MangaBat Scraper

Download manga chapters directly from MangaBats CDN without hitting Cloudflare protection. Auto-falls back to Playwright (headless browser) when CDN is IP-blocked.

How It Works

CDN Method (default): MangaBat serves images from storage.waitst.com — CDN is unprotected. Pattern: https://storage.waitst.com/zin/[slug]/[chapter]/[page].webp

Browser Fallback: If CDN is IP-blocked, script launches Playwright (headless Chromium) to extract image URLs directly from the chapter page JavaScript.

Script Location

Locate the script in your skills directory:

find ~ -name manga_scraper.py 2>/dev/null

Setup Check

python3 /path/to/manga_scraper.py --help

Setup (One-Time)

Required for CDN mode only (default):

# Nothing! Uses stdlib only — urllib + concurrent.futures

Required for browser fallback (optional):

pip install playwright && playwright install chromium

Usage

Single chapter (CDN, fast):

python3 manga_scraper.py "https://www.mangabats.com/manga/[manga-slug]/chapter-5"

Single chapter + force Playwright fallback (for IP-blocked networks):

python3 manga_scraper.py "https://www.mangabats.com/manga/[manga-slug]/chapter-5" \
  --fallback-browser

Chapter range (1–10):

python3 manga_scraper.py "https://www.mangabats.com/manga/[manga-slug]" \
  --start 1 --end 10 --workers 4

All chapters (auto-detect last by 404 scan):

python3 manga_scraper.py "https://www.mangabats.com/manga/[manga-slug]" \
  --all --workers 3

Skip browser fallback (faster, for CI):

python3 manga_scraper.py "..." --no-browser

Custom output folder:

python3 manga_scraper.py "URL" --output ~/Manga/MyManga

Flags

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | --all | Download all chapters (manga URL, auto-detects last by 404 scan) | | --start N | Start from chapter N | | --end N | End at chapter N | | --workers N | Concurrent downloads, default 3 | | --output -o | Output directory, default ./downloads/ | | --fallback-browser | Force Playwright fallback (for IP-blocked networks) | | --no-browser | Skip Playwright fallback entirely (faster, CI/CD) |

CDN Fallback Chain

If one CDN fails, script tries the next automatically:

storage.waitst.com — current default (/zin/[slug]/[ch]/[page].webp)
img-r1.2xstorage.com — legacy (/[slug]/[ch]/[page].webp)
img-2xcdn.com — fallback (/[slug]/[ch]/[page].webp)

If all CDNs return 403 → auto-activates Playwright fallback (installs Chromium once).

Output

Saves to chapter_NNN/page_000.webp naming convention
Resume support: skips existing files
Some pages may be missing (MangaBat sometimes removes individual pages — placeholder is ~14 bytes, skipped automatically)
Image format: .webp

Troubleshooting

| Problem | Solution | |---------|----------| | 0/0 downloaded — all 403 | IP blocked. Use --fallback-browser or activate VPN | | 0/0 downloaded — all 000 | No internet. Check connection | | playwright import error | Run: pip install playwright && playwright install chromium | | Missing pages (14 bytes each) | Normal — MangaBat removes pages from CDN sometimes | | Script breaks in future | Run with --fallback-browser — browser always works |

Notes

Script is pure Python stdlib (urllib + concurrent.futures) for CDN mode
Playwright fallback requires Chromium (~150MB download, one-time)
Be respectful: use --workers 3 or lower for batch downloads
Mangabat rotates CDNs every few months — current CDN is storage.waitst.com