Download OpenAPI specification:
A local dictionary server for MDX/MDD, StarDict, Slob, DSL and BGL files.
WuWeiDict serves your own dictionary files over HTTP, on your own machine.
Streaming. /api/dicts, /api/search and /api/rescan answer with
NDJSON: one JSON object per line, flushed the moment it is ready. Read them
line by line; do not wait for the body to end. That is the whole point - the
first dictionary's results arrive while the slowest one is still opening.
Every stream opens with a begin line and closes with an end line.
/api/ingest streams Server-Sent Events instead, because it reports
progress rather than results.
Switches. Every boolean query parameter reads the same spellings: off
for 0, false, no, off or an empty value, on for anything else.
Two surfaces. Three read-only endpoints answer a browser extension
cross-origin: /api/dicts, /api/search and /res/. Everything else is
same-origin, is marked internal below, and may change between releases.
An access key, when the server is reachable. On the default
127.0.0.1 bind there is nothing to authenticate and no key is asked for.
On any other address - and Go's wildcard listen is dual-stack, so 0.0.0.0
includes every globally routable IPv6 address the machine holds - AUTH
defaults to requiring one on every endpoint EXCEPT the three read-only ones
above, which stay open to the extensions already granted them. Send it as
Authorization: Bearer <key>, or open the link dictshelf token prints once
and let the browser keep the cookie it sets. Without it: 401, with
{"auth":"required"}. AUTH=off serves everything to anyone who can reach
the port.
Address it by address. Every request must carry a Host of an IP
literal or localhost; any other name is answered 421 Misdirected Request unless TRUSTED_HOSTS lists it. This is what stops a web page
from re-pointing its own domain at your machine (DNS rebinding) and
reading the API as same-origin, which no CORS rule can prevent.
And from this origin. A browser states who started a request in
Sec-Fetch-Site. Anything it marks cross-site is answered 403 unless
it addresses one of the three read-only endpoints above (or their
preflight), or is a top-level navigation to a page rather than to /api/.
This closes the state-changing GET: GET /api/rescan and
GET /api/setup?save=1 are otherwise reachable from an <img> tag on any
origin, carrying the cookie, and CORS never blocks a request - only the
reading of its response. Clients that send no fetch metadata (curl, the
Android shell, anything that is not a browser) are unaffected.
Queries the selected dictionaries concurrently and streams one line per
dictionary as it finishes. Lines arrive in completion order, never in
slot order: each hit carries i, its index in the begin line's
slots array.
A dictionary that fails, that cannot serve the requested mode, or whose index is not ready reports that on its own line. None of those is a request failure, and the other dictionaries still answer.
A search runs until it finishes or the reader stops it: there is no clock on it.
| q required | string Example: q=flight The search text. Blank is a 400. |
| mode | string Default: "prefix" Enum: "exact" "prefix" "contains" "fts" "wildcards" "fuzzy"
A multi-word |
| hl | boolean Default: false Mark the query's words inside each article body, wrapped in
Off unless you ask, so an article you fetch is the dictionary's own
bytes by default. DictShelf's own UI sends
|
| returnCacheID | string Optional UI navigation snapshot id. Normal searches with this value
retain their completed event stream in a temporary SQLite database;
|
| returnCacheStorage | string Enum: "memory" "disk" Snapshot storage selected by the UI ( |
| format | string Default: "raw" Enum: "raw" "clean" "text"
Ask for |
| dict | string Default: "all" Example: dict=oxford,webster
|
| n | integer >= 1 Default: 20 Maximum results per dictionary. |
curl -sN 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/search?q=flight&mode=prefix&format=clean&n=5' # -N is the whole point: without it curl buffers, and the lines that # were sent one at a time arrive together at the end.
"{\"t\":\"begin\",\"i\":0,\"slots\":[{\"dict\":\"oxford\",\"name\":\"oxford\"},{\"dict\":\"webster\",\"name\":\"webster\"}]}\n{\"t\":\"hit\",\"i\":1,\"dict\":\"webster\",\"name\":\"Webster's Revised Unabridged\",\"results\":[{\"Headword\":\"flight\",\"Body\":\"<div>…</div>\"}]}\n{\"t\":\"hit\",\"i\":0,\"dict\":\"oxford\",\"name\":\"Oxford Advanced Learner's\",\"results\":[]}\n{\"t\":\"end\",\"i\":0}\n"With progress=1, checking events report how many dictionary files have been checked before row resolution begins. Then begin carries the total from registry ids, and dict rows follow in completion order.
end carries etag when the answer may be kept. Send it back as If-None-Match and an unchanged list is a 304 with no body, decided without opening any dictionary. There is no ETag header: whether an answer may be kept is known only after its last row.
| progress | boolean Default: false Emit file-check progress before the dictionary rows when no If-None-Match validator is supplied. |
| If-None-Match | string The |
curl -sN 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/dicts' # just the ids, which is what /api/search wants curl -sN 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/dicts' | jq -r 'select(.t=="dict") | .dict.id' # has anything changed since the answer that ended with this etag? curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' -H 'If-None-Match: "ac4fd9fecabd8ec4cf544212"' \ 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/dicts'
"{\"t\":\"begin\",\"total\":2}\n{\"t\":\"dict\",\"dict\":{\"id\":\"oxford\",\"name\":\"Oxford Advanced Learner's\",\"format\":\"mdx\",\"path\":\"/Users/me/Dicts/oald.mdx\",\"entries\":184000,\"caps\":{\"Exact\":true,\"Prefix\":true,\"Contains\":false,\"FTS\":false}}}\n{\"t\":\"end\",\"etag\":\"\\\"ac4fd9fecabd8ec4cf544212\\\"\"}\n"Images, stylesheets, scripts and audio, as the article references them.
path is the whole remainder of the URL and may contain slashes, which
an OpenAPI path parameter cannot express: send it unencoded, exactly as
the article asks for it.
