apple-books
Read your Apple Books library, highlights, notes, and reading progress directly from the local SQLite databases on macOS.
Install via CLI (Recommended)
clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/alexissan/apple-booksWhat This Skill Does
The apple-books skill provides a direct, read-only bridge between your AI agent and the local SQLite databases used by the Apple Books application on macOS. By leveraging native database queries, the skill allows you to retrieve metadata about your entire library, including reading progress, authorship, genre, and comprehensive reading status. Whether you want to reflect on your finished books, find your current reading progress, or search through specific titles, this skill transforms your local library into a queryable data source.
Installation
To install this skill, use the following command in your terminal:
clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/alexissan/apple-books
Ensure you have Full Disk Access granted to your terminal or the process running the OpenClaw agent within System Settings > Privacy & Security, as the Apple Books library resides in protected system containers.
Use Cases
This skill is perfect for readers who want to analyze their reading habits. You can use it to build reading lists, track how many books you have finished in a year, or quickly look up the author or progress status of a book you are currently reading without needing to open the Apple Books app. It is also highly effective for creating summaries or lists of notes and highlights to export for writing or research purposes.
Example Prompts
- "How much progress have I made on the book I'm currently reading?"
- "List all the finished books in my collection that belong to the sci-fi genre."
- "Find all books in my library written by Carl Sagan and show me their current status."
Tips & Limitations
- Read-Only: This skill is strictly designed for reading data. It will never modify your library. Modifying the underlying SQLite files can cause corruption and break iCloud syncing.
- MacOS Only: The skill depends on file paths specific to the macOS
com.apple.iBooksXcontainer. - Database Discovery: The skill uses dynamic path resolution, ensuring that if you have moved your library or if Apple updates the database schema paths, the skill remains robust.
- First Launch: Ensure you have opened Apple Books at least once; otherwise, the SQLite databases may not have been initialized by the system.
Metadata
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Find the right skillPaste this into your clawhub.json to enable this plugin.
{
"plugins": {
"official-alexissan-apple-books": {
"enabled": true,
"auto_update": true
}
}
}Tags(AI)
Flags: file-read, code-execution
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