HakuNeko: an Electron manga and anime downloader for desktop, and what its README actually promises

The problem HakuNeko targets: reading offline without hoarding

HakuNeko is a cross-platform downloader for manga and anime from various websites. That sentence from the README is the whole scope. The stated purpose is media for circumstances that require offline usage, and the README describes the philosophy as ad-hoc consumption: get it when you are going to read or watch it. The same paragraph draws a boundary that most downloaders never state: it is not meant to be a mass downloader to stock up thousands of chapters that are just collected and will probably never be read. That is a design position, not a marketing line, and it tells you who the tool is for. A reader who wants one series cached before a flight is the target user. Someone building a personal library of hundreds of series across dozens of sites is not, and the README says so before you install anything. The audience is desktop users on Linux, Windows or macOS, which matches the repository description exactly.

How HakuNeko is put together: Electron shell, web frontend, connector modules

The repository layout shows an Electron application. package.json lists electron at version 8.3.4 as a dev dependency, with src/app/main.js as the main entry point, and the start script launches electron with the application directory. The frontend lives under src/web and is built by build-web.js, while the application shell is built by build-app.js. That split matters when you run it in development: start:dev passes --cache-directory=./src/web, so the running app reads the web assets straight from the source tree, while start:build runs build:web first and points the cache directory at ./build/latest. The downloader logic itself is not described in the README, which defers developer documentation to the Wiki. What the README does show is that the project treats source sites as pluggable: the related search terms people use include HakuNeko connectors, and the README's only pointer for that subject is the Developer Manual. Bundled binaries are handled through scoped packages: @hakuneko/ffmpeg-binaries, @hakuneko/imagemagick-binaries and @hakuneko/kindlegen-binaries appear as dev dependencies, which tells you the pipeline can convert or package media rather than only saving raw files. The README does not document the conversion workflow, so treat that as an area to verify in the app rather than something the repository states.

Installing HakuNeko and downloading your first chapter

The README puts its download section first, with the note that this is what most users are looking for anyway. You get an installer or an archive for your operating system from the mirror links the README provides, which point at the stable release page and the pre-release page on GitHub. There is also a portable version for Windows that stores all its application data inside the application folder, which is the one to take if you do not want a system install. If you are on Windows and prefer a package manager, the README links a Chocolatey package named hakunekonightly. The README does not list a Homebrew formula, a Flatpak, a Snap or a distribution package for Linux, so on Linux you are downloading an archive from the releases page.

If you want to run it from source instead, package.json defines the scripts. Install dependencies at the repository root, then start the development build:

npm install
npm start

The postinstall script changes into src/app and runs npm install --no-optional there, so the first install does work in two directories. npm start resolves to start:dev, which launches Electron against the source web assets. According to package.json, that command passes --update-url=DISABLED and --disable-http-cache, so the development run will not check for updates.

To build the web frontend and run against the built output, the repository provides:

npm run start:build

That runs build:web and then starts Electron with --cache-directory=./build/latest. For a packaged application build, the script is npm run build:app, which runs node build-app.js. Linting and tests are separate: npm run lint covers both the app and the web sources, and npm test runs Jest with a JUnit reporter. Once the app is open, the README's screenshots show a chapter page preview and an anime playback view, which is where you pick a source, choose a chapter and start a download. The README does not document the exact click path, so the screenshots are the only guidance it gives.

Where HakuNeko stops: no mobile client and no bulk archiving

The most common question about this project is whether it runs on a phone, and there is no Android or iOS application described anywhere in the repository. The repository description names Linux, Windows and macOS, the README's download section offers installers and archives for those desktop systems, and the portable build is a Windows one. Nothing in the README, the topics list or package.json describes a mobile target. If your reading happens on a tablet or a phone, HakuNeko is the wrong tool, and the related search terms for Android, mobile and iOS reflect people discovering that after the fact. The second limit is the one the project sets for itself: the README states plainly that it is not a mass downloader. Expecting it to queue thousands of chapters across many sources is a misuse of the stated design, and the README's philosophy section is the source for that judgement. A third constraint is visible in the release history rather than the prose. The stable release line listed is v6.1.7 from 2020-01-18, while the nightly line carries a 2020-07-05 build, so the current work is distributed as pre-release builds. The last push to the repository was on 2026-03-29, which tells you the codebase is still being touched, but the release channels are the thing to check before you assume a given fix is in the stable download.

HakuNeko compared with a command-line downloader

The natural alternative for someone who wants manga or anime on disk is a command-line downloader driven by a config file, of which there are several in the same space. The difference is not quality, it is shape. HakuNeko is an Electron desktop application: you install it, open a window, browse a source inside the app and click to download, and the README's screenshots show exactly that interaction. A CLI downloader inverts every part of that. It has no browsing UI, so you supply a URL or a series identifier yourself, and it fits into scripts and scheduled jobs where an Electron window does not. HakuNeko's own scripts are for building and testing the application, not for headless downloading: build-app.js, build-web.js and the Jest suite are development tooling. If you want downloads triggered from a shell, from cron, or from a container, the desktop app is the wrong layer, and the README offers no headless mode. If you want to see what a source looks like before committing to a download, and you want the result in a folder you chose through a file dialog, HakuNeko's model is the more direct one.

Licence, maintenance and what upgrading costs you

HakuNeko is released under the Unlicense, which the repository carries as a UNLICENSE file and package.json repeats in its license field. That is a public-domain-style dedication rather than a copyleft or permissive-with-attribution licence, so redistribution and modification are not encumbered by attribution requirements in the way MIT or Apache-2.0 would be. This is a description of what the file says, not legal advice; if you plan to redistribute a build, read the UNLICENSE text and, if the stakes are commercial, talk to a lawyer. On maintenance, the last push to the repository was on 2026-03-29, so the project is not abandoned, but the release channels are uneven: the newest stable release listed is v6.1.7 from 2020-01-18 and the newest nightly is from 2020-07-05. Upgrading therefore has a real cost. Moving from a stable build to a nightly means accepting pre-release code in exchange for fixes that never landed in the stable line, and the README's status section shows the nightly builds are produced per platform for Windows, Ubuntu and macOS through Azure pipelines. If you pin a stable release, you should know that the version you pin dates from 2020. Building from source adds a second cost: package.json pins electron at 8.3.4, an old major version, so anyone building the app today is working against that runtime rather than a current one.

Editorial conclusion

Use HakuNeko if you read on a desktop or laptop, want a chapter or an episode saved for a flight or a commute, and are comfortable with an Electron application whose stable release line is old and whose current work ships as nightly builds. Do not adopt it if you need an Android or iOS client, or if you intend to mirror entire catalogues, which the README states is not the intended use. Before installing, check the releases page for the current stable and nightly artefacts for your platform, and read the Developer Manual in the wiki if you plan to touch connectors, because the README itself documents almost nothing about them.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. License: Unlicense
2. manga-download/hakuneko on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases