Guide

Reader is a local-first reading app for EPUB, PDF, and Markdown with built-in AI workflows for understanding, translation, search, and organization.

This guide is organized around the way people actually use the app: import documents, read with the right view mode, understand difficult passages, and keep the library organized.

Start here

Installation: install Reader from releases or build it locally
User Manual: day-to-day workflows inside the app
What's New: recent feature updates in v0.4.12 to v0.4.14
MCP Tools Reference: tools exposed by the standalone MCP server

Core workflows

Import and browse

Import EPUB, PDF, and Markdown from local files
Browse with Grid, List, or Compact
Filter by format, favorites, and tags

Read and understand

Switch reading mode with Reading View
Use Text Parse for clean text-first reading
Use Multimedia Parse when you want media-aware Markdown rendering
Turn on translation, then switch among Source Only, Translation Only, or Source + Translation
Select text and send it to Understand, Dict, notes, or annotation flows

Build reusable knowledge

Save preferred term renderings in Glossary
Attach concept tags to technical vocabulary
Apply document tags manually or through AI suggestions
Review related documents connected by shared tags

Architecture snapshot

Desktop shell: Tauri 2 (Rust)
Frontend: React + TypeScript
Local embedding: @xenova/transformers
Storage: SQLite

Guide ​

Start here ​

Core workflows ​

Import and browse ​

Read and understand ​

Build reusable knowledge ​

Architecture snapshot ​

Next reading ​