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One Self-Hosted Place That Syncs Reading Progress, Highlights, And Notes Across KOReader, Kindle, And The Web Instead Of Duct-Taping Four Tools Together

other real project •• multiple requests

People who self-host their ebook library with Calibre-Web and read on KOReader can finally sync reading position, but highlights and notes still live on-device or require a separate desktop app plus manual plugins, and progress desyncs across different file formats of the same book. The niche wants one system where annotations and progress follow the reader everywhere and surface back in the web library, without a cloud subscription.

builder note

Do not rebuild progress sync, KOSync already won that. The real gap is a normalized annotation model that survives a book changing formats and renders in the web reader. Build the highlights layer on top of the existing KOSync protocol rather than forking it.

landscape (4 existing solutions)

Reading-position sync is basically a solved, commodity piece now. Unified highlights and notes sync that survives format changes and surfaces inside a self-hosted web library is not, so readers still glue together three or four separate tools to approximate it.

KOReader Sync Server (KOSync) Syncs reading position only, and only between KOReader instances. No highlights, no notes, and nothing for Kindle or web readers.
Calibre-Web-Automated Recently added KOReader progress sync, but not highlights or notes, and reading position desyncs across epub, kepub, and pdf copies of the same title.
KOHighlights A separate desktop app for viewing and exporting KOReader highlights. Manual, not integrated into your web library, and not tied to progress sync.
Readwise Polished highlight syncing but cloud-only, subscription-priced, and built around Kindle and web. Not your self-hosted KOReader library.

sources (2)

other https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web/issues/2122 "Sync reading status and highlights/notes in KOReader" 2021-09-22
other https://github.com/crocodilestick/Calibre-Web-Automated/issu... "Koreader Sync doesn't seem to sync progress across different formats of the same ebook" 2026-03-17
self-hostedebookskoreadercalibre-webannotations