# sandreas/m4b-tool

m4b-tool is a command line utility to merge, split and chapterize audiobook files such as mp3, ogg, flac, m4a or m4b

Repository: https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/m4b-tool
Language: PHP
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: m4b, audiobook
Last push: 2026-04-18T19:34:55+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 69/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 78, release rhythm 40, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3404, "days_push": 137, "days_rel": 566, "gap_med": 20.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1566, forks 96 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:04.285649+00:00)

## What it is
m4b-tool is a PHP command line utility wrapping ffmpeg and mp4v2 to merge, split, and chapterize audiobook files. It supports nearly all audio formats including mp3, aac, ogg, alac, flac, m4a, and m4b.

## Use cases
- merge multiple mp3 files into a single m4b audiobook
- split an m4b audiobook into chapters as separate files
- add or adjust chapters on an existing m4b file
- convert a folder of audio files into a chaptered audiobook
- split a flac album into tracks using a cue sheet
- batch process audiobook files from the command line

## When to choose
- you need to build or manipulate m4b audiobooks with chapters from the terminal
- you want to merge many audio files into one chaptered audiobook
- you need to split an audiobook by chapters or cue sheets
- you want a scriptable ffmpeg/mp4v2 wrapper tailored to audiobooks

## When to avoid
- you need a GUI for audiobook conversion
- you want a actively developed modern alternative - consider the author's newer 'tone' tool
- you need stable tagged releases - the latest stable release is old and fixes land in pre-releases

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: audio-processing, cli, developer-tools
- domain: media, files
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: audiobook, m4b, ffmpeg-wrapper, mp4v2, chapters, php, audio, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- sandreas/m4b-tool (main) score 69

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:04.285649+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:00:09.773304+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/sandreas/m4b-tool (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:04.285649+00:00, sha e8d98bf2707d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.