LANBooru

A simple self-hosted image gallery with booru-like searching and tagging.

LANBooru lets you organize your local image and video collection with tags, then find exactly what you're looking for with a single search. Just add your existing folders and it handles the rest.

Main Features

• Tag-based organization - Add tags to images and videos, search by any combination
• Powerful search - Boolean logic (AND/OR/NOT), wildcards, grouping, and metadata filters
• Folder scanning - Just point LANBooru at your existing image folders, and it'll index them automatically
• Duplicate detection - Finds duplicate images across your collection
• Video support - Tag and search videos alongside images
• Plugin system - Extend functionality with plugins (for example, AI tagging or image analytics!)
• Runs anywhere - Docker-based setup works on Windows, Mac, and Linux

Quick Start

1. Install Docker - Get Docker if you don't have it

2. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/EK720/lanbooru.git
   cd lanbooru

3. Configure your environment

   cp .env.example .env

   Edit .env to set your preferences. The file has comments that explain each option.

4. Set up folder access

   Edit docker-compose.yml to mount your image folders. Find the volumes section under backend and adjust for your system:

   # Linux/Mac - mount home directory
   - ${HOME}:/host:rw
   
   # Windows - mount C: drive
   - C:\:/host:rw

5. Start LANBooru

   docker compose up -d

6. Open your browser to http://localhost

That's it! Add folders through the admin page and LANBooru will start scanning your images.

Searching

LANBooru uses a booru-style search syntax. Here are the basics:

Syntax	Description	Example
tag1 tag2	Match all tags (AND)	cat cute
-tag	Exclude tag	cat -dog
~tag1 ~tag2	Match any tag (OR)	~cat ~dog
tag*	Wildcard	anim* matches "anime", "animal"
rating:safe	Filter by rating	rating:s, rating:q, rating:e
sort:random	Change sort order	sort:date_asc, sort:size

Use { } to group tags: ~{cat cute} ~{dog playful} finds images with (cat AND cute) OR (dog AND playful).

For the full search reference, click the ? icon in the search bar or go to http://localhost/help.

Image View

Click any image to see its details, edit tags, and view metadata.

Plugins

LANBooru's plugin system lets you extend its functionality:

• Builtin plugins - Simple hooks that run inside LANBooru (e.g. tag formatting or validation)
• Container plugins - Isolated Docker services for heavy processing (like AI tagging or auto-filtering)
• External plugins - Connect to services you run yourself

Example plugins (in /example-plugins) include an AI auto-tagger and a collection analyzer.

See PLUGINS.md for the full plugin development guide.

Troubleshooting

Images not appearing after adding a folder

Folders are scanned on an interval (default 15 minutes). You can trigger an immediate scan by clicking the refresh button next to the folder in the admin page, or restarting LANBooru.

"Permission denied" errors on Linux

Make sure your image folders are readable by Docker. You may need to adjust permissions or run Docker with appropriate user mapping.

Can't access LANBooru from another device

By default, LANBooru binds to all interfaces but your firewall may block access. Check your firewall settings to allow connections on the configured port. Some EAP networks (these usually have a login page after joining) also might isolate devices, not allowing any cross-device/LAN access. (If someone finds a solution to the EAP problem, please let me know.)

Contributing

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue on GitHub.

License

This project is licensed under the GNU GPL Version 3.