---
title: "Install as an App"
description: "Install Bookhoarder as a standalone app on desktop or mobile."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.bookhoarder.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Install as an App

Bookhoarder is installable as a Progressive Web App — an icon on your
home screen or dock that opens in its own window, no browser chrome
around it.

1. **Open Bookhoarder in a supported browser**

   Chrome, Edge, and most Chromium-based browsers on desktop and
   Android; Safari on iOS/iPadOS via Share → Add to Home Screen.
2. **Install it**

   Use the browser's install prompt (often an icon in the address bar),
   or the Add to Home Screen action on mobile Safari.
3. **Open it like any other app**

   It launches standalone, themed to match Bookhoarder's own colors.

## What installing gets you

- A standalone window with no address bar or tabs
- An icon on your home screen, dock, or app launcher
- Nothing else — this is a shell, not offline reading

> **No offline reading**
>
> Installing doesn't let you read books without a connection. Everything
> — the reader, your library, API calls, and every page navigation —
> still goes straight to the server, every time.

## Why it's shell-only

Bookhoarder is multi-profile, and which profile's data you see is
decided server-side on every request, from a cookie — not cached
client-side. Caching pages or API responses would risk showing one
profile's library to another after a switch on a shared device, so the
service worker only ever caches static, content-hashed assets (its own
JS, CSS, fonts, and images). API routes, the reader, and every page
navigation are network-first: the cache is only ever a fallback, and
only when you're genuinely offline.

Source: https://docs.bookhoarder.dev/features/pwa/index.mdx