Caution

I do not provide pre-hosted instances of the MetaChan API. You will need to host your own instance of the API to use it. MetaChan is provided on an "as-is" basis and fetches data from various public sources and projects, some of which may have rate limits, restrictions, and even contain pirated content. The API is intended for personal use only and should not be used for commercial purposes. I do not take any responsibility for any legal issues that may arise from using the API. Please use it at your own risk. I do not condone piracy or illegal distribution of content.

MetaChan

Welcome to MetaChan. MetaChan is an Anime and Manga metadata API that provides a RESTful interface for accessing metadata for various anime and manga titles. MetaChan best integrates with MyAnimeList and uses MAL IDs as the primary identifier for anime and manga titles. AniList is also supported partially and will reverse lookup MAL IDs.

Deployment Options

You can deploy this API using either a Docker container or by running it directly with Go. The API supports multiple database systems including SQLite, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL Server.

Database configuration is handled through environment variables^{[See: Configuring Environment Variables]}.

Local Development

Prerequisites

• Go 1.24.1 or later
• Make

If you wish to use Docker, you will also need to install Docker. Additionally, you may need to install one of the supported databases if you wish to use a database other than SQLite.

• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
• SQLite (not required, but recommended for development)

You might also need to install Git if you want to clone the repository.

Configuring Environment Variables

You can configure the environment variables by creating a .env file in the root directory of the project. The example .env file contains all the available environment variables and their default values. You can modify these values to suit your needs. The following environment variables are available:

Variable Name	Description	Default Value
DB_DRIVER	The database driver to use. Supported drivers are sqlite, postgres, mysql, and sqlserver. The options are case-sensitive.	sqlite
DSN	The Data Source Name (DSN) for the database connection. This is used to connect to the database. The format of the DSN depends on the database driver you are using. Following are the DSN formats for each driver: • sqlite: metachan.db or /path/to/metachan.db • postgres: host=localhost port=5432 user=postgres password=postgres dbname=metachan sslmode=disable • mysql: root:password@tcp(localhost:3306)/metachan • sqlserver: sqlserver://localhost:1433?database=metachan	metachan.db
PORT	The port to run the API on.	3000

Starting Development Server

After you have installed the prerequisites, forked the repository and cloned it to your local machine, start by installing the dependencies:

make setup

This will create an example .env file in the root directory of the project. You can use this file to configure the environment variables for your local development environment and database connection.

Now you can start the development server by running:

make dev

Building for Production

Warning

The API is still under heavy development and the main branch contains breaking changes. A lot of features are still missing and the Documentation is not complete. There are no releases yet. If you still want to use the API, you can build it from the source code or use the Dockerfile to build a Docker image. The API is not production ready yet and should be used at your own risk. I am not responsible for any data loss or damage caused by using the API.

Building for production use is easy. To build for production, run the following commands:

make build
make run

This will build the binary and run it. The API will be available at http://localhost:3000 by default.

Docker

You can also run the API using Docker. The Dockerfile is included in the repository and can be used to build a Docker image for the API. To build the Docker image, run the following command:

docker build -t metachan .

This will build the Docker image with the name metachan. You can then run the Docker image using the following command:

docker run -p 3000:3000 -e DB_DRIVER=sqlite -e DSN=metachan.db --name metachan metachan

This will run the Docker image and expose the API on port 3000. You can change the DB_DRIVER and DSN environment variables to use a different database. The API will be available at http://localhost:3000 by default.

API Documentation

Note

Documentation for this API is not complete. The API is still under heavy development and the endpoints are subject to change. This README file will be updated with the API documentation once it is available.