Speex audio is transcoded to WAV and answered as audio/wav. A .spx
that cannot be transcoded, or one supplied in a res/ override folder,
is answered raw as audio/ogg. Files from a res/ folder are served
uncached, so an edit takes effect on reload.
| dict required | string Dictionary id, from /api/dicts. |
| path required | string Example: audio/flight__gb.mp3 The resource path inside the dictionary, subfolders included. |
# the path after the id is the article's own path, slashes and all curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/res/oxford/audio/flight__gb.mp3' -o flight.mp3
{- "error": "string"
}Same-origin endpoints that serve the web page and the platform shell. Documented for completeness; not a stable contract.
| event required | string |
| stage | string Navigation stage when event is article_transition or browse_navigation |
| resource | string Same-origin asset path when event is navigation_resource |
| dict | string |
| page | integer |
| startedAt | integer <int64> Client navigation start time in Unix milliseconds |
| elapsedMs | integer Elapsed milliseconds since navigation start |
| durationMs | integer Duration of the reported stage in milliseconds |
| words | integer |
| pageBytes | integer Approximate JavaScript heap size of one cached page |
| pageJsonBytes | integer UTF-8 JSON size of one cached page |
| cachePages | integer |
| cacheBytes | integer Approximate JavaScript heap size of cached pages for this dictionary |
| cacheJsonBytes | integer UTF-8 JSON size of cached pages for this dictionary |
| cacheStoredPages | integer Number of page records persisted in session storage |
| cacheStoredBytes | integer UTF-8 JSON size of persisted page records |
| totalPages | integer |
| estimatedAllPagesBytes | integer Extrapolated JavaScript heap size if every page were cached |
| letters | integer |
| bytes | integer |
| readMs | integer |
| fetchMs | integer |
| totalMs | integer |
| wordsMs | integer |
| stripBuildMs | integer |
| stripMarkMs | integer |
| status | integer |
| restored | boolean |
| streamAlphabet | boolean |
| active | integer Wildcards dictionaries currently scanning |
| completed | integer Wildcards dictionaries with finished scans |
| dictionaries | integer Wildcards dictionaries in this search |
{- "event": "string",
- "stage": "string",
- "resource": "string",
- "dict": "string",
- "page": 0,
- "startedAt": 0,
- "elapsedMs": 0,
- "durationMs": 0,
- "words": 0,
- "pageBytes": 0,
- "pageJsonBytes": 0,
- "cachePages": 0,
- "cacheBytes": 0,
- "cacheJsonBytes": 0,
- "cacheStoredPages": 0,
- "cacheStoredBytes": 0,
- "totalPages": 0,
- "estimatedAllPagesBytes": 0,
- "letters": 0,
- "bytes": 0,
- "readMs": 0,
- "fetchMs": 0,
- "totalMs": 0,
- "wordsMs": 0,
- "stripBuildMs": 0,
- "stripMarkMs": 0,
- "status": 0,
- "restored": true,
- "streamAlphabet": true,
- "active": 0,
- "completed": 0,
- "dictionaries": 0
}Requires local access or ALLOW_REMOTE_DELETE. Source dictionaries and their resources are preserved. Index rebuilds atomically replace the main index, retaining optional indexes unless selected for removal. Obsolete cleanup includes unused prepared folders regardless of keep markers, duplicates, incomplete indexes, abandoned ingest files and packed media. Obsolete active indexes are refreshed from their sources. Database dictionaries supplied as sources are never cleared.
| index | boolean Default: false |
| contains | boolean Default: false |
| fullText | boolean Default: false |
| obsolete | boolean Default: false |
{- "index": false,
- "contains": false,
- "fullText": false,
- "obsolete": false
}{- "failed": [
- "string"
]
}New dictionaries receive a main index and only the selected optional indexes, respecting configured DSL variants. Existing optional indexes are updated only when already present; deletion cancels pending creation. Keep preserves existing feature presence. Cleanup always removes unused or disabled prepared indexes and legacy packed media. Sources survive.
required | object |
required | object |
{- "new": {
- "index": true,
- "contains": true,
- "fullText": true
}, - "existing": {
- "index": "recreate",
- "contains": "update",
- "fullText": "update"
}
}{- "failed": [
- "string"
]
}With status=1, returns live progress for the server-owned index job. Otherwise reads the dictionary folders again, warms the registry, and answers exactly as /api/dicts does. Removes unused prepared folders (including previously kept caches), abandoned indexes and packed media. Source files and both discovered DSL variants are preserved. Requires removal permission, like POST /api/clear-database.
| status | string Value: "1" Return current index-update status instead of rescanning. |
# picks up files added to the dictionary folders, then lists curl -sN 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/rescan' | head -1
{- "t": "DictsBegin",
- "total": 0,
- "groupsProblems": 0
}Copies the built-in guide (wudict-howto.wudict.md and its wudict-howto.wudict.files/) into the folder imports go to - the first dictionary folder - then rescans. The copy is listed in place of the built-in guide. An existing copy is never overwritten. With restore=1 it instead brings the built-in guide back after the user removed it (DELETE /api/library?dict=wudict-howto, which records the removal so it is not written back at the next start).
| restore | string Bring the removed built-in guide back instead of copying it. A switch. |
{- "path": "string"
}Brings one dictionary to the feature state you ask for, streaming Server-Sent Events:
event: progress data: {"done":N,"total":M}
event: done data: {…a /api/dicts row…}
event: error data: {"error":"…"}
Each switch is a state, not a verb: a parameter you leave out keeps whatever that feature is now, so toggling one thing cannot strip another, and a request naming none prepares an unprepared dictionary with its headword index only. Progress is emitted at most every 200 ms.
