mangabaka-seeder

mbseed is a command-line tool for seeding edits to the MangaBaka manga/comics database, in the spirit of yambs for MusicBrainz.

Today it does one thing well: given a Webtoons series URL, it finds every cover that series has used, current and historical, and requests them added to the matching MangaBaka series. The current poster becomes the main (default) cover for the edition's language.

More sources (Tapas, Tappytoon, …) and more kinds of edits are planned; see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md for how they plug in.

How it works

1. Read the series. It reads the Webtoons page: title, title_no, language, and official or canvas.
2. Find the MangaBaka series. It searches MangaBaka by title and picks the series whose Webtoons link has the same title_no.
3. Collect covers.
   • Current: the portrait poster, the square thumbnail, and the banner and hero art.
   • Historical: the cover images in archived copies of the series page on the Wayback Machine, up to one snapshot per month.
4. Check each image.
   • It downloads each image to get its size and hash.
   • It classifies the image by shape: portrait → volume, square → other, wide → banner.
   • It drops duplicates and images MangaBaka already has.
5. Build the submission. The submission keeps all existing covers and adds the new ones. The current poster is the default, or the square for canvas series, which have no poster. Every new cover gets a note recording where and when it was seen.
6. Hand it to you. It either submits through the MangaBaka API (with your confirmation) or opens a local review page to help you enter it by hand.

Nothing reaches MangaBaka without your confirmation, and API submissions always go to review (save_mode: "review").

Installation

Requires Node.js 22 or newer.

npm install
npm run build
npm link        # puts `mbseed` on your PATH

Usage

Usage: mbseed [options] <URL>

Options:
  --action <print|serve|submit>  What to do with the seed
                                 (default: submit if MANGABAKA_TOKEN is set, else serve)
  --series <id>                  MangaBaka series id (skips automatic matching)
  --no-history                   Only use covers currently on the source page
  --history-limit <n>            Max archived snapshots to inspect (default 60)
  --json                         With --action print: print the seed as JSON
  --yes                          With --action submit: don't ask for confirmation
  --addr <host:port>             With --action serve: listen address (default localhost:8999)
  --verbose                      Log every HTTP request
  -h, --help                     Show help

Environment:

Variable	Purpose
MANGABAKA_TOKEN	Personal access token (mb-…). Enables --action submit.
MANGABAKA_API	API base URL (default https://api.mangabaka.org).

Without API access (most users)

MangaBaka's submissions API is only open to contributors, or to users with at least 25 approved submissions. Without a token, mbseed starts a local review page:

mbseed https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/list?title_no=95
# → Review page at http://localhost:8999

The page shows each new cover with its thumbnail, size, suggested type, language and note. Tick the ones you want, copy their URLs, and use the link to open MangaBaka's cover form for the series. The form can't be pre-filled automatically.

With API access

export MANGABAKA_TOKEN=mb-...
mbseed https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/list?title_no=95

mbseed fetches the current cover set, shows MangaBaka's preview diff, asks for confirmation and submits the request for review. If the API refuses access (403), it falls back to the review page.

Just looking

mbseed --action print https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/tower-of-god/list?title_no=95
mbseed --action print --json <URL> > seed.json

Supported sources

Source	URLs	Current covers	Historical covers
WEBTOON (official & canvas)	https://www.webtoons.com/<lang>/…/list?title_no=N, m.webtoons.com	poster, square, banner, foreground	Wayback Machine

Each Webtoons language edition has its own title_no. Run mbseed once per edition URL; the covers are tagged with that edition's language.

Notes and limitations

• Image hosting. Covers are submitted as URLs on Webtoons' image server (swebtoon-phinf.pstatic.net), at their original size. We haven't confirmed that MangaBaka accepts this host.
• Some covers may only exist in the archive. If an old cover is no longer on Webtoons' server, its archive.org copy is used instead.
• Not everything is a cover. Some historical images are promotional or landing-page art. Review the list before submitting.
• Requests are rate-limited to stay polite to Webtoons, the Wayback Machine and MangaBaka.

Development

npm test           # vitest, fixture-based, no network
npm run typecheck
npm run dev -- --action print <URL>   # run from source with tsx

To add a new source, see docs/ARCHITECTURE.md § 4.1.