook, or a fallback mode), and add one or more directory paths. Saving the library kicks off a scan of the configured paths automatically.
Library Settings
Each library has its own settings page reachable from Admin → Libraries → Settings on the corresponding row. Settings cover:
- Library name and paths — rename or add/remove scanned directories.
- Cover display aspect ratio — how book and series covers render in gallery views.
- Download format preference — original / KePub / Ask-on-download for EPUB and CBZ files.
- Organize file structure during scans — when enabled, Shisho moves and renames files into a standardized layout. See Directory Structure for the naming rules and triggering events.
- Plugin order — override the global plugin order for this library.
Deleting a Library
At the bottom of the library settings page, users with libraries:write permission (Admin and Editor roles by default) see a Danger Zone section with a Delete library button.
Click the button, type the library name to confirm, and click Delete. The confirmation dialog surfaces these caveats:
- The action is irreversible. There is no undo.
- Files on disk are not deleted. Book files, audiobooks, comics, and PDFs remain exactly where they are.
- Sidecar and metadata files are not cleaned up.
.shisho.jsonsidecars,.cover.jpgimages, and other generated metadata remain on disk. Remove them manually if you want a truly clean slate.
What Is Deleted
- The library row itself.
- All books, files, series, persons (authors and narrators), genres, tags, and publishers scoped to the library.
- All file identifiers and chapters for those files.
- Per-library plugin configuration, hook configuration, and field settings.
- Per-user library access grants and per-user library settings (sort spec, etc.).
- Full-text search entries for the above so searches no longer surface stale results.
What Happens to Active Jobs
Any pending or in-progress scan, hash, or plugin job scoped to the deleted library is cancelled (marked failed) as part of the deletion. Global jobs and jobs targeting other libraries are untouched.
See Users and Permissions for how to grant or revoke libraries:write.