The change runs as the dictionary's job on the server, not inside the
request: a client that disconnects loses only the stream, and the work
goes on. While a change to a dictionary runs, its /api/dicts row
carries job, and a request for that dictionary follows the running
change instead of starting another - what it asked for is not queued,
and the done it receives carries what the dictionary now has.
| dict required | string Dictionary id. |
| contains | string Trigram substring index over headwords. A switch. |
| fts | string Full-text index over article text - the largest one. A switch. |
| media | string Pack the dictionary's media into media.db. A switch. |
# add the substring index to one dictionary and watch it build curl -sN 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/ingest?dict=oxford&contains=1' # leave a switch out and it keeps its current state; this only packs media curl -sN 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/ingest?dict=oxford&media=1'
{- "error": "string"
}Everything in the library folder, whether or not it is currently enrolled. Listing is not consent: reading this never adds anything to the registry.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/library' | jq '.dir, .count'
{- "dir": "string",
- "count": 0,
- "useCached": true,
- "entries": [
- {
- "dir": "string",
- "textDB": "string",
- "mediaDB": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "format": "string",
- "source": "string",
- "sourceExists": true,
- "entries": 0,
- "fullText": true,
- "contains": true,
- "media": true,
- "size": 0,
- "created": "string"
}
]
}Removes the prepared folder, the original files, or both. Both default to on, which is "remove this dictionary".
Irreversible. Files are unlinked, not moved to a Trash or Recycle Bin, and nothing here can be undone.
From the machine running DictShelf this is always allowed - it is your
library and your disk. From a browser on another machine it follows
ALLOW_REMOTE_DELETE (default off); with that off, the remote caller
gets a 403 and canDelete: false in GET /api/config.
| dict required | string Dictionary id. |
| prepared | string Default: "1" Delete the prepared library folder; off keeps it. A switch, on when absent. |
| source | string Default: "1" Delete the original dictionary files; off keeps them. A switch, on when absent. |
# remove one dictionary: prepared folder and original files curl -s -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/library?dict=oxford' # free the indexes only, keeping the original file curl -s -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/library?dict=oxford&source=0' # There is no dry run here - `dictshelf rm` is the one that previews.
{- "name": "string",
- "folder": "string",
- "sources": [
- "string"
], - "freed": 0,
- "gone": true,
- "note": "string"
}Every prepared folder in the library whose recorded source file is no longer on disk, whatever the reason (deleted, renamed, on a drive that is not connected), except those kept on purpose. A source that was only moved inside a dictionary folder is not listed: a rescan re-links the folder to it. The built-in guide is never listed.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/orphans' | jq '.orphans[].name, .size'
{- "orphans": [
- {
- "folder": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "source": "string",
- "size": 0
}
], - "size": 0
}Deletes the prepared folders named in delete and marks those in
keep as standalone (keep = standalone in the folder's info.txt),
after which they are never listed again. Folders are named by
Orphan.folder, never by path, and each is checked again when it is
acted on: one that is no longer an orphan is reported under failed.
A folder named twice, or in both lists, fails too. Body is capped at
1 MiB.
Deleting is irreversible. Files are unlinked, not moved to a Trash
or Recycle Bin. Allowed on the machine running DictShelf; from another
machine only with ALLOW_REMOTE_DELETE, which also governs keep.
| delete | Array of strings Folder names to delete. |
| keep | Array of strings Folder names to keep for good. |
{- "delete": [
- "string"
], - "keep": [
- "string"
]
}{- "deleted": [
- {
- "folder": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "freed": 0,
- "error": "string"
}
], - "kept": [
- {
- "folder": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "freed": 0,
- "error": "string"
}
], - "failed": [
- {
- "folder": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "freed": 0,
- "error": "string"
}
], - "freed": 0
}One row per language, merging the published catalogue (LEMMA_URL) with what is present in LEMMA_DIR, plus the state of any download running right now. Always answers 200: what is installed is the half of the answer that needs no network, and an unreachable catalogue is reported in error rather than by failing.
| refresh | string Re-read the catalogue instead of using the cached copy. The catalogue is otherwise cached for ten minutes, so a page polling during a download does not ask its host once a second. |
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/lemmas' | jq -r '.languages[] | select(.installed) | .code'
{- "dir": "string",
- "url": "string",
- "enabled": true,
- "cacheSize": 0,
- "attribution": "string",
- "error": "string",
- "shadowed": [
- "string"
], - "languages": [
- {
- "code": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "localSize": 0,
- "lemmas": 0,
- "heapMB": 0,
- "source": "string",
- "license": "string",
- "installed": true,
- "catalogued": true,
- "builtin": true,
- "mismatch": true,
- "state": "string",
- "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "error": "string"
}
]
}Starts a download and returns at once; follow it with GET /api/lemmas.
The download runs in the server, not in this request, so it survives the
page being reloaded, closed, or rotated away on Android.
The catalogue is never taken from the caller: only the configured LEMMA_URL is fetched. A second call for a language already downloading joins the running download instead of starting another.
On success the language is searchable immediately - no restart, because the lemma folder is re-indexed in place.
| code required | string Language code or English name ("pl", "polish"). |
curl -s -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/lemmas?code=pl'
{- "code": "string",
- "state": "string"
}Removes every file in LEMMA_DIR supplying this language, not only the one in use, and re-indexes the folder. Deleting English falls back to the pack compiled into the binary rather than losing the language. Unlike dictionary removal this is offered on every platform: these are files DictShelf downloaded, not files the user brought.
| code required | string Language code or English name. |
curl -s -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/lemmas?code=pl'
{- "code": "string",
- "builtin": true,
- "removed": [
- "string"
]
}Two acts on one route. Without confirm it ACQUIRES an archive and
reports the dictionaries inside it, decompressing nothing: a zip is
answered from its central directory and a 7z from its header, so
listing a multi-gigabyte bundle costs a seek. With confirm it
extracts the ones the caller chose.
A plain dictionary file is read too - an .mdx, an .ifo, a .dsl,
a .slob, a .bgl - and so are the companions lying beside it in the
same folder, because that is the same grouping rule the library uses.
Nothing is unpacked in that case; the files are copied into place.
.zip and .7z are read. A 7z is decoded strictly in archive order on
one goroutine: a 7z folder is a single stream holding several files end
to end, so that order is the difference between reading it once and
decompressing it again per file. A password-protected archive is
refused rather than half-read.
