📚 KitBooks Changelog

v7.8 October 2026

Lists can be shared with someone else signed in.

• 👥 Share with… on a list: they can see it, or change its notes, name and order (never add, take away or delete). Shared with me in the Lists window.
• Someone invited has lists of their own.

v7.7 October 2026

Someone invited by the admin has a shelf of their own.

• Someone invited and given KitBooks sees only the books they add, with their own reading; they see nothing of your shelf, and you nothing of theirs.
• Zines, lists, share links and importing stay yours.

v7.6 October 2026

With KitHub's sign-in, each of you changes only your own reading, and each book's details belong to whoever added it.

• Your reading is yours. On any book you can set your own status, stars, notes, read date and ♥, as before; nobody else's.
• A book's details belong to whoever added it (title, author, cover, location, series, deleting it). Every book already here belongs to you both, so nothing changes for them. Who owns the physical copy is still just that, and still what the library toggle shows.
• Imports fill in your own reading only.

v7.5 October 2026

Each person's reading is kept as its own record, ready for more people.

• A change made on another device is never saved over. If a book or zine changed elsewhere while you had it open, your next change reloads it as it is now and says so; in ✎ Edit, what you typed stays in the form for you to save again.
• Your status, rating, notes, read date and favourite, and your zine ratings and reviews, are now kept one row per person, the way KitGames, KitFlicks and KitTunes keep theirs. They are still written to the old places too, and the two copies are compared every day.
• Re-fetching a book's details, a new cover and bulk changes no longer rewrite anyone's reading, so none of them can undo a status set at the same moment.
• A book or zine put back from Recently deleted comes back with everyone's reading, including ones deleted before this release.

v7.4.2 October 2026

• On a phone, swipe left or right on an open record to go to the next or previous one, as ← → do on a computer.

v7.4.1 October 2026

• Fixed: the 10% larger record on a phone, from the last release, broke the layout there. A phone shows a record at its usual size again; a computer keeps the 20%.

v7.4 October 2026

Your reviews, at a glance.

• 📝 on a book you have written notes on — your review — under its author, and right of your stars in the list view. On Both, each of you.
• My review among the filters: With my review, or Without. On Both, either of you. A share link does not offer it, since it hides your notes.
• On a phone, an open record now reads 10% larger too (20% on a computer since the last release).

v7.3 October 2026

Easier to read on a big screen.

• On a computer, an open record reads 20% larger: its text, buttons and pictures, and nothing else on the page. A phone is unchanged.

v7.2 October 2026

Lists, like KitTunes’ and KitFlicks’.

• 📋 Lists by the switches: ranked or not, a note on each book, section headers, drag or number to reorder.
• 📋 Add to list on every book, and from Select for several at once.
• Share a list by a link that shows just that list, read only, with one person’s status and stars.

v7.1 October 2026

Your reading on the covers.

• Each cover on the shelf shows Want to read, Reading, Read or DNF, in colour, as KitFlicks and KitTunes do, and a heart for a favourite.
• On Both, each of you has your own tag with your initial.

v7.0.1 October 2026

• Fixed: series still came in for almost no books. They now come from Google Books, which records a book’s series and number; Refresh, or Refresh all in the menu, fills them in for books you already have.
• Fixed: the preview in + Add showed only what the search had. It now looks the book up as adding would, and fills in the cover, series, publisher, pages, subjects, ratings and description, keeping nothing until you add it.

v7.0 September 2026

A cleaner book page, + Add that searches first, and the day you read each book.

• + Add searches: title, author or ISBN, with covers and a preview, straight into the library you are looking at. Entering by hand and scanning are a tap away.
• Your reading on the record, like KitFlicks and KitTunes: status chips (now with Did not finish), half stars, ♥ for a favourite, and Read on, a date that stays blank unless you enter it.
• Set it on the record: location, owner and series, each with its own ✎, and ‹ › to step through the shelf.
• Edit is the book itself now: no status, stars or notes there, and no other person’s.
• Series fill in from Open Library and Google Books when they have one with a number, and a refresh fills it for books that have none.
• Scan adds to the library you are looking at, too. Goodreads’ and StoryGraph’s read dates come in with an import; the CSV export carries read dates and favourites; shares never show read dates.

v6.2 September 2026

Find a book by its title or author, and choose another edition’s cover.

