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Skill757 repo starsupdated 8d ago

read-book

When you want to read and extract structured notes from a book — PDF, EPUB, MOBI, markdown, .txt, pasted text, or URL to a public-domain work. Reads in chunks (by chapter when a TOC exists, by 50-page blocks otherwise), extracts per-chapter TL;DR + key concepts + quotes + action items + frameworks, and offers to capture to second-brain raw/ as a highlights- file. Four modes — notes (default, chapter-by-chapter), summary (whole-book TL;DR + 3–5 takeaways), quotes (pull-quote highlights only), study (notes + Q&A spaced-rep prep). Triggers on "/read-book," "read this book," "extract notes from this PDF," "what's in this book," "summarize this ebook," "pull quotes from this." Sibling to watch-video (same content-consumption pattern, different medium).

Install in Claude Code
Copy
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/coreyhaines31/makerskills /tmp/read-book && cp -r /tmp/read-book/skills/read-book ~/.claude/skills/read-book
Then start a new Claude Code session; the skill loads automatically.

SKILL.md

# /read-book — Extract structured notes from books and long PDFs

Sibling to `watch-video`. Same content-consumption pattern: ingest → chunk → extract → optionally capture to second-brain.

## Step 1 — Parse input

Accept:
- **PDF**: file path (Claude reads PDFs natively in chunks via `Read pages:"X-Y"`)
- **EPUB / MOBI**: file path (needs `pandoc` or `ebook-convert` to extract — see `references/sources.md`)
- **Markdown / .txt**: file path (read directly)
- **Pasted text**: just use what was pasted
- **URL** to public-domain text: `WebFetch` (Project Gutenberg, archive.org, etc.)

Detect type from file extension. If ambiguous, ask.

## Step 2 — Parse mode

| Invocation | Mode | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| `/read-book <input>` | **notes** (default) | Chapter-by-chapter: TL;DR + key concepts + quotes + action items + frameworks |
| `/read-book <input> summary` | summary | Whole-book TL;DR (1 paragraph) + 3–5 key takeaways + who-it's-for |
| `/read-book <input> quotes` | quotes | Pull-quote highlights only, with chapter context and page refs |
| `/read-book <input> study` | study | Notes mode + 10–20 spaced-repetition Q&A cards |

If the book is long (>200 pages) and mode is unspecified, default to `notes` but warn it'll take many tool calls.

## Step 3 — Get the text + chunk

See `references/sources.md` for per-source ingestion. Output of this step: text content + a chunking plan.

**Chunking strategy** (hybrid, in priority order):

1. **By chapter** if a TOC exists (PDF with bookmarks, EPUB/MOBI converted via pandoc preserves chapter headers)
   - Use `pdfinfo <pdf> | grep "Pages"` for PDFs
   - Use `pdftotext -layout <pdf> | grep -i "^chapter\|^part"` for chapter detection, or read TOC from page 1–5
   - EPUB: after `pandoc <epub> -o tmp.md`, chunks are between `# Chapter X` headers

2. **By page count** for PDFs without TOC: 50 pages per chunk

3. **By character count** for text/markdown: 30,000 chars per chunk (~7,500 words)

Save the chunking plan as `~/Documents/books/<author>-<title-slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>/chunks.json`:

```json
{
  "source": "<path>",
  "title": "<book title>",
  "author": "<author>",
  "type": "pdf",
  "total_pages": 287,
  "chunking": "by-chapter",
  "chunks": [
    {"i": 0, "label": "Introduction", "pages": "1-12"},
    {"i": 1, "label": "Chapter 1: The Problem", "pages": "13-32"},
    ...
  ]
}
```

## Step 4 — Read each chunk

Loop:
1. Read chunk N (`Read` tool with `pages:` for PDF, full file for text/MD)
2. Extract per the chosen mode (see `references/output-modes.md` for templates)
3. Append the chunk's notes to `~/Documents/books/<workdir>/notes-<NNN>-<label-slug>.md`

For PDFs, **don't read the whole book in one call** — Claude's PDF tool maxes around 10 pages. Process chunks individually.

If a chunk fails to extract anything useful (e.g., it's mostly diagrams or front-matter), log the skip and continue.

## Step 5 — Aggregate into final notes file

Combine all chunk notes into a single `~/Documents/books/<workdir>/notes.md` matching the mode's full-book template (see `references/output-modes.md`).

Top of the file always has the metadata block + the second-brain-compatible frontmatter:

```markdown
source: <file path or URL>
captured: YYYY-MM-DD
type: book
book_title: <title>
author: <author>
mode: notes
chunks: <count>
chunking: <strategy>

# <title> by <author>

## TL;DR
<2–3 sentences>

## Key takeaways
1. ...

## Chapter notes
...

## Cross-references (suggested for wiki)
- Could connect to [[Longevity Biomarkers]] (per Chapter 3 discussion of biomarkers)
- Could connect to [[Productivity & Systems]] (per Chapter 7 framework)
```

The cross-reference suggestions are advisory — they're suggestions for `/sb compile` to act on, not auto-applied. Keep responsibilities separated.