The archive arrives either as a path already on disk (path, used by
the Android shell, which hands over a download without copying it) or
as the request body. A streamed body is spooled inside the destination
folder, never into the temporary directory: on Android that is a small
cache partition, and on every platform it is a different filesystem,
which would make the install a second full copy instead of a rename.
One import runs at a time, everywhere. Extraction outlives this request
and is followed with GET /api/intake, for the same reason a lemma
download is: on Android the page dies whenever the device rotates.
A url is fetched by the server instead, which is how a phone imports:
the shell has no networking of its own, and a download that lived in the
page would die with it. It answers 202 at once and downloads behind the
same poll, sniffing when it lands. Any site, unless IMPORT_URL_HOSTS
restricts it; https only and no address on the local network, unless
IMPORT_INSECURE lifts both; an unfinished download is resumed by the
next attempt.
A url may also name SEVERAL dictionaries: a web folder page (every
link on it to a dictionary, a companion or an archive), a .txt list
(one file name or link per line, the first # line its title), or
several links pasted at once - and a share link
https://legbehindneck.com/wudict#<link> stands for the link after
# (#/dict/x/ is short for a path on that site), or for several
links after # separated by commas. A Google Drive file link
(drive.google.com/file/d/<id>/view) is fetched from Drive's download
address, and named by Drive's answer. Such a job is a collection: ready arrives with nothing
downloaded, one candidate per dictionary sized and dated from the
site's own headers, and each dictionary's media offered in extras.
Confirming downloads and installs each chosen dictionary in turn; one
that fails is named in error and the job still ends done with the
rest installed.
A dictionary the library already holds is reported as such on the
candidate (existing, or elsewhere for one in another configured
folder; unchanged when the files are the same) and, when the caller
picks it, is REPLACED - its folder, or its files in place - rather than
installed a second time. Not picking it is skipping it. Nothing is ever
installed or downloaded under a numbered name.
A downloaded plain file has its companions LOOKED FOR at the sibling
URLs the format tables name - oxford.mdd, oxford.1.mdd, and so on,
stopping at the first that is not there. What is found is reported in
extras and downloaded only when the caller asks for it by index: a
companion can be several hundred megabytes of somebody's phone data,
so it is offered on the screen that asks which dictionaries to install
and never taken on the strength of the probe.
The source file's fate follows IMPORT_KEEP; keep answers it only when
that is ask. A FAILED import always keeps the source, which is policy
and not a setting - deleting somebody's only copy after an import that
did not work cannot be undone.
| path | string An archive already on this machine, read in place. Mutually exclusive with a request body. |
| url | string <uri> An https link the server downloads and then sniffs. Mutually exclusive with |
| name | string File name for a streamed body, used for the extension and for what the page displays. The extension decides which reader is used, so a 7z body must be named |
| confirm | string Any value installs the sniffed job instead of starting a new one. |
| pick | string Comma-separated indexes into |
| keep | string Enum: "0" "1" Whether the caller's own source file survives a SUCCESSFUL import. Ignored unless IMPORT_KEEP is |
| extras | string Comma-separated indexes into |
The archive itself, streamed. Absent when path is given, and when confirming - where the body is instead the selection.
{- "id": "string",
- "state": "",
- "source": "string",
- "host": "string",
- "dir": "string",
- "keep": "ask",
- "candidates": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "format": "string",
- "files": [
- "string"
], - "size": 0,
- "missing": [
- "string"
], - "existing": "string",
- "unchanged": true,
- "date": "string",
- "elsewhere": "string"
}
], - "extras": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "need": "needed"
}
], - "installed": [
- "string"
], - "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "error": "string",
- "collection": true
}The poll. Always 200: an empty state means nothing is happening, which is an answer the page acts on and must not have to tell apart from a request that did not arrive. done and total are bytes.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/intake' | jq -r '.state'
{- "id": "string",
- "state": "",
- "source": "string",
- "host": "string",
- "dir": "string",
- "keep": "ask",
- "candidates": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "format": "string",
- "files": [
- "string"
], - "size": 0,
- "missing": [
- "string"
], - "existing": "string",
- "unchanged": true,
- "date": "string",
- "elsewhere": "string"
}
], - "extras": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "need": "needed"
}
], - "installed": [
- "string"
], - "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "error": "string",
- "collection": true
}Stops an extraction and forgets a sniffed archive that was never confirmed. Everything staged is removed; dictionaries already renamed into the library stay, because they are whole. Always 200 - cancelling nothing is not a failure. With id, only that job is cancelled, and only while it is still the current one: a client releasing its own job never cancels one another client started since.
A download that nobody has confirmed and nobody has polled for 75 seconds is not "running" any more: a new import replaces it instead of being refused. A confirmed import is never replaced.
| id | string The job to cancel ( |
curl -s -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/intake'
{- "id": "string",
- "state": "",
- "source": "string",
- "host": "string",
- "dir": "string",
- "keep": "ask",
- "candidates": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "format": "string",
- "files": [
- "string"
], - "size": 0,
- "missing": [
- "string"
], - "existing": "string",
- "unchanged": true,
- "date": "string",
- "elsewhere": "string"
}
], - "extras": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "need": "needed"
}
], - "installed": [
- "string"
], - "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "error": "string",
- "collection": true
}Rebuilds each dictionary /api/dicts reports as outdated - prepared by an older build, from a source edited since, or unreadable by this one - with the indexes it already has. A packed media.db the rebuild leaves unpaired is packed again. Dictionaries that are current are not touched, and one whose original files are gone is never outdated, since nothing can rebuild it.
