Asked at the desk.

Your book files stay in the folder you point Scalino at (the desktop default is ~/Library) — they are never moved or modified. The library index, covers, reading positions and notes live in a local database in your user data directory. If you never enable Google Drive sync, that local copy is the only copy.

PDF (rendered with a native PDFium engine), EPUB (paged or scrolled, via epub.js) and CBZ comic archives. Covers are generated automatically for every book. DRM-protected files are not supported — see below.

Through your own Google Drive. After you sign in (always optional), Scalino uses a real, visible folder — named Library — that you can browse at drive.google.com like any other folder. Your desktop pushes books and covers automatically; your Android device shows the shelf and downloads a book only when you open it. Reading positions, notes, tags and metadata travel in a single compact database inside that folder, so a new device catches up in one download.

Changes merge per field: the newest reading position wins, but a note typed on your phone won’t be lost because your desktop session also saved something. Your position, your notes and your catalog each resolve independently — last edit wins, per field, not last device wins.

Only what a chat requires: your question plus a small snippet of the current chapter as context. It goes to the OpenAI-compatible provider you configured — a hosted service or a local server on your own machine. Scalino runs no AI service of its own, no provider is configured by default, and your API key is stored in your operating system’s keyring (macOS Keychain, Windows Credential Manager, Linux Secret Service) — never in app storage.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is a standard way for AI assistants to talk to local tools. Scalino includes a server that exposes your library metadata and reading state — what you’re reading, where you stopped, your notes, where files live. It runs on your machine as part of the app, so an assistant you already use can answer “what was I reading?” or find that book whose title you forgot.

Windows 10 or newer (64-bit), macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer, Linux on any modern distro with WebKitGTK 4.1, and Android 7.0 or newer (arm64). There is no web reader and no iOS version today.

No. DRM-locked files (Kindle, Adobe, Google Play) can’t be opened by design — breaking DRM isn’t something Scalino does. Scalino is for the DRM-free files you actually own: PDFs, EPUBs and comic archives sitting in your folder.

Because it’s your Drive. A visible Library folder means you can browse, download or move your own books from any browser, keep your own backups, and leave whenever you like — nothing is locked inside an opaque app vault. Scalino’s Drive access is scoped to files it created, not your whole Drive.