• Search by title or author at the top of the scanner: Open Library and Google Books together, with covers, for a book without its barcode to hand.
• Other covers in Edit: every cover of the book’s other editions, to pick one. It stays yours through refreshes, like an uploaded photo.
• A search result you already own says so; one with no ISBN is added with what the search knew.
• An uploaded cover photo is checked to be a picture, as the other apps’ uploads have been since 5.7.1.

v6.1.1 September 2026

• The barcode scanner is now KitHub’s own copy, loaded when you open Scan, instead of from an outside site on every visit.

v6.1 September 2026

• Recently deleted: books and zines you delete waits 14 days in KitHub’s new Recently deleted tab, with its photos, notes and places in lists, and Put back returns it where it was.
• Customize tabs in the ⋯ menu: put Books and Zines in your order and hide the ones you don’t use. It opens on your first one.
• One theme everywhere: with it switched on in KitHub, this app follows KitHub’s theme, unless you choose one of its own here.

v6.0 September 2026

Zines: a shelf of their own beside the books, curated by hand.

• A Zines tab, switched to from the header: name, artist, a photo if you like, topic, how you got it, where it lives, size (mini to tall), whether it is informative, and notes.
• Your own rating and review. Each of you rates and reviews a zine for yourself, and sees only your own.
• Everything filters: artist, topic, acquisition, location, size, rating, informative and whether it has a photo, with search across names, notes and your reviews. Artists, topics, acquisitions and locations suggest from what you have used, and zines keep locations of their own, apart from the books’.
• Include my zines in Share library adds a Zines tab to a link, without locations, notes or reviews. Ticking it keeps the same link.
• Zines can be linked from KitDB, count on the dashboard, and have their own export.

v5.4.2 September 2026

• The sort you chose is kept after a reload: the sort, on each device.

v5.4.1

• Links from KitDB open here. Tapping a book linked in a KitDB note opens this app on it, switching to the library that has it.

v5.4

• ? Help at the bottom of the menu the name opens: what every part of KitBooks does, on a phone and on a computer, with what is new at the top.
• A new home-screen icon, drawn to match its dock button, and a complete app manifest, so installing it gives it a window and an icon of its own — including in Vivaldi on Linux.
• The version beside the name now always matches this page. It said v5.3 while the app was v5.3.1.

v5.3.1

• The rain animation no longer throws when a browser hands back no 2D canvas context. It used to take the theme menu down with it; now it simply declines to run, which is the right outcome for decoration.

v5.3

• Moved into KitHub — KitBooks now runs inside the KitHub process instead of its own service. Same database, same features; the catalogue was adopted exactly as it was.
• Two ways in — still at its own address with its own password, and now also from the KitHub home page, where one password covers every app.
• Shared household list — Ethan and Serengeti are defined once in KitHub instead of separately per app.
• Share links moved to KitHub — one registry for every app. Creating, regenerating and disabling links works exactly as before, and every previous link shape still resolves.
• ‘ KitHub button — appears in the header when you arrive through the hub.
• Config moved — the password is now KITHUB_BOOKS_PASSWORD in /etc/kithub.env, and there is no built-in fallback password any more.config
• Known limitation — renaming a person in KitHub settings is refused while KitBooks is installed. KitBooks keeps each person's status, rating and notes in fixed columns, so a rename needs a schema migration first. That migration is planned as its own release.

v5.2.3

• Fix: share scrubbing when logged in — opening a share link from a browser that also had a KitBooks session showed the full, unscrubbed data (descriptions on no-spoilers links, plus notes, location, and loans). A presented share token now always applies its scope, even with a session cookie — so previewing a link shows exactly what a viewer gets. A revoked token is refused even for logged-in browsers.
• Version badge → changelog — tapping the little version number next to the KitBooks name opens this page.
• Changelog matches your theme — this page now uses whatever theme you've picked in the app instead of always being brown.

