📚 DocViewer

A lightweight, local web server for reading and managing documents natively in your browser.

DocViewer turns your browser into a high-performance document reader. By converting formats like EPUB, DOCX, and Markdown into native HTML, it ensures that your favorite browser extensions—like dictionaries, translators, and text-to-speech—work perfectly across all your books and papers.

Features

• Universal Support: Read .pdf, .epub, .docx, .odt, .txt, and .md files in your browser.
• Web Native: Converts EPUBs, DOCX, and Markdown to pure HTML on the fly.
• Auto Dark Mode: Respects your system's dark/light mode preference automatically.
• Local Library: Keeps track of your documents in a clean web UI.
• No File Duplication (Optional): Upload copies, OR map entire local folders directly.
• Quick View: Temporarily open a file in your browser without saving it to your library.

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🚀 First-Time Setup

This tool is built with Python and installed globally using uv (a lightning-fast Python package manager). If you're starting from scratch, follow these steps:

1. Install uv

If you don't have uv installed yet, open your terminal and run the command for your operating system:

macOS & Linux:

curl -LsSf [https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh](https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh) | sh

Windows:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm [https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1](https://astral.sh/uv/install.ps1) | iex"

(Note: You may need to restart your terminal after installing uv for the first time).

2. Install DocViewer

Navigate to the folder containing this project in your terminal, then install it globally:

uv tool install .

(If you are updating to a new version of DocViewer later, run uv tool install . --force)

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📖 Usage

Start the Web Interface

To launch your library dashboard (defaults to http://localhost:2005):

docviewer serve

(You can specify a custom port with docviewer serve --port 8080)

Once the server is running, you can manage your files directly in the browser via the Web UI.

CLI Commands (Terminal)

You can also bypass the Web UI and manage files straight from your terminal.

Add files or scan entire directories: Recursively scans a folder and adds all supported documents to your library.

docviewer add "C:\Users\Name\Books"
docviewer add "~/Documents/research.pdf"

Quick View (Temporary Mode): Instantly spin up the server, open a specific file in your browser, and forget it ever existed once you close the server. Great for quickly checking a file without cluttering your library.

docviewer open "~/Downloads/temporary_book.epub"

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⚙️ Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• To read .odt or .odf files, you must have Pandoc installed on your system. All other formats work out-of-the-box!