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Using Boundless

Parental controls

Set a PIN, understand how it is stored, and learn why source choice is the real control in a client-side reader.

3 min read Updated 22 August 2026

Boundless includes a PIN for parental controls, set from the Settings tab. It is worth pairing that with an understanding of how the app is built, because in a reader with no catalog of its own, the most effective control is not the PIN. It is deciding which sources exist on the device in the first place.

Setting a PIN

  1. Open the Settings tab.
  2. Go to the parental controls section.
  3. Choose a PIN and confirm it.

Keep the PIN somewhere you will find it again, and read the next section before you decide it does not matter.

How the PIN is stored

Your PIN is stored as a salted hash in local device settings. It is never stored as the plain number you typed, and it never leaves the device, because Boundless has no server and no account to send it to.

The practical consequence of a salted hash is that it cannot be reversed:

  • The app cannot show you the PIN you set.
  • Nobody at Boundless can recover it for you, because nobody at Boundless has it.

Choose a PIN you will remember, and consider writing it down somewhere sensible. This is standard advice for any locally hashed secret, and it applies here.

The bigger control: which sources exist

Boundless ships with zero content sources. On a fresh install there is nothing to browse, nothing to search, and nothing to read. Content only appears once someone adds a source repository by URL and installs a source from it. Everything on screen comes from sources that were deliberately added.

For a device a child uses, that changes where your attention should go:

  • Install the sources yourself. Decide what goes on the device rather than leaving the choice to whoever picks up the phone.
  • Prefer the official repository. It contains only public-domain and openly licensed content, and today it offers Project Gutenberg, a catalog of more than 70,000 public-domain books, and Komga Demo, a self-hosted comics and manga library shown here through Komga's own public demo server.
  • Know that any repository can be added by URL. The app cannot vouch for repositories it did not publish, and it cannot filter what a third-party source returns.
  • Review what is installed from time to time. The list of repositories and installed sources is in Settings, in plain sight.

Adding sources explains how repositories and sources work in more detail, including the fact that source extensions run on the device and fetch directly from whatever site they target.

What Boundless does not have

Some of the usual worries about a reading app do not apply here, and it helps to know which:

  • No account is required, so a child can use the app without signing up for anything or filling in a profile.
  • Signed out, reading data stays on the device and is never transmitted. The privacy page covers this.
  • There is no comment section, no messaging, and no social feed inside the app. The app shows content from your installed sources and nothing else.

Using iOS controls alongside the PIN

The Boundless PIN is one layer. Because sources reach the wider internet directly from the device, the controls built into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS are a useful companion. Screen Time and its content and privacy restrictions work at the level of the device and its network access, which sits underneath any single app.

Using both is reasonable: the operating system for broad limits, and source curation inside Boundless for what the app can actually reach.

  • Adding sources for repositories, sources, and what runs where.
  • Getting started for a walkthrough of a fresh install.
  • FAQ for short answers about accounts, syncing, and content.