audiosilo-meta

The community audiobook metadata database behind meta.audiosilo.app (planned, Phase 1).

The GitHub repository is the database. Metadata lives as plain JSON files, one per entity, edited by pull request or issue form, validated by Go tooling in CI, and compiled into a single SQLite artifact that servers consume.

Status: Phase 1 in progress - governance, schemas, the validation/build pipeline, the OpenAudible importer, the read-only API server (metaserve), the website (site/, served by metaserve), and the Docker image are built. The public deployment at meta.audiosilo.app and the remaining import paths are still planned. Only claim what exists.

Why this exists

No existing open database is both audiobook-specific and community-editable:

• Open Library, Wikidata and Inventaire are open (CC0) but have essentially no audiobook structure - no narrator field of substance, no chapters, no runtime.
• BookBrainz has no audiobook format and no narrator field.
• Audnexus (the backend Audiobookshelf and Plex read from) is a read-only cache over Audible's own catalogue; its own README says it exists only "during the interim of waiting for a community driven audiobook database."

So narrators, specific recordings, and chapters are treated here as first-class data - the fields every other database lacks, and the reason this project exists.

How the pipeline works

  contributor
      │  pull request  /  issue form
      ▼
  data/*.json  ──►  CI validation  ──►  meta.sqlite  ──►  API server + site
  (the database)    (metacheck +        (release          (metaserve,
                     metafmt, Go)        artifact)          read-only)

1. Contributors add or edit JSON files in data/ (by pull request, or via issue forms that become pull requests).
2. CI validates every pull request - schema, canonical formatting, referential integrity, and identifier uniqueness. A red pull request never merges.
3. On merge to main, a release workflow builds meta.sqlite and attaches it (gzipped, with a checksum) to a dated GitHub Release.
4. Servers download that artifact and serve a read-only API. All writes go through GitHub; there are no server-side accounts.

The data model

• Work - the abstract book (title, authors, language, series membership).
• Recording - a specific narration of a work (narrators, abridged flag, runtime, release date, publisher, region-scoped ASINs, ISBNs, cover URL, chapters). One work, many recordings.
• Person - a human shared across roles (author on works, narrator on recordings; can be both).
• Series - a named series with an ordered list of member works (string positions such as "2.5").

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is one work with two recordings - Stephen Fry and Jim Dale - each carrying its own ASINs. That is the shape this project is built around. Full details in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Repository layout

data/          the database: works/, recordings/, people/, series/ (sharded JSON)
schema/        JSON Schemas (one per entity) - authoritative field definitions
cmd/           Go tooling: metacheck (validate), metafmt (canonicalise), metabuild (SQLite), metaserve (API server)
internal/      shared Go packages behind the tooling (build, check, serve, ...)
Dockerfile     container image: API server + baked data + static site
.github/       issue forms + CI workflows (check, release, image)
CONTRIBUTING.md  GOVERNANCE.md  LICENSING.md

Quickstart

Requires Go 1.25+ (pure Go, no cgo, no external services).

git clone https://github.com/kodestar/audiosilo-meta
cd audiosilo-meta

# The gate - run before opening a pull request:
go build ./... && go vet ./... && go test ./... && \
  go run ./cmd/metacheck && go run ./cmd/metafmt --check

# Build the SQLite artifact locally (validates first):
go run ./cmd/metabuild -o meta.sqlite

• metacheck - schema, referential integrity, and uniqueness validation.
• metafmt --check / --write - canonical JSON (sorted keys, 2-space indent, trailing newline).
• metabuild -o meta.sqlite - compile the database into a SQLite file. --added <file> dates each work from a tab-separated <ISO8601>\t<work.json path> list (the release workflow derives it from git history); works absent from it fall back to the newest sources[].imported_at.

Running the API server

metaserve is a read-only JSON API over the compiled artifact - FTS search, work/person/series detail, chapter lists, and ASIN/ISBN lookup. All data is public, so there is no auth; the API sends permissive CORS.