v5.2.2

• Share links can be disabled — the share dialog now shows the link in a copyable field with Disable link and Regenerate buttons (KitGames-style). Each scope's link is a stored token: disable kills it instantly, regenerate replaces it, and a footer shows every link currently active. Your pre-v5.2.2 "everything" link was migrated in and can now be revoked like any other.
• Shared pages hide location and loans — where a book lives and who's borrowing it are stripped server-side from every share response, alongside notes.

v5.2.1

• Scoped share links — "Share library…" in the menu now shares whatever the toggle shows: Serengeti's books, Ethan's, or everything on Both. Each scope gets its own link, and the scope is enforced by the server — editing the URL can't widen it. Links made before v5.2.1 keep working and mean "everything".
• No Spoilers share toggle — when generating a link, a 🙈 toggle produces a variant with all descriptions hidden (also server-enforced).
• Fuller shared view — shared pages now show every field: location, owner, series, tags, genre, loan status, community rating, and both readers' status/stars. Notes — anyone's — are never included in any share link.

v5.2

• The toggle now picks a library — Serengeti and Ethan show only the books that person owns; a new Both option shows everything. Serengeti is first and the default. The owner dropdown left the filter panel since the toggle replaces it.
• Tap-the-stars rating — all five stars always show; tap the left half of a star for a half star, the right half for a full one (KitGames style), with a small ✕ to clear. Works in the book view and the edit form.
• Per-person notes — Serengeti's notes and Ethan's notes are separate fields. In a person's view your notes are editable inline and the other person's show smaller when written; in Both, both are editable. Notes from before v5.2 stay visible as "Shared notes". Goodreads/StoryGraph reviews now import into the right person's notes.
• Both view details — the book view shows both people's status/stars rows, list view badges show S · and E · lines, status filters match either person ("Unread" = neither has read it), and "My rating" sorts by the higher of the two.
• Loan dates are MM-DD-YYYY — displayed and saved that way; anything typed as YYYY-MM-DD is converted automatically.
• Themed scrollbars — scrollbars across the app (and the shared + changelog pages) follow the active theme instead of the browser default.

v5.1

• Reader toggle up front — the Ethan / Serengeti switch is now a big segmented toggle on the main screen (KitGames style) instead of a menu entry. It drives status filters, "My rating" sort, list-view badges, and the quick controls below.
• List view — a ☷ button next to the sort switches the library to compact rows (small cover, title, author, location) with your status and rating on the right. Sticks between visits.
• Edit without Edit — in the book view you can now set your own status and rating directly (saves instantly), and Notes and Loaned-to collapse to small + Add note / + Loaned out links that expand into inline editors. A one-tap Returned clears a loan.
• The other reader's line — their status and rating sit in smaller text directly under your own controls, and only when they've actually set something.
• Grid cards show 📍 location only again — the 👤 owner badge from v5 is gone (owner is still in the book view, filters, and bulk edit).

