---
title: "mal"
description: "Audit and backfill verified MAL links for metadata fallback."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://manifold.jfa.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# mal

```sh
manifold registry mal [flags]
```

Audits active registry rows and fills missing MAL links from AniList's `idMal`.
It queries AniList from your machine, which can work when AniList blocks the
Worker's IP. No AniList or MAL login is needed. The registry API token is required.

The default is read-only. `--apply` uses registry ingestion to attach proven
links, preserving UUIDs and rejecting conflicting ownership. It never changes
list state, title-matches, or replaces an existing MAL link. Run it before an
outage to prepare existing AniList entries for MAL detail fallback.

## Flags

### `--apply`

Persist verified links. Default: `false`. Review the dry-run report first.

Example:

```sh
manifold registry mal --apply
```

### `--limit <n>`

Check at most `n` active AniList-linked rows missing a MAL link. The registry
is fully paged before applying the limit. Default: all eligible rows.

Example:

```sh
manifold registry mal --limit 50
```

### AniList rate limiting

The command waits a fixed **2.5 seconds** between AniList lookups. This is
hardcoded because AniList is currently in a degraded state with a 30-requests-
per-minute limit. Each lookup has a 15-second timeout.

### `--api-token <token>`

Override the registry API token. Defaults to `MANIFOLD_TOKEN`.

Example:

```sh
manifold registry mal --api-token "$MANIFOLD_TOKEN"
```

### `--api-origin <url>`

Override the API origin. Defaults to `MANIFOLD_API_ORIGIN`, then
`https://manifold.jfa.dev/api`.

Example:

```sh
manifold registry mal --api-origin https://manifold.example/api
```

## Reading the report

The audit counts active rows, existing MAL links, missing links, and rows
without an AniList link. Rows with no `idMal` remain unmapped. Tombstoned rows
are skipped. Conflicts and upstream failures are errors, not missing matches.
The command continues through individual errors and exits nonzero if any fail.
Successful writes remain applied; rerunning skips their existing MAL links.

Source: https://manifold.jfa.dev/cli/registry/mal/index.mdx