Photograph your shelves with your phone, upload to Claude AI, and BookBinder builds you a searchable catalogue of your entire home library. No typing. No barcodes. No cloud subscription.
Free forever — runs on your own computer or server. Needs Docker Desktop (free) and a free Claude.ai account.
One shelf per photo, straight on. Your phone camera is all you need.
Group each bookcase into a zip file, upload to Claude.ai with a simple prompt.
Claude AI reads every title and author, generates the import SQL for you.
Paste the SQL into BookBinder and your catalogue is ready to search and browse.
A real collection — 744 books across 15 bookcases.
Claude reads the spines directly from your photos. It handles faded text, unusual angles, and old books with worn covers. Anything it can't read clearly gets flagged so you can check the physical book later.
A collection of 700 books across 15 bookcases can be catalogued in a few hours.
Jump to any bookcase or category from the sidebar. Categories with sub-categories have an expand arrow — Medical breaks into Anatomy, Osteopathy, Physiotherapy and more. Sailing into Pilot Books, Almanacs, Cruising Guides. Whatever you decide.
Sortable columns, pagination, and a search bar that works across title and author.
Add books manually, edit any field inline without leaving the list, move a book to a different bookcase or shelf, or mark it as lent out (with who has it). A delete button handles books that have left the collection for good.
Browsing is open to everyone. Editing requires a password you set yourself.
Mark any book as lent out and record who has it. Lent books show a small amber badge in the list. The sidebar shows a count of books currently out, and you can filter to see them all at once.
BookBinder runs entirely on your own machine or server. Your book collection is nobody else's business. No subscriptions, no accounts to manage, no data leaving your home.
Docker Desktop makes it a one-command install on Mac, Windows or Linux. Or drop it onto any PHP/MySQL web server.
A flexible two-level category system you can adapt to your collection.
Free. Mac, Windows or Linux.
Download here →
Free account at claude.ai. Used to read your book spines.
Sign up free →
iPhone or Android. Any phone with a decent camera works fine.
PHP 7.4+ and MySQL. Any shared hosting works. No Docker needed.
Free to download. Free to use. Takes an afternoon to catalogue a houseful of books.
⬇ Download BookBinder freeBookBinder is free. If it's been useful, please consider a small donation — donate via JustGiving to BookTrust, Oxfam, Shelter or MSF.