E-readers
Read your series on an e-reader.
Add your Gnothi series to an e-reader as an OPDS catalog, follow the text RSS feed, or download the EPUB. The steps cover the Xteink X4 Pro, KOReader on Boox and Kobo, and any reader that opens EPUB.
Set up the catalogWhy an e-reader
A book that keeps growing, on an E Ink screen.
A Gnothi series is a book that keeps getting longer. You give it a premise, pick fiction or nonfiction, and it adds chapters on a schedule or when you ask: a course on whatever you're into, a serial, or a story that teaches as it goes. Every chapter is narrated too, but some chapters are better read on E Ink.
Sideloading a new file for every chapter scatters the book across your library. The OPDS catalog keeps one book per series: when new chapters land, download it again from the catalog.
OPDS catalog
Try it free on Gnothi's books, then add your own behind a key.
OPDS is the catalog format e-readers use to browse and download books from a server.
You can try it before you make an account. https://gnothiai.com/opds.xml is a free catalog of Gnothi's own published books. Add it on your reader with the steps below and leave the username and password empty. It lists the books with the newest chapters first, and the ones near the top get new chapters most often, so run the whole cycle on one of those: download it, read a little, download it again once the book has a new chapter, and check that your reader kept your place.
For reading, start with Continue Without Me. Its chapters come less often, so look further down the list. It's a good story first: Eli, laid off by automation, hires an AI agent called Relay to help him build a business, in a port city reliving the 1980s. It also teaches the philosophy of mind and the AI agent tools a one-person business runs on. And if you're after a personal change, it takes the Transformer paper's title, "Attention Is All You Need", and turns it into a question about paying attention to your own life.
Your own series sit in a separate catalog behind a key. It lists each series that has at least one finished chapter, most recently updated first, and each one downloads as an EPUB. Make the key first. On the web: the Account icon in the navbar, then Settings → Security card → API keys → New key → E-reader → Create key. In the mobile app: Account icon → Settings → Security → API keys → New key → E-reader → Create key. Inside a series, Settings tab → Publishing → E-reader card → Open API keys is a shortcut.
The E-reader key can only read your series. Copy it from the reveal, which also shows the catalog URL; you won't see the key again, but you can revoke it and make another.
On the reader, add a catalog with the URL https://api.gnothiai.com/opds. Any username works, or none. The key goes in the password field, and its case, dashes and gnk_ prefix are all optional.
API keys, the E-reader one included, come with Gnothi's one-time unlock: any credit top-up turns them on for good. Without it you can still download any series as an EPUB for free (below); the unlock adds the catalog.
More detail
- The key travels as the password over HTTPS (HTTP basic authentication), never in a URL.
- One E-reader key covers every series you have now and any you start later.
- New chapters are added to the end of the EPUB and earlier chapters stay as they were, which is meant to let your reader keep your place. Troubleshooting says what has been tested.
Xteink X4 Pro
The e-reader I use, and its Add catalog screen.
I built Gnothi, and I read it on an Xteink X4 Pro. I've been through a lot of e-readers, and this is the one I recommend. It weighs 72 g and fits in a pocket but still has physical page buttons, and its stock firmware can add an OPDS catalog, so Gnothi works on it without flashing anything.
If you want other options, my e-reader comparison table at https://ocdevel.com/ereaders scores the rest. Boox, Kobo and other KOReader devices are covered in the next section.
Xteink hasn't published release notes for the stock firmware's catalog screen, so these steps follow the screen on my unit.
Open Add catalog. Name: anything, such as Gnothi. Catalog URL: https://api.gnothiai.com/opds. Expand "Account and password (optional)", leave Account blank or type anything, and put the key in Password. Tap Test, then Save.
Open the catalog and your series appear as books. Download one to read it, and download it again from the catalog when new chapters land.
Xteink X4 Pro on Amazon As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
KOReader
On Boox, Kobo, PocketBook and jailbroken Kindles.
KOReader is an open-source reading app that runs on Android e-readers such as Boox, on Kobo through NickelMenu, on PocketBook, and on jailbroken Kindles. It has an OPDS catalog built in.
Open the file browser, tap the magnifying-glass icon and choose OPDS. Tap the plus button at the top left, then enter a name, the URL https://api.gnothiai.com/opds, any username, and the key as the password.
KOReader's progress sync can carry your place between devices, but by default it matches books on their exact file contents. A re-downloaded series with new chapters is a different file, so set the matching method to filename if you want your position to follow it.
Text RSS feed
For RSS readers and e-reader apps that follow feeds.
A published series has two RSS feeds: audio for podcast apps, and text for reading. Each item in the text feed carries the whole chapter where Gnothi wrote it; an uploaded or older episode carries its shownotes.
Both addresses are in the series under Settings tab → Publishing once the feed is on. Paste the text feed into an RSS reader, or into KOReader's News downloader, which fetches feed items onto the device. None of the Xteink X4 Pro's stock sync screens take a feed.
A feed address has no password: anyone you give it to can read the series. The OPDS catalog stays behind your key.
Download the EPUB
Free, and it works on any reader that opens EPUB.
In a series, open the Settings tab, then Publishing → Download book (EPUB) → Download. You get an EPUB 3 of every finished chapter in reading order, with a table of contents. It needs at least one finished chapter.
Copy it over however your reader takes files: USB or a microSD card, Calibre's wireless transfer (the X4 Pro's Calibre Transfer screen takes it), Xteink's phone app, or Send-to-Kindle on a Kindle.
This route needs no key and no unlock. The catalog saves you from repeating it each time new chapters arrive.
Troubleshooting
When the catalog won't load or a book looks out of date.
New chapters don't arrive on their own. After a chapter finishes, download the book again from your catalog, or export a fresh EPUB. The free catalog picks up new chapters when the site updates, so if a book there hasn't changed, check back later.
On an Xteink X4 Pro, downloading an unchanged book again kept the reading position. Whether the position holds when the new file has more chapters is still being confirmed, so try it with one series, or a book near the top of the free catalog, before you rely on it.
Common problems
- The reader keeps asking for the password: the key is mistyped, revoked or expired. Check it, or make a new E-reader key.
- The catalog answers 403 or forbidden: the account doesn't have the one-time unlock yet, or the key can't read series. Top up once, or make a key with the E-reader preset.
- The catalog is empty: it lists only series with at least one finished chapter.
- Test fails on the Xteink X4 Pro: check the URL is exactly https://api.gnothiai.com/opds, https:// included.
- The EPUB link from the app stopped working: it lasts an hour. Tap Download again for a fresh one.
Start a series
Write a premise, pick fiction or nonfiction, and Gnothi writes the book a chapter at a time, ready for your e-reader.
Get started free