Never started by the server itself: on a large library this is hours of work, so an upgrade only marks the library outdated and waits for this request. It runs in the background indexing lane, one dictionary at a time, and outlives the request; follow it with GET /api/reindex. One job at a time: while one runs, this answers its status instead of starting another.
curl -s -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/reindex'
{- "running": true,
- "active": 0,
- "activeDicts": [
- "string"
], - "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "current": "string",
- "currentDone": 0,
- "currentTotal": 0,
- "failed": [
- "string"
], - "canceled": true
}The poll. Always 200; running: false with total: 0 means no rebuild has run in this process.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/reindex' | jq '{done, total, current}'
{- "running": true,
- "active": 0,
- "activeDicts": [
- "string"
], - "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "current": "string",
- "currentDone": 0,
- "currentTotal": 0,
- "failed": [
- "string"
], - "canceled": true
}Stops the job after the dictionary it is rebuilding now. What is finished stays finished; each rebuild replaces the old data only when it completes, so nothing is left half-built. Always 200.
curl -s -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/reindex'
{- "running": true,
- "active": 0,
- "activeDicts": [
- "string"
], - "done": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "current": "string",
- "currentDone": 0,
- "currentTotal": 0,
- "failed": [
- "string"
], - "canceled": true
}Drives the first-run page. Without save it only reports what the folder holds, which is what live typing needs. With save=1 it switches the registry over and writes DICT_DIR. Repeat path for several folders; found is then the deduplicated total across all of them, because overlapping folders must not be counted twice. Saving runs as a server-owned job and survives closing the page. With async=1, poll /api/index-work?id=folder-setup for progress and the retained result. migration=status reports an optional Windows first-run import choice; migration=import|copy|move applies that choice before folders are saved.
| path | string A dictionary folder. Repeatable. |
| save | string On persists the folders to the config file. A switch. |
| async | string Enum: "0" "1" With save=1, return immediately after starting the job. |
| useCached | string Enum: "0" "1" On enrolls the previously prepared dictionaries and persists USE_CACHED; off turns that off; absent leaves it alone. A switch. |
| migration | string Enum: "status" "import" "copy" "move" Check or apply the first-run Windows data migration choice. |
# what this folder holds, without changing anything curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/setup?path=~/Dictionaries' # adopt two folders and write them to the config file curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/setup?path=~/Dictionaries&path=/Volumes/Ext/Dicts&save=1'
{- "path": "string",
- "found": 0,
- "dirs": [
- {
- "path": "string",
- "count": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "exists": true
}
], - "saved": true,
- "useCached": true,
- "error": "string",
- "available": true,
- "forked": true
}What the panel's folders section shows, including which layer set DICT_DIR - so the page can say that saving will not take effect, rather than silently doing nothing.
# where the settings came from, and which folders are scanned curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/config' | jq '.configPath, .dictDirOrigin, .roots'
{- "roots": [
- {
- "path": "string",
- "count": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "exists": true
}
], - "libDir": "string",
- "prepared": 0,
- "useCached": true,
- "configPath": "string",
- "howtoRemoved": true,
- "total": 0,
- "dictDirOrigin": "flag",
- "dictDirEditable": true,
- "configProblems": [
- "string"
], - "revealLabel": "string",
- "canReveal": true,
- "canExit": true,
- "canDelete": true,
- "pathAliases": [
- [
- "string",
- "string"
]
]
}Defaults to System, which follows the requesting app or browser's preferred language when supported (English or Russian), then falls back to English. An explicit English or Russian choice overrides it. Dictionary languages are unchanged.
{- "language": "system",
- "resolved": "en"
}Saves System, English or Russian. System follows the requesting app or browser's preferred language. Reload the page to apply.
| language required | string Enum: "system" "en" "ru" |
{- "language": "system"
}{- "language": "system",
- "resolved": "en"
}Healed against the dictionaries that exist right now. exists is false on a first run, which is the client's cue to adopt what an older build left in localStorage, once, instead of starting the user over.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/prefs' | jq '.dicts'
{- "exists": true,
- "dicts": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "path": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "off": true,
- "pinned": true
}
], - "ui": {
- "fontSize": 11,
- "hlOff": true,
- "fastFirst": true,
- "openN": 2,
- "openAll": true,
- "countAllResultsInBackground": true,
- "skipBackgroundResultCount": true,
- "speakOff": true,
- "groupsOff": [
- "string"
], - "customOrder": true,
- "full": true,
- "mode": "exact"
}
}Array order is the user's order. Entries record the path as well as the id, because ids are derived from the path: moving a dictionary folder changes every id at once, and the path is what re-attaches the state instead of resetting it. Body is capped at 1 MiB.
Array of objects (DictPref) The whole list, in the user's order. Omit it (or send null) to keep the stored list untouched, as when only a UI setting changed. | |
object The UI fields to change. Each field you send replaces the stored one; each field you omit keeps its stored value, so send |
{- "dicts": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "path": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "off": true,
- "pinned": true
}
], - "ui": {
- "fontSize": 11,
- "hlOff": true,
- "fastFirst": true,
- "openN": 2,
- "openAll": true,
- "countAllResultsInBackground": true,
- "skipBackgroundResultCount": true,
- "speakOff": true,
- "groupsOff": [
- "string"
], - "customOrder": true,
- "full": true,
- "mode": "exact"
}
}{- "exists": true,
- "dicts": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "path": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "off": true,
- "pinned": true
}
], - "ui": {
- "fontSize": 11,
- "hlOff": true,
- "fastFirst": true,
- "openN": 2,
- "openAll": true,
- "countAllResultsInBackground": true,
- "skipBackgroundResultCount": true,
- "speakOff": true,
- "groupsOff": [
- "string"
], - "customOrder": true,
- "full": true,
- "mode": "exact"
}
}Index is always enabled. Existing dictionaries are not changed. Pending preparation plans survive restart. GET /api/config returns these defaults as indexDefaults.
| index | boolean |
| contains | boolean |
| fullText | boolean |
{- "index": true,
- "contains": true,
- "fullText": true
}Two CSS files the user owns, applied to everything DictShelf renders. app styles the page itself - its colours, its own layout - and its :root custom properties reach articles too, because they inherit across the shadow boundary. article styles what dictionaries render, in both article flavours (shadow root and sandboxed iframe).
