epub

What this skill does

# EPUB Reader Skill

Read EPUB ebook files and extract content as clean Markdown.

## Instructions

Use the epub-reader CLI tool to interact with EPUB files. The tool is located at:
`~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js`

### Available Commands

#### 1. View Metadata
Get book information (title, author, publisher, date, description).

```bash
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js metadata "<path-to-epub>"
```

#### 2. List Table of Contents
View all chapters and their structure. Each entry shows `[ch: N]` indicating the chapter number to use with the `chapter` command.

```bash
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js toc "<path-to-epub>"
```

#### 3. Read Specific Chapter
Read a single chapter by number (1-indexed).

```bash
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js chapter "<path-to-epub>" <chapter-number>
```

#### 4. Read Entire Book
Extract the complete book as Markdown.

```bash
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js full "<path-to-epub>"
```

#### 5. Search Text
Find text occurrences with surrounding context.

```bash
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js search "<path-to-epub>" "<search-query>"
```

## Recommended Workflow

1. **Start with metadata** to understand what book you're working with
2. **View the TOC** to see available chapters and structure
3. **Read specific chapters** for targeted analysis, or use **full** for complete extraction
4. **Use search** to find specific topics, quotes, or references

## Open-Ended Search

For broad or conceptual queries like "what are the main themes in this book?" or "find all references to the protagonist's childhood", use **query expansion**:

1. **Expand the query** into multiple specific search terms using domain knowledge
   - Example: "protagonist's childhood" → search for character name, "young", "childhood", "memory", "father", "mother", "grew up", etc.
2. **Run searches in parallel** for each expanded term
3. **Synthesize results** by deduplicating and consolidating findings across searches

This approach leverages Claude's domain knowledge to catch synonyms, related concepts, and terminology variations that a simple keyword search would miss.

### Example

User asks: "What does the book say about the author's research methodology?"

Expand to searches:
- "methodology"
- "research"
- "study"
- "analysis"
- "data"
- "findings"
- "evidence"

Then consolidate the results into a comprehensive answer.

## Output Format

All output is clean Markdown:
- Headings preserved as `#`, `##`, etc.
- Lists, links, and emphasis converted properly
- Excessive whitespace cleaned up
- Chapter separators included for full extraction

## Examples

```bash
# What book is this?
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js metadata "/path/to/book.epub"

# Show me the chapters
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js toc "/path/to/book.epub"

# Read chapter 3
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js chapter "/path/to/book.epub" 3

# Find all mentions of "democracy"
node ~/.claude/skills/epub/scripts/epub-reader/dist/index.js search "/path/to/book.epub" "democracy"
```

## Notes

- Chapter numbers are 1-indexed (first chapter is 1, not 0)
- Use the `[ch: N]` reference from the TOC output to find the correct chapter number
- Paths with spaces must be quoted
- Large books may produce substantial output with the `full` command
- Search results show up to 5 matches per chapter with context