Every format opens
Put a file on the device and it opens, whatever the format. No unsupported-file wall, no converting in Calibre first.
- EPUB
- MOBI
- AZW3
- DjVu
- CBZ
- FB2
- TXT
For most of history a library was a place you were let into, or kept out of, and the keys belonged to scribes and kings. Now the whole of it fits in your hand. The only thing left to decide is who holds the key.
The problem
The reading experience on a modern e-ink device is good. What Amazon and the other stores built around it is the problem. The home screen sells you the next book before it shows you the one you were reading. Your files are locked to one shop, you need an account to open what you already bought, and the device you paid for still shows you ads.
Pharos keeps the good part and removes the rest. It is only about the books, on your side, with nothing else asking for your attention.
Not a scoreboard
Most reading software wants you to go faster. A streak that breaks if you skip a day. A pace it quietly compares you to. A percentage climbing before you have even found the sentence you came for. None of that runs on Pharos. There is no streak to keep and no badge to unlock. The device remembers where you left off, and nothing else.
A book is not a workout, and Pharos does not treat it like one. Read slowly, put it down mid-page, come back in a month. The only thing that changes is the bookmark.
Two modes, one switch
A reader by default. A computer when you want one.
Read Mode boots you straight into your library. One hardware chord drops you into Shell Mode, a real Linux shell. Flip them here, and try typing in the shell.
PHAROS
↳ Continue · The Odyssey
$ whoami
owner. not a tenant.
# type `help` and hit enter.
$
What it does
Your own catalog
Sideload over USB or pull from your own OPDS catalog. No store in the loop.
Forkable
Write plugins and reading modes. The home screen is code you can change.
Sleep screens, not a storefront
A wall of 1-bit classical plates when it rests. Use ours or bring your own.
X-Ray, without the spoilers
A running list of the people, places, and terms you have met so far, and where you first met them. It never shows you a name before you have.
A commonplace book
Keep a line from any book you read, and it gathers into one anthology across your whole library, bound as a real book with its own cover.
Your margins, kept
Every highlight and note in the book you are reading, in one quiet list. Nothing to export, nothing to lose.
How it stacks up
| Pharos | Kindle | Kobo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Own your files, no DRM lock-in | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
| Every format, no conversion | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
| No store you can't remove | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| No ads on a device you paid for | ✓ | ✗ | ~ |
| A real shell, scriptable | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Open source | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Sideload freely | ✓ | ~ | ✓ |
~ partial, or with caveats. Kobo is the most open of the incumbents. Pharos goes further, and hands you the keys.
Your library, your way
Sideload over USB, pull from your own catalog over OPDS, or drop a book on the web and let the device fetch it on its next refresh. Your files stay in storage you control, on devices you own.
There is no store, and there never will be. It works fully offline, with no account to make. Sync is there if you want it, never the price of reading.
Your place, kept
Open a book on a second Pharos device, and it picks up on the exact page you left. Sync runs on the open protocol the whole KOReader world already uses, so it works with a reader you already own too.
No account to read. Sign in only if you want your place to follow you, and point it at your own server if you would rather it never touch anyone else's.
Open, and yours to fork
Open from the start. Fork it, write plugins, ship your own reading modes and sleep screens. A clean custom operating system, built for the device and the person holding it, not for a store.
$ git clone https://github.com/pharos-os/pharos Cloning into 'pharos'… it's yours now.
The roadmap
Phase A
Prove it on a Kobo, today.
Pharos Read Mode as a KOReader-based shell, running on a Kobo you can buy today. No new hardware, and we read on it ourselves.
Phase B
Our own hardware.
An open device built from the silicon up, so no vendor can ever lock the owner out, and no firmware update can take back what you bought.
Build log
- 2026-07-02The commonplace book ships: keep a line from any book, and it binds into one anthology across your library, with a cover of its own.
- 2026-07-02Streaks and badges removed, on purpose. Updates now install over Wi-Fi, signed and checked on the device before anything changes.
- 2026-07-01X-Ray and Your margins land: a spoiler-safe list of who you've met so far, and every highlight from the current book in one place.
- 2026-06-30A real settings panel, quick power controls, and a plain-language device health readout.
- 2026-06-29Read Mode rebuilt as the actual home screen: a cover-grid library, reading sync, and offline dictionary lookups.
- 2026-06-28Read ↔ Shell toggle and a typeable terminal land on the site.
- 2026-06-28Art set re-themed to classical antiquity; Cinzel wordmark, Pompeii-red accent.
- 2026-06-271-bit dithering pipeline, plus 12 device sleep screens.
- 2026-06-26OPDS catalog wired; book sync to private R2 storage.
- 2026-06-25Vision, roadmap, and the Kobo Clara BW dev playbook written.
Named after the lighthouse of Alexandria, the guiding light beside the greatest library ever built and the warning of what happens when knowledge sits behind one gate. Pharos is built so a firmware update can't quietly close your library, and no fire can end it the way one ended Alexandria's.
On the list. We'll write when it's real, not before.
Updates only when there's something to show. We won't track you or sell the list.