A self-hosted, Dockerized converter that automatically processes e-books and comics dropped into watched folders — no manual steps required.

For Kobo users: Converts .epub files to Kobo's native .kepub format using kepubify, giving you better performance and reading features than sideloaded EPUBs.

For all devices: Converts comic archives (.cbz, .cbr, .zip, .rar) into device-optimised files using Kindle Comic Converter (KCC), with full control over profile, cropping, splitting, gamma, and more.

All settings are configurable at runtime via a WebUI on port 5000 — no container rebuild needed. Supports PUID/PGID permission mapping for NAS and multi-user environments.

Supported devices: Kindle, Kobo, reMarkable, and any device KCC has a profile for.

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Quick Start

# 1. Copy docker-compose.yml from the repo and edit your paths
# 2. Find your user/group IDs
id
# → uid=1000(you) gid=1000(you)

# 3. Set PUID/PGID in docker-compose.yml, then start
docker compose up -d

# 4. Open the WebUI
http://<server-ip>:5000

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Folder Layout

bindery/
├── books_in/        ← drop .epub files here (Kobo users only)
├── books_out/       ← converted .kepub files appear here
├── comics_in/       ← drop .cbz / .cbr / .zip / .rar here
├── comics_out/      ← converted files appear here
├── comics_raw/      ← drop a flat folder of images here; Bindery zips it to CBZ and processes it automatically
│   ├── processed/   ← original image folders moved here on success
│   └── unprocessed/ ← folders with subfolders or no images moved here
└── config/          ← settings.json and jobs.json persisted here

All folders are created automatically on first run. Subfolders are preserved — a file at comics_in/Marvel/issue01.cbz will land at comics_out/Marvel/issue01.epub.

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docker-compose.yml

services:
  bindery:
    image: dinkeyes/bindery:latest
    container_name: bindery
    ports:
      - "5000:5000"
    environment:
      - PUID=1000   # replace with your uid
      - PGID=1000   # replace with your gid
    volumes:
      - ./config:/app/config
      - /path/to/books_in:/Books_in
      - /path/to/books_out:/Books_out
      - /path/to/comics_in:/Comics_in
      - /path/to/comics_out:/Comics_out
      - /path/to/comics_raw:/Comics_raw
    restart: unless-stopped
    logging:
      driver: "json-file"
      options:
        max-size: "10m"
        max-file: "3"

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WebUI

The WebUI at port 5000 gives you full control over Bindery without touching config files or restarting the container.

Processing Status

A live table shows every conversion job — filename, type, status (queued / processing / success / failed), timestamp, and elapsed time. Failed jobs show a Retry button that re-queues the file immediately. Job history is persisted in /app/config/jobs.json and survives container restarts (capped at 500 entries; oldest completed jobs are pruned first).

File Browser

Browse and download files directly from Books_out and Comics_out without needing Samba, SSH, or any other file access method. Switch between the two output folders using the tab buttons. Files are listed newest first with size and date.

Notifications

Bindery can send push notifications on conversion success and/or failure via Apprise, which supports 60+ services including ntfy, Discord, Slack, Telegram, Pushover, and email. Enter one URL per line in the Service URLs box under Bindery Settings, check which events you want, and save.

Example URLs:

ntfy://your-ntfy-server.com/bindery
ntfy://bindery-alerts          ← uses the free ntfy.sh public server
discord://webhook_id/token
tgram://bot_token/chat_id

Full URL formats for every supported service are in the Apprise docs.

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KCC Settings

All KCC settings are configured in the WebUI — each option includes a description inline. The most important settings to get right for your setup are:

• Device Profile — match your exact device for correct resolution. Default is KoLC (Kobo Libra Colour).
• Output Format — EPUB for Kobo, MOBI for Kindle.
• Manga Style — enables right-to-left page order; enable for manga.
• Stretch — fills the screen ignoring aspect ratio; on by default.
• Splitter — controls how landscape pages are split. Use Right then left for manga.

When Device Profile is set to Generic / Custom, width and height fields appear for custom resolutions.

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Bindery Settings

Setting	Default	Notes
Watcher Mode	poll	poll scans every 10 s and works everywhere including NFS/SMB. inotify detects files instantly but only works on local filesystems — files on network mounts will be silently missed. Requires a container restart to take effect.
File Stability Timeout	60 s	How long Bindery waits for a file to finish transferring before skipping it. Increase for slow network drives. Range: 10–300 s.
Notifications (Apprise)	(blank)	One Apprise service URL per line. Leave blank to disable notifications. See Apprise docs for URL formats.

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Behaviour

• Bindery watches /Books_in, /Comics_in and /Comics_raw using either poll mode (every 10 s, NAS/SMB/NFS compatible) or inotify mode (instant, local filesystems only).
• Each file gets a per-file lock so the same file is never processed twice concurrently.
• On success: converted file is moved to the output folder, source file is deleted.
• On failure: source file is renamed to <filename>.failed and will not be retried automatically. Use the Retry button in the WebUI to re-queue it.
• Raw image folders in Comics_raw are held until stable (no file changes for 30 s) before processing begins.
• Live logs are shown in the WebUI and streamed to docker logs.

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Use Cases

Bindery fits anywhere in a self-hosted media pipeline:

• Calibre-Web Automated — set books_out as the CWA ingest folder and converted .kepub files are imported to your library automatically
• Calibre auto-add — point Calibre's Auto Add folder at books_out or comics_out for hands-free import
• Cloud sync — use rclone to push converted files to Google Drive, Dropbox, or any cloud storage automatically

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rclone Auto-Sync

Install rclone, configure a remote (rclone config), then run on a schedule with cron:

crontab -e

*/15 * * * * rclone sync /path/to/bindery/comics_out gdrive:Comics --log-file=/var/log/rclone-comics.log
*/15 * * * * rclone sync /path/to/bindery/books_out gdrive:Books --log-file=/var/log/rclone-books.log

Full setup instructions including systemd service and provider-specific remote configuration are at rclone.org/docs.

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Updating

docker compose pull && docker compose up -d