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Using Bibliogon as a Web App

Bibliogon also runs as a backendless web app at astrapi69.github.io/bibliogon/. There is nothing to install: open the URL in any modern browser and you can start writing. This build talks to no server at all — it boots from data baked into the page and stores everything you create in your own browser.

This is different from the desktop app's offline mode (see Offline mode and LAN access), which keeps a backend around and falls back to a local copy only when that backend is unreachable. The web app never has a backend in the first place.

What works offline

Almost everything the desktop does:

  • Writing prose books, articles, picture-books and comics.
  • The Story Bible (characters, settings, items, lore), entity links and relationships — see Story Bible offline.
  • The Storyboard, chapter labels, writing goals and writing history.
  • Exporting in the browser to Markdown, HTML, plain text, PDF, EPUB and DOCX — see Browser export.
  • Importing a Medium HTML export.
  • Settings, themes and the eight interface languages.

What needs the desktop app

Four features are genuinely impossible in a browser and are disabled in the web app, each with a short "requires the desktop app" hint:

  • Pandoc / LaTeX export (the high-fidelity desktop export pipeline).
  • Git sync and Git backup.
  • Audiobook generation (text-to-speech).
  • LAN mode.

Where your data lives

Everything you create in the web app is stored in your browser, in its built-in database (IndexedDB). Nothing is uploaded anywhere.

Two consequences worth knowing:

  • The data is tied to this browser on this device. It does not sync to another browser or machine. To move work elsewhere, export it (for example as EPUB or DOCX) and re-import.
  • Clearing your browser's site data for the page also clears your books. If you rely on the web app, export your work regularly.

Updates and the build version

The web app updates itself: when a new version is published, the service worker fetches it in the background and the next reload runs the new build.

To check which build you are on, open Settings > Über (About). It shows the version, the build hash and the build date.

Clearing a stale Service Worker

Very rarely a cached service worker can get stuck on an old build. If the app looks broken after an update, force a clean reload:

  1. Open your browser's developer tools (F12).
  2. Go to Application > Service Workers (Chrome/Edge) or Storage > Service Workers (Firefox).
  3. Click Unregister, then reload the page.

A normal hard reload (Ctrl+Shift+R) is usually enough; the unregister step is only for the stubborn cases.