Magazine Processing

A Dockerized Python application that monitors a folder for magazine PDFs, identifies them by filename pattern, renames them with a standardized format, and organizes them into folders.

Example

Drop lmnd06032026.pdf into ./import/ and it will be moved to:

./processed/Le Monde/Le Monde - 2026-03-06.pdf

Quick Start

docker compose up --build

This creates two local folders:

• ./import/ — drop PDFs here
• ./processed/ — organized output (subfolders per magazine)

Adding a New Magazine

Edit config/magazines.yaml and add an entry:

- name: "Magazine Display Name"
  pattern: "^prefix(\\d{2})(\\d{2})(\\d{4})\\.pdf$"
  date_groups: [day, month, year]
  template: "{name} - {date}.pdf"        # optional, this is the default

• name: the display name used for the folder and renamed file
• pattern: a regex matching the original filename, with capture groups for date components
• date_groups: an ordered list mapping each capture group to day, month, or year
• template: output filename format (optional). Available placeholders: {name}, {date} (YYYY-MM-DD), {year}, {month}, {day}, {month_name} (e.g. March)

Template examples by frequency:

Frequency	Template	Result
Daily	{name} - {date}.pdf	Le Monde - 2026-03-06.pdf
Monthly	{name} - {year}-{month}.pdf	National Geographic - 2026-03.pdf
Monthly (named)	{name} - {month_name} {year}.pdf	Science & Vie - March 2026.pdf

Restart the container after changes:

docker compose restart

Running Without Docker

pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m app.main

When running locally, the app uses /import and /processed as absolute paths. You can test by creating those directories or adjusting the paths in app/main.py.

How It Works

1. On startup, any PDFs already in /import are processed immediately
2. The app then watches /import for new files using watchdog
3. Each filename is matched against the regex patterns defined in config/magazines.yaml
4. On match, the date is extracted, the file is renamed using the magazine's output template, and moved to /processed/<Magazine Name>/
5. Unrecognized files are logged as warnings and left in place
6. Duplicate destinations (file already exists) are skipped