The split is what keeps body{}, p{} and a{} - written with articles in mind - from also restyling the chrome.
dir is where the two files live on disk, beside the wudict.toml in effect, so they can be edited with an ordinary text editor as well; writable is false when there is no config directory at all, and the editor says so instead of failing to save.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/style' | jq -r .app
{- "app": "string",
- "article": "string",
- "dir": "string",
- "writable": true
}Omit a field to leave that file untouched: absent and empty are different, and the App tab and the Article tab are one editor sending different bodies. An empty string REMOVES the file, so "I cleared the box" and "there is a file here containing nothing" do not become two states that behave the same but read differently.
Each file is capped at 256 KiB. A stylesheet that hides the app can be stepped around with GET /?style=off, which omits it.
| app | string The chrome stylesheet. |
| article | string The article stylesheet. |
{- "app": "string",
- "article": "string"
}{- "app": "string",
- "article": "string",
- "dir": "string",
- "writable": true
}groups.ini, beside the dictshelf.toml in effect: a [Section] line is a "Group by" heading (at most 32, names of at most 64 bytes), and Name = text, text a group under it that a dictionary joins when one of the texts (at least 2 characters) is anywhere in its title or file name, in any case. An item between backticks is a regular expression (Go RE2, case-insensitive), read verbatim and tested against the title and the file name separately. ; and # start a comment outside backticks. A group line before any section belongs to [My groups]. While there is no file the built-in list is in effect (custom false); once saved, the file is the whole list.
Ids are the names, trimmed and lower-cased: a dictionary row's groups[].f and groups[].v (GET /api/dicts) are exactly these. problems lists the lines and items that were skipped (an invalid regular expression, a line with no =, a one-character item, more than 500 regular expressions); the rest of the file still applies. At most 100 are listed: a last entry with more stands for the rest. text and msg are clipped to 200 bytes. unusable means the file exists but could not be read: the built-in list is in effect, and problems has one entry, with no line, saying why.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/groups' | jq -r .text
{- "text": "string",
- "custom": true,
- "unusable": true,
- "file": "string",
- "writable": true,
- "problems": [
- {
- "line": 0,
- "text": "string",
- "msg": "string",
- "more": 0
}
], - "facets": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "label": "string",
- "groups": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "label": "string",
- "items": [
- "string"
]
}
]
}
]
}The body is the whole file, as text. Lines that do not parse are reported in problems, never refused. A body identical to the built-in list removes the file instead, so an unchanged copy does not stop the list from following the built-in one. Capped at 256 KiB. While the current file is unusable, a save is refused unless replace=1 is given: the file is the user's, and the editor could not show it.
| replace | string Value: "1" 1 overwrites a groups.ini that exists but cannot be read. |
{- "text": "string",
- "custom": true,
- "unusable": true,
- "file": "string",
- "writable": true,
- "problems": [
- {
- "line": 0,
- "text": "string",
- "msg": "string",
- "more": 0
}
], - "facets": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "label": "string",
- "groups": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "label": "string",
- "items": [
- "string"
]
}
]
}
]
}{- "text": "string",
- "custom": true,
- "unusable": true,
- "file": "string",
- "writable": true,
- "problems": [
- {
- "line": 0,
- "text": "string",
- "msg": "string",
- "more": 0
}
], - "facets": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "label": "string",
- "groups": [
- {
- "id": "string",
- "label": "string",
- "items": [
- "string"
]
}
]
}
]
}The presets the Appearance sheet offers as ready-made layers: a background look, palettes, layout and text tweaks, article roles. Each preset carries its CSS inline (app and/or article, the two scopes a stylesheet can reach), because the page composes the article layer itself and must not fetch preset files one by one.
The groups are the conflict model: presets inside one group claim the same surfaces, so at most ONE of them can be enabled - enabling one switches its group-mates off, radio-style. A preset that conflicts with nothing lives in a group of its own and behaves as a plain toggle. writable is false when there is no config directory, and the pane says so instead of offering switches that cannot stick.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/presets' | jq -r '.enabled[]'
Switching a preset on inside a conflict group switches its group-mates off; the fresh state comes back, so a client never has to guess what the radio rule did. The choice is remembered in the config folder beside the stylesheets it composes with.
| id required | string The preset's id. |
| on required | boolean Enable (true) or disable (false). |
{- "id": "string",
- "on": true
}A look is the whole Appearance sheet under a name: the article's size and weight, which built-in preset layers are on, the window's colour and wallpaper per theme, what the screen margins and the bars do, and the reader's own stylesheets. Three ship with the app - Clean, Sepia and Old paper - and the reader can save their own beside them.
Only names are listed. A look's state is the server's to read - the four stylesheets it speaks for are files, not fields a menu needs - and current is the look in force, empty when none has been applied yet. writable is false when there is no config directory, and the row says so instead of offering a list that cannot stick.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/looks' | jq -r '.looks[].name'
The state is assembled by the server: the settings and the four stylesheets it owns, plus the shell's half as the client sends it - the backdrop of each theme, the margin mode and colour, the bar mask. A client with no shell (a browser) simply omits shell, and the look it saves is a look with no backdrop.
The new look becomes the one in force, because it IS what is in force.
| name required | string 1–100 characters, no control characters. |
| shell | object The shell's half, as the client sees it. |
{- "name": "string",
- "shell": { }
}"Save my changes into this one." Built-in looks are refused: they are the app's, and a look called "Clean" that means something else is worse than no look at all.
| id required | string The look's id. |
| shell | object The shell's half, as the client sees it. |
{- "id": "string",
- "shell": { }
}The built-ins cannot be deleted. Deleting the look in force leaves nothing in force, which is honest: what is on screen came from somewhere the reader has just thrown away.
| id required | string The look's id. |
{- "id": "string"
}Two passes over one endpoint. With confirm false the server only ANSWERS: needsConfirm says whether the screen has drifted from the look in force, which is the client's cue to offer saving it first. Nothing is written on that pass, which is what makes the question safe to ask on every switch. With confirm true the look is written and shell comes back for the client to push into the shell it owns.
