[Feature Request] Add Hardcover.app as metadata provider #374
Description
Feature Request: Hardcover.app as Additional Metadata Provider
Summary
Add Hardcover.app as an additional metadata and cover art source alongside the existing Audnexus/Audible/Amazon/OpenLibrary pipeline.
Why Hardcover?
Hardcover has a well-documented GraphQL API that provides audiobook-specific fields that complement what Audnexus and OpenLibrary already offer:
audio_seconds- audiobook duration (something Google Books and OpenLibrary lack)- Narrators - audiobook narrator credits
- Series with position data
- Cover art - high quality images with good coverage
- Ratings and reviews - community-driven
- ISBN, editions, and alternate editions
- Genres/categories
How it compares to existing sources
| Field | Audnexus | Audible Scrape | OpenLibrary | Hardcover |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title/Authors | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Narrators | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Duration | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ (audio_seconds) |
| Cover Art | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Series | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Description | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Genres | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Publisher | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Benefits
- Proper REST/GraphQL API - no fragile HTML scraping like Audible/Amazon (which can break when page layouts change)
- Audiobook-aware - unlike Google Books which has no narrator/duration fields
- Actively maintained - growing community-driven database
- Complements existing sources - fills gaps where Audnexus data is sparse or OpenLibrary lacks audiobook-specific info
- Fallback resilience - if Audible scraping breaks (CAPTCHA, layout changes), Hardcover provides an API-based alternative for much of the same data
Suggested implementation
- Add as a configurable provider with API token field in Settings > General
- Could be used as enrichment alongside Audnexus (similar to how OpenLibrary augments searches today)
- API docs: https://docs.hardcover.app/api/getting-started/
Prior art
The library-manager project demonstrates a proven multi-source pipeline using Audnexus + OpenLibrary + Google Books + Hardcover with consensus voting across sources.