librari.io is live — and we're just getting started
We're Out of Beta
librari.io is officially live.
No more beta labels. No more "early access" caveats. Just a fully working, production-ready app for anyone who wants to take their personal library seriously.
Getting here took longer than we expected — and exactly as long as it needed to. Beta gave us something invaluable: real users, with real book collections, who had real opinions about what was working and what wasn't. We listened. We rebuilt some things. We scrapped others. And we kept going until it felt right.
This post is part announcement, part thank you, and part look at what's ahead.
What We Built
We set out to build the personal library app we always wished existed. Here's what that looks like today.
Multiple libraries, one place. You can manage several distinct collections under one account — one for your home office, one for your bedroom shelf, one for the cabin. Each library has its own settings, currency, and optional public page.
Book locations that match reality. Every book can be placed on a specific shelf, in a specific row and position. When you have hundreds of books, knowing exactly where something is isn't a luxury — it's the whole point.
Reading statuses that tell the whole story. Currently Reading, Read, Want to Read, Did Not Finish — with start dates, finish dates, reading duration, and pages read. Your reading history, actually recorded.
Ratings and personal reviews. A 1–5 star rating and a private review field for every book. Because "I liked it" isn't always enough, and you'll want to remember why you loved something three years from now.
Custom lists. Not just one reading list — as many as you need. "Books to buy next," "Lend to no one," "Reread someday." Curate the way your brain actually works.
Loan management. Log who borrowed which book, when, and when it's due back. A simple feature that saves a lot of quiet resentment.
Custom fields. This one's for the collectors and the detail-oriented. You can add your own fields to books, authors, and publishers — condition, signed edition, purchase location, whatever matters to you. Text, numbers, dates, booleans, selectors. Build the catalog that fits your collection, not ours.
Google Books integration. Search and import book data directly rather than typing everything by hand.
What We Learned From Beta
Our beta users taught us a lot, but one thing stood out above everything else: people don't just want to track their books. They want to feel in control of their library.
That distinction shaped a lot of our decisions. Features that looked useful on paper got dropped because they added friction without adding clarity. Features we almost cut — like precise shelf positioning — turned out to matter deeply to the people who needed them.
We also learned that the best library management system is the one you'll actually keep up with. So we kept optimizing for speed and simplicity: adding a book should take seconds, not minutes.
What's Coming Next
Going live isn't the end of the roadmap — it's the start of a longer one.
We're currently working on AI-powered features that will make enriching your book data significantly faster. Think automatic description generation, smart tag suggestions, and more. The goal is to reduce the manual effort of cataloging so you can spend more time actually reading.
We're also planning family account support — a way for multiple people to share access to the same library. Whether it's a household collection or a couple's joint bookshelf, you shouldn't have to duplicate your catalog just because more than one person uses it.
And we're seriously considering mobile apps. The web app works well on any device, but a native app opens up things that a browser can't — better camera scanning, home screen access, offline support. It's on the roadmap.
Beyond that, we're exploring better public library pages, reading statistics and year-in-review summaries, and tools to make the social side of books — recommendations, shared lists, lend tracking between friends — feel more natural.
We have a clear picture of where this is going. We'll keep building it.
Thank You
To everyone who joined the beta, reported bugs, sent feedback, and stuck around while we figured things out: this launch is yours too.
librari.io is built for people who take their reading seriously. If that's you, create an account and get your library into shape. It's free to get started.
We're just getting started.