Re-applying the look already in force is never a question: that is the "put it back how it was" gesture, and it has no doubt in it. Every field counts in the comparison - the stylesheets included - because an apply restores all of them and none can be guessed back.
| id required | string The look's id. |
| confirm | boolean Apply rather than ask. |
| shell | object The shell's half, as the client sees it now. |
{- "id": "string",
- "confirm": true,
- "shell": { }
}Files the user uploaded so that something they wrote can reference them by URL: an image for a background-image in their custom CSS, a font for an @font-face, an imported stylesheet, a script, a PDF a private dictionary links to. They live beside the two stylesheets, in an assets folder under the same directory GET /api/style reports, and are served from /files/<name>.
No type restriction: the store is "files the page can reach by URL", and an extension allowlist would only mean the feature is missing for whoever needed the entry it lacks. limits is reported rather than assumed, so a client's message about a refused upload cannot drift from the rule that refused it.
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/files' | jq -r '.files[].name'
{- "files": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "mtime": 0,
- "type": "string",
- "url": "string"
}
], - "dir": "string",
- "writable": true,
- "total": 0,
- "limits": {
- "file": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "count": 0
}
}The request body is the file itself, raw - there is one file per request and no other field, so multipart would add a parser to carry nothing. The name comes from name, and is one path segment of A-Z a-z 0-9 . _ - starting with a letter or digit, at most 64 characters; it is an allowlist, not a cleaning pass, so nothing here can name a path.
Uploading onto an existing name is refused with 409 unless replace=1: a silent overwrite is the one mistake this endpoint can make that the user cannot undo, because their stylesheet already points at that name.
| name required | string The file name, which is also its URL under |
| replace | string Overwrite a file that is already there. A switch. |
curl -s -X POST --data-binary @w1.jpg \ 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/files?name=w1.jpg'
{- "files": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "mtime": 0,
- "type": "string",
- "url": "string"
}
], - "dir": "string",
- "writable": true,
- "total": 0,
- "limits": {
- "file": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "count": 0
}
}Removing what is not there is a success: the caller asked for it to be gone and it is. Nothing checks whether a stylesheet still references the name - that is the caller's warning to give, before it asks.
| name required | string The file to remove. |
curl -s -X DELETE 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/files?name=w1.jpg'
{- "files": [
- {
- "name": "string",
- "size": 0,
- "mtime": 0,
- "type": "string",
- "url": "string"
}
], - "dir": "string",
- "writable": true,
- "total": 0,
- "limits": {
- "file": 0,
- "total": 0,
- "count": 0
}
}The dictionary's own annotation: the publisher's blurb, the edition, the copyright. Composed from the live sidecar beside the source file where the format ships one (Lingvo's <stem>.ann) and otherwise from the description its header declared, then normalised server-side - plain text escaped, markup reduced to prose elements - so a client renders html as-is and needs no sanitiser of its own. The response also gives source companion paths (including linked abbreviation files) and any cheap headword/article counts already available.
Same-origin only. It is not part of the client API a browser extension reaches (D69): an annotation names a file on the user's disk. It is also deliberately absent from /api/dicts, which is built without opening any dictionary; this endpoint is fetched lazily, per dictionary.
| dict required | string Dictionary id, as returned by |
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/about?dict=<id>'
{- "id": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "format": "string",
- "html": "string",
- "source": "string",
- "sourceFiles": [
- "string"
], - "headwords": 0,
- "entries": 0,
- "indexLang": "string",
- "contentsLang": "string"
}The reading view, as opposed to /api/search's answering view: the dictionary as an ordered, addressable list of its own headwords, turned a page at a time. Article bodies are never included - this lists what a dictionary contains, it does not answer with it.
Index-backed only. The order, the page offsets and the letter strip are three reads of the prepared index (idx_entry_w), which is what makes a jump to M in a 2.9 M-entry dictionary a seek rather than a scan; a dictionary that has not been prepared answers 409 instead of a slower browse. Browse order is that index's order - case-insensitive by headword - and NOT the source file's entry order, which is what dictshelf keys reads.
size is fixed by the server and is not a parameter: the page number is the whole address of a browse view, so ?p=37 has to mean the same place tomorrow as it does today.
Same-origin only. It is not part of the client API a browser extension reaches (D69): that grant is lookup, and this dumps a dictionary a page at a time.
| dict required | string Dictionary id, as returned by |
| p | integer >= 1 Default: 1 1-based page number. Out of range is clamped to the last page rather than refused, so a stale bookmark still opens. |
| at | string Jump to the page holding this word, or the first one after it. Overrides |
| stream | string Value: "1" Set to |
| strip | string Value: "0" Set to |
curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/browse?dict=<id>&p=1'
{- "dict": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "total": 0,
- "page": 0,
- "pages": 0,
- "size": 0,
- "at": 0,
- "words": [
- "string"
], - "alphabet": [
- {
- "l": "string",
- "o": 0,
- "n": 0
}
]
}By default, matches the prefix of any word in a multiword headword. matchmode selects prefix, suffix, contains, complete-token word, complete-token word with lemmatization, whole-headword exact, exact with lemmatization, or whole-headword wildcards matching. Prefix, suffix, contains, and word modes match query words against tokens in the headword. Word with lemmatization also matches the dictionary-language lemma. Exact with lemmatization matches both the typed form and its dictionary-language lemma as complete headwords. Returns distinct matching headwords in browse order, in fixed-size result pages. Search is over the entire dictionary, not the current browse page. With matchmode=wildcards (or legacy wildcards=1), q is a whole-headword wildcard pattern (? for one Unicode character, * for any number); this path can scan a prepared or direct dictionary and also returns alphabet sections. In wildcard results, within filters by withinMode (default prefix), which supports prefix, suffix, contains, whole-word, exact, and wildcard matching. Positions then address each returned word in the unfiltered wildcard result. Same-origin only.
