Tanko

Tanko is a CLI tool for reading and downloading manga directly from your terminal.

Features

• Download chapters in PDF, ZIP, CBZ, and individual image formats
• Local reading history
• Local reading progress tracking
• Basic integration with Anilist (WIP)
• Support for graphics protocols: Kitty, Sixel, iTerm2, and ASCII rendering
• Available languages:
  • Spanish
  • English
  • French by Penicilline28

Available sources (WIP)

Name	Status	Language	Requires a browser	Official site
mangadex	Good	Multiple	No	mangadex.org
leercapitulo	Good	Spanish	Yes	leercapitulo.co

Install Tanko

Using pnpm / npm

pnpm install -g tanko

Install a Browser

Note

Some sources require a web browser to scrape manga, but this step is not mandatory; you can use Tanko with sources that do not require a browser.

#firefox
npx playwright install firefox
#chromium
npx playwright install chromium
#webkit
npx playwright install webkit
#Running the command without arguments will install the default browsers
npx playwright install

Install dependencies required to run the browser

System dependencies can get installed automatically. This is useful for CI environments.

npx playwright install-deps

You can also install the dependencies for a single browser by passing it as an argument:

npx playwright install-deps chromium

It's also possible to combine install-deps with install so that the browsers and OS dependencies are installed with a single command.

npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

See system requirements for officially supported operating systems.

Playwright documentation

Run Tanko

tanko

Note

Download Directory: Downloaded chapters are currently saved in $HOME/tanko/downloads/. On Windows, it uses the USERPROFILE environment variable if defined. Otherwise, it defaults to the path of the current user's profile directory.

Recommended Terminals

Note

Visual Experience: To enjoy reading manga with real, high-quality images, we highly recommend using a terminal emulator that supports modern image protocols.

For an optimal experience with high-resolution images, use one of the following terminals:

Emulator	Supported Image Protocols	Platforms	Download
Kitty	Kitty Graphics Protocol	Linux, macOS	Download
WezTerm	Kitty, iTerm2, Sixel	Linux, macOS, Windows	Download
iTerm2	iTerm2 Inline Image Protocol, Sixel	macOS	Download
Ghostty	Kitty Graphics Protocol	Linux, macOS	Download
Foot	Sixel	Linux (Wayland)	Download
Konsole	Sixel, iTerm2	Linux	Download
Xterm	Sixel	Linux, macOS	Download
mlterm	Sixel, Jtterm	Linux, Windows	Download
Contour	Sixel	Linux, macOS, Windows	Download
Rio	Kitty, iTerm2	Linux, macOS, Windows, FreeBSD	Download

Note

In standard or basic terminals (such as Windows CMD or the VS Code integrated terminal), images will fallback and render as ASCII Art.