Audioserve

Audioserve is a simple personal audio streaming server that serves audio files directly from directory structures, designed primarily for audiobooks. It includes a modern web PWA client and a lightweight API, focusing on fast browsing and playback position tracking.

Key Features

• Serves audio files from folders without requiring a separate media database
• Web PWA client for modern browsers, plus an alternative older web client
• Supports single-file audiobooks (such as M4B) by exposing chapters as virtual tracks
• Optional transcoding and transcoding cache for bandwidth-friendly streaming
• Full-text search over folder names
• Playlists and playback position sharing between clients
• Collection caching in an embedded key-value store for faster browsing and search
• Filesystem change watching to keep the library up to date

Use Cases

• Self-hosted audiobook server for personal libraries organized by folders
• Lightweight audio streaming for language learning courses or lecture recordings
• Multi-collection setups (for example, separate libraries per language)

Limitations and Considerations

• Initial collection scan and cache build can take significant time for large libraries
• Search is focused on folder names (not per-track indexing or full metadata search)

Audioserve fits users who want a fast, minimalist audiobook-oriented server that respects existing folder structures and works well in a browser. It is especially useful when you need chapter support for single-file audiobooks and simple, reliable streaming without heavyweight media management.