| dict required | string |
| q required | string <= 256 characters |
| p | integer >= 1 Default: 1 |
| wildcards | string Value: "1" Set to 1 to interpret q as a whole-headword wildcard pattern. |
| matchmode | string Default: "prefix" Enum: "prefix" "suffix" "contains" "word" "wordLemma" "exact" "exactLemma" "wildcards" How q matches headwords. Defaults to prefix. |
| within | string <= 256 characters Additional headword search inside q's wildcard results. |
| withinWildcards | string Value: "1" Set to 1 to interpret within as a whole-headword wildcard pattern. |
| withinMode | string Default: "prefix" Enum: "prefix" "suffix" "contains" "word" "wordLemma" "exact" "exactLemma" "wildcards" How within matches wildcard results. Defaults to prefix. |
| lemmaQueries | string <= 16384 characters Optional JSON array of lemma forms collected from the separate-dictionary search for a combined-list lemmatization search. |
| groupwithin | string Value: "1" With stream=1 and a complete separate-dictionary wildcard cache, search all cached dictionaries in one stream. Completion events include dict and the effectiveQueries used for per-dictionary lemmatization; matching pages remain addressable per dictionary. |
| wildcache | string [ 16 .. 80 ] characters ID of the temporary SQLite cache for this wildcard pattern and group. Headword blocks and optional within-filter blocks share this database. |
| wildgroup | string <= 256 characters Selected dictionary group, stored in the temporary cache metadata. |
| wildorder | integer [ 0 .. 9999 ] Dictionary position in the selected group's ordered result list. |
| wildcount | integer [ 1 .. 10000 ] Number of dictionaries in the selected group. |
| stream | string Value: "1" Set to 1 to receive NDJSON progress and matching headword blocks as the scan runs. |
{- "words": [
- "string"
], - "alphabet": [
- {
- "l": "string",
- "o": 0,
- "n": 0
}
], - "positions": [
- 0
], - "total": 0,
- "page": 0,
- "pages": 0,
- "size": 0,
- "partial": true
}Loopback only, and limited to the paths this app already displays: a remote browser must not open a window on someone else's desktop, and an arbitrary path must never reach the shell.
| path required | string An absolute path the app is showing. |
# opens a file manager window on the machine running the server curl -s 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/reveal?path=/Users/me/.dmshlabs/dictshelf/db' # Loopback only: the request must come from this machine.
{- "revealed": "string"
}How the Android shell tells the server what the platform just told it - onStop, onTrimMemory, thermal throttling, battery saver - which an exec'd server has no other way of learning.
active is normal. background stops automatic indexing and closes
reopenable handles while prepared databases stay open. saving lowers
the CPU ceiling for user-requested work. thermal-moderate lowers it
further, and thermal-severe or restricted limits execution to one
processor; thermal states also release prepared database handles.
Loopback only, and POST because it changes state: a GET here would be followed by every link prefetcher on the network.
| state required | string Enum: "active" "background" "saving" "restricted" "thermal-moderate" "thermal-severe" |
# what the Android shell sends when the app leaves the screen curl -s -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/power?state=background' curl -s -X POST 'http://127.0.0.1:6888/api/power?state=active' # Loopback only, like /api/reveal.
{- "state": "active"
}Start, inspect, or stop a headword export job. The request body uses action start, status, or stop; starting requires selected dictionary IDs and an existing output folder.
| action required | string Enum: "start" "status" "stop" |
| dictionaries | Array of strings |
| path | string |
| separate | boolean |
{- "action": "start",
- "dictionaries": [
- "string"
], - "path": "string",
- "separate": true
}{ }done counts attempted operations, including failures. dictionaryDone and dictionaryTotal count completed dictionaries out of the queue, and elapsedMs reports total job time. Each busyProgress row includes that dictionary’s elapsed time. failed lists per-operation errors; other queued operations continue. error describes a fatal job error.
Private collection API. Members are current dictionary IDs, including globally disabled dictionaries. A linked group's membership follows its filter; new matches enter its alphabetical unpinned tail or append alphabetically after a manually arranged list. If the filter disappears, the last saved membership becomes an ordinary editable group. Each group's customOrder flag records the mode; false means alphabetical. In state.json, each ordered member stores its own pinned flag; the pinned ID list in this response is derived from those entries.
| name required | string [ 1 .. 100 ] characters |
object | |
| linked | boolean |
{- "name": "string",
- "filter": {
- "facet": "string",
- "value": "string"
}, - "linked": true
}| group required | string |
| name required | string |
object or null Selected filter retained for later relinking. | |
| linked | boolean Whether to link the group to filter; omit to change only the name. |
{- "group": "string",
- "name": "string",
- "filter": {
- "facet": "string",
- "value": "string"
}, - "linked": true
}Dictionaries that have disappeared from the registry are retained. customOrder selects alphabetical or manual order; manualOrder records an explicit rearrangement in this edit. Optional pinned IDs update the pinned members together with the order.
| group required | string |
| members required | Array of strings |
| pinned | Array of strings |
| customOrder | boolean |
| manualOrder | boolean |
{- "group": "string",
- "members": [
- "string"
], - "pinned": [
- "string"
], - "customOrder": true,
- "manualOrder": true
}Unavailable members remain in the group. Linked groups can also be reordered. New members enter the alphabetical unpinned tail when customOrder is false; otherwise they append alphabetically. Optional pinned IDs update the per-member pinned flags stored alongside each member's order. Does not change global dictionary order or membership.
| group required | string |
| members required | Array of strings |
| pinned | Array of strings |
| customOrder | boolean False sorts the unpinned tail alphabetically; true preserves manual order. |
{- "group": "string",
- "members": [
- "string"
], - "pinned": [
- "string"
], - "customOrder": true
}A null filter detaches the group and keeps its current membership and selected filter for later relinking.
| group required | string |
required | object or null |
{- "group": "string",
- "filter": {
- "facet": "string",
- "value": "string"
}
}