v5

• Per-person reading data — Ethan and Serengeti each get their own read status (Want to read / Reading / Read) and half-star rating on every book. A "Reading as" switch in the menu controls whose status the filters and sorts use.
• Community ratings — each lookup now pulls the average reader rating and rating count from Open Library (with Google Books as fallback), shown as stars in the book view. Sortable.
• Store mode — a check-only toggle in the scanner: scan a barcode at a bookstore and instantly see whether you already own it (and where it lives), without adding anything.
• Series support — series name + number fields with autocomplete, a series filter, and a Series sort that shelves trilogies together in order.
• Loan tracking — "loaned to" and "loaned on" fields plus a 🤝 Loaned-out filter for everything currently out of the house.
• Bulk edit — a Select mode: tap books to select them, then set owner/location or add tags/genres to all of them at once, or delete in bulk.
• Refresh all metadata — one menu action re-fetches every book in the background on the server (politely rate-limited), with a live progress bar. Tags, ratings, notes, and photos are never touched.
• Stats — totals, pages, read counts per person, breakdowns by owner/genre/subject/location, and an added-per-month chart.
• Goodreads & StoryGraph import — drop in either service's CSV export and it's detected automatically; shelves map to read status and star ratings land on whoever you're reading as.
• Read-only share link — an unlisted URL (menu → Copy share link) that shows the library without login and without any edit controls.
• Random pick 🎲 — picks a book from whatever filters are active ("random unread fantasy" is one tap).
• Smarter sorting — Title sort ignores leading The/A/An; Author sort uses the first author's last name.
• Home-screen app — a web app manifest so "Add to Home Screen" opens KitBooks fullscreen with a proper icon.
• Scanner flashlight — a 🔦 torch toggle appears on phones that support it.
• Cover lightbox — tap a cover in the book view to see it full-size.
• Owner on cards — the library grid now shows 👤 owner alongside 📍 location.
• This changelog page.
• Backups: CSV export/import now round-trips every field including the cover filename, so a restored database reconnects with restored cover files.

v4

• Owner field — every book can belong to Serengeti or Ethan; set per scan session, shown as a filter and in exports.
• Filter panel — a proper funnel-button panel with owner/subject/location dropdowns and tap-able chips, plus an active-filter count badge and Clear button.
• Genre vs. Subjects — lookup-sourced subjects and your own genre labels became separate fields (v4.2), each with its own chips.
• Include/exclude chips — tap a genre or tag chip once to require it, twice to exclude it (v4.2).
• Themes — six color themes (Warm Brown, Cozy Purple, Forest Green, Rainy Day, Dusty Rose, Slate), each with automatic light/dark variants — and yes, Rainy Day rains.
• No Spoilers mode — hides all descriptions until you turn it off (v4.2).
• Backup & restore — CSV import that skips duplicates and preserves added-dates, pairing with the nightly Google Drive backup (v4.1).
• Refresh became a merge — re-fetching metadata fills gaps but never overwrites or blanks fields you've curated, and never discards covers or hand-taken photos (v4.1.1–v4.2).
• Smarter lookups — when a scanned edition is sparse, KitBooks walks up to the parent work and across sibling editions, then falls back to Google Books by ISBN and by title+author (v4.1.2).
• Cleaner subjects — foreign-language and catalog-noise subjects are filtered out of lookups (v4.1.1).
• App icon — favicon and a proper home-screen icon (v4.1).
• Fixed the edit form overflowing on narrow phones (v4.1).

v3

• Version badge — the little superscript version next to the app name.
• Location autofill fixed on mobile — replaced the native datalist (which Android Chrome ignores) with the same custom suggestion dropdown tags use.
• Tidy descriptions — long synopses clamp to a sentence boundary near 300 characters with Read more / Show less.
• Real menu — the ⋯ button became an actual dropdown (export, log out) instead of a browser prompt.

v2

• Renamed to KitBooks.
• Read-only book view — tapping a book shows a clean detail page; editing is behind an explicit ✎ Edit button.
• Tag autocomplete — suggests your existing tags as you type, so "signed" never becomes "signd".
• Photo covers — snap a picture of a book that has no cover art; photos are downscaled on the phone before upload and survive metadata refreshes.
• update.sh for one-command server updates.

v1

• The whole thing — scan a barcode with the phone camera (or type an ISBN) and the book is looked up on Open Library with Google Books as fallback: title, author, cover, description, page count, subjects.
• Cover images cached on the server, never hotlinked.
• Library grid with instant search, tag and location filters, and sorting.
• Edit anything; add books manually; delete.
• CSV and JSON export.
• Password login with 90-day sessions, designed to sit behind the household Cloudflare Tunnel.
• Single ~7 MB Go binary + SQLite file, ~13 MB of RAM — happy on a 512 MB VPS.