Small

Small is an alternative frontend for Medium articles, built with Flask. It allows users to read Medium articles without the clutter and distractions of the original Medium interface.

Instances

URL	Provided by	Country	Notes
small.private.coffee	Private.coffee	Austria 🇦🇹 🇪🇺	Main instance
small.bloat.cat	Bloat.cat	Germany 🇩🇪 🇪🇺

Features

• Clean, minimalist interface for reading Medium articles
• Fetches article content directly from Medium's GraphQL API
• Parses and displays article content, including text and basic formatting
• Proxies embedded images and GitHub gists
• Prevents loading iframes without user consent
• Responsive design for comfortable reading on various devices

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://git.private.coffee/PrivateCoffee/small.git
   cd small
   

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate
   

3. Install the package:

   pip install .
   

Usage

Local / Development

1. Start the Flask development server:

   small
   

2. Open your web browser and navigate to http://localhost:5000

3. To read a Medium article, replace https://medium.com in the article's URL with http://localhost:5000

   For example:

   • Original URL: https://medium.com/@username/article-title-123abc
   • Small URL: http://localhost:5000/@username/article-title-123abc

Production

For production use, it is recommended to deploy Small using a WSGI server like uWSGI, and behind a reverse proxy like Caddy.

This is a basic guide to deploy Small using uWSGI and Caddy.

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://git.private.coffee/PrivateCoffee/small.git
   cd small
   

2. Create a virtual environment and activate it:

   python -m venv venv
   source venv/bin/activate
   

3. Install the package:

   pip install .
   

4. Install uWSGI:

   pip install uwsgi
   

5. Create a small.ini file with the following content (adjust as needed):

   [uwsgi]
   module = small.app:app
   
   uid = small
   gid = small
   master = true
   processes = 5
   
   virtualenv = /srv/small/venv/
   chdir = /srv/small/
   
   http-socket = /tmp/small.sock
   chown-socket = caddy
   

6. Start the uWSGI server (consider using a process manager like systemd):

   uwsgi --ini small.ini
   

7. Configure Caddy to reverse proxy requests to the uWSGI server:

   small.example.com {
       reverse_proxy unix//tmp/small.sock
   }
   

Proxy Fix

If you are using a reverse proxy like Nginx, and it is setting the X-Forwarded-Host header instead of passing the Host header (you will notice this if the URL displayed on the landing page shows the internal IP and port instead of the domain name), you can use the ProxyFix middleware to fix the issue. To enable it, simply set the PROXY_FIX environment variable to 1.

For uWSGI, you can add the following line to the small.ini file:

env = PROXY_FIX=1

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by the Scribe project built with Crystal and Lucky
• Thanks to Medium for providing the content through their API

Disclaimer

This project is not affiliated with, endorsed, or sponsored by Medium. It's an independent project created to provide an alternative reading experience for Medium content.