# Dev: build the artifact, then serve it locally.
go run ./cmd/metabuild -o meta.sqlite
go run ./cmd/metaserve --db meta.sqlite --addr :8080

curl localhost:8080/healthz
curl 'localhost:8080/api/v1/search?q=dragon'
curl 'localhost:8080/api/v1/works/latest'
curl 'localhost:8080/api/v1/lookup?asin=B08G9PRS1K'

Key endpoints (all under /api/v1): stats, search?q=&limit=, works/latest?limit=, works/{id}, works/{id}/recordings/{rid}/chapters, people/{id}, series/{id}, lookup?asin=|isbn=, plus /healthz.

Flags: --db (local artifact), --site <dir> (serve a static site at /), --poll (fetch and hot-swap the latest published data release from GitHub), --repo (default KodeStar/audiosilo-meta), --interval (default 1h), --cache (download dir). With --poll and no --db, the server fetches the latest release on boot; with both, the baked artifact serves immediately and the poller upgrades in place. Set GITHUB_TOKEN to raise the API rate limit.

Docker

The image bundles the server, a baked copy of the current data, and the static site (built from site/). It serves the baked artifact immediately and polls for newer data releases.

docker build -t audiosilo-meta .
docker run -p 8080:8080 -v audiosilo-meta-cache:/data ghcr.io/kodestar/audiosilo-meta:latest

For a real deployment use the committed docker-compose.yml: loopback-only port (a TLS reverse proxy such as nginx/Ploi fronts it), a named volume for the release-download cache, and hourly data polling. The image entrypoint carries all required flags; command: appends extras (for example command: ["--interval", "15m"]). Health check endpoint: /healthz.

The image workflow builds and pushes ghcr.io/kodestar/audiosilo-meta on a v* tag.

Contributing

New contributions are welcome - by direct pull request or by issue form (no JSON required). Start with CONTRIBUTING.md; the merge policy and trust tiers are in GOVERNANCE.md.

Data rules in brief: factual fields only, no publisher blurbs, covers as URLs, own-words descriptions, sources[] on every record, and a CC0 dedication for every submission.

Licensing

What	Licence
Code (tooling, schemas, CI, future server)	AGPL-3.0-only (LICENSE)
Data - factual core (all current data)	CC0-1.0 public domain dedication
Data - derived layer (reserved, not yet accepted)	CC BY-SA 3.0

Publisher blurbs and cover art are referenced, never copied. Full policy, including the takedown / rightsholder opt-out channel, in LICENSING.md.

Roadmap

• Phase 0 (now) - governance, schemas, CI validation, the SQLite builder, and hand-curated records that prove the pipeline (including multi-recording works).
• Phase 1 (in progress) - the read-only Go API server (metaserve, FTS search + ASIN/ISBN lookup), the website (site/ - search-first landing, stats, latest additions, work/person/series pages), the Docker image, and the OpenAudible importer, the public deployment (meta.audiosilo.app), and the in-browser import page (/import - parses an OpenAudible export client-side and diffs it against the live catalogue) have landed. Still planned: seeding from Open Library / Wikidata identifier crosswalks, the Libation import path, and issue-form automation.
• Phase 1.5 - AudioSilo player integration (planned, the priority integration) - the AudioSilo server and player surface enriched metadata from this database. This is a defining product feature and ships before any Audiobookshelf-provider facade.
• Phase 2 (planned) - community-authored characters and recaps under strict length and originality rules, in a separately-tagged CC BY-SA layer.
• Phase 3+ (planned) - extraction tooling (spoiler-tagged character and recap data), and deeper player integration gated by the listener's progress position.

Community: questions, contribution help, and coordination happen on the AudioSilo Discord and in GitHub Discussions.

Design basis: the workspace feasibility study (../META-FEASIBILITY.md).