## Step 6 — Offer to capture to second-brain

Ask:

> *"Want to capture this to second-brain? I'll write it to `${SECOND_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/SecondBrain}/raw/highlights-<slug>.md` matching your vault's `highlights-` type prefix."*

Default is **ask**, never auto-write. If yes:
1. Copy the final `notes.md` (with the second-brain-compatible frontmatter at top) to `${SECOND_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/SecondBrain}/raw/highlights-<slug>.md`
2. Tell the user the path
3. Suggest: *"Run `/sb compile` later to merge this into wiki pages — the cross-reference suggestions in the footer are starting points."*

If the user skips capture, the workdir still has everything — they can grab the file later.

## Step 7 — Report

In chat:
- One-line headline: `<title> · <author> · <total_pages or word count> · <mode> · <chunks processed>`
- Workdir path
- The TL;DR section
- For `notes` / `study` modes: brief list of top 3 takeaways
- For `quotes` mode: top 3 quotes
- If captured to second-brain: that path too

## Modes (quick invocations)

| Invocation | Mode | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| `/read-book <input>` | notes | Full pipeline, default mode |
| `/read-book <input> summary` | summary | Just TL;DR + key takeaways (1 read pass for short books, sampled chapters for long) |
| `/read-book <input> quotes` | quotes | Chapter-by-chapter, but only output quotes |
| `/read-book <input> study` | study | Notes + Q&A spaced-rep cards |
| `/read-book <input> --capture` | (any) | Skip the ask step, auto-write to second-brain raw/ |
| `/read-book <input> --render pdf` | (any) | Also render the final `notes.md` to PDF via pandoc (uses `~/.local/share/makerskills/render.css`). See `references/output-modes.md`. |
| `/read-book <input> --render html` | (any) | Same as above but HTML |

## Composes with

- `second-brain` — primary integration: writes `highlights-<slug>.md` to `raw/`. Then `/sb compile` merges into wiki pages.
- `deep-research` — when a research question turns up a book, `/read-book` is the next step. Notes feed back into the research brief.
- `business-brainstorm` — when scoring an idea (e.g., business books on similar models), read-book provides the structured evidence.
- `decide` — wh
business-brainstormSkill

When you want to pressure-test a potential new business, product, or side project against the serial-founder filter. Not \"marketing ideas for a product\" (that's marketing-skills:marketing-ideas) — this is \"should this business exist + can you win it.\" Runs the idea through a structured framework (problem, audience, wedge, monetization, moat, portfolio fit, distribution, energy fit, opportunity cost), checks domain availability via /domain, optionally triggers /deep-research for market validation, and outputs a viability brief: build / sleep on it / pass. Archives every idea to ~/.config/makerskills/business-brainstorm/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/business-brainstorm,\" \"/brainstorm,\" \"new business idea,\" \"should I build X,\" \"pressure test this idea,\" \"validate this idea,\" \"is X a good business,\" \"what about a [type] for [audience].\"

company-brainSkill

Your team's shared, AI-ready knowledge base — people, companies, meetings, SOPs, and decisions structured so Claude can answer questions on your team's behalf. Team-scope sibling to second-brain (which is personal-scope). Seven modes — capture (drop something into the right structured dir), compile (process into wiki pages, update INDEX.md), query (answer from the corpus with trust weighting, save to outputs/), review (triage queue — verify / deprecate / supersede unreviewed and stale captures so wrong info never becomes context), lint (orphans / stale / contradictions / gaps), connect (suggest new wikilinks), search (quick lookup). Structured raw dirs (people/, companies/, meetings/, sops/, decisions/, customer-language/, recurring-questions/, sales-objections/) instead of second-brain's flat type-prefixed raw/. Multi-author aware — every capture stamps author + timestamp + trust status. Optional auto-sync from Fathom/Gong/Granola call transcripts, Slack/email exports, CRM. Defaults to a vault at ${COMPANY_BRAIN_VAULT:-$HOME/Documents/CompanyBrain}/. Triggers on "/company-brain," "/cb," "capture this into the team brain," "log this meeting," "add this person to the team brain," "save this SOP," "compile the company wiki," "query the team brain," "what does the team know about X," "review the company brain," "cull the team brain," "lint the company brain," "who's the internal expert on X.

company-cfoSkill

Monthly CFO workflow for a company or agency — pull raw data from bank + payment processor + payroll + expense management, categorize and reconcile, compute end-of-month cash via transaction-sum method, update a scenario projector for forward forecasting, write the monthly snapshot report, surface decisions to leadership. Modes — monthly (default; the standing report), weekly (thin cash pulse), scenario (ad-hoc modeling in the projector), pickup (resume where the prior run left off). Anonymized team-scope sibling to personal-cfo (which handles personal household finances). Composes with company-brain (report gets stored + wiki-indexed there), toolify (wire company-specific data sources), loopify (schedule the monthly + weekly runs). Triggers on "/company-cfo," "/cfo," "monthly