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Lightnovel Crawler (lncrawl) is an open-source tool that downloads light novels from online sources and converts them into ebook formats you can read offline. It supports 361 sources and 391 crawlers across multiple languages, and outputs to formats including EPUB, MOBI, PDF, DOCX, and more.

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Key features

360+ sources

Crawl novels from 361 supported sources across English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and many other languages.

Multiple output formats

Export to EPUB, MOBI, PDF, DOCX, RTF, FB2, AZW3, TXT, JSON, and more via native generation or Calibre conversion.

Three usage modes

Use the CLI for scripting, the web UI for a graphical interface, or Docker for portable deployment.

Search & discover

Search for novels by title across supported sources directly from the command line or web interface.

Flexible chapter selection

Download all chapters, a specific range, only the first N, or only the latest N chapters.

Bot support

Use lncrawl through Discord and Telegram bots for a chat-based download experience.

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Usage modes

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CLI

The lncrawl command-line interface is the primary way to interact with the tool. You can search for novels, crawl a URL, and output to any supported format — all from your terminal. 
# Search for a novel
lncrawl search "martial world"

# Crawl a novel URL and download as EPUB
lncrawl crawl https://example.com/novel/ --all -f epub

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Web server

Run lncrawl server to start a local web application at http://localhost:8080. The web UI lets you search, queue downloads, and manage your novel library through a browser interface. 
lncrawl server
Default login credentials: username admin, password admin.

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Docker

Docker is the easiest way to run lncrawl in an isolated environment or on a server. 
docker pull ghcr.io/lncrawl/lightnovel-crawler
docker tag ghcr.io/lncrawl/lightnovel-crawler lncrawl
docker run -v ~/.lncrawl:/data --rm -it lncrawl

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Supported platforms

Lightnovel Crawler runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is available as:
  • A Python package via pip (all platforms)
  • A standalone binary (Windows, macOS, Linux)
  • A Docker image
Python 3.9 or higher is required for the pip installation.

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Discord and Telegram bots

You can interact with lncrawl through community-hosted Discord and Telegram bots. These bots let you request novel downloads directly from a chat interface without installing anything locally.

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Get started

Installation

Install lncrawl on your platform using pip, a standalone binary, or Docker.

Quickstart

Download your first novel in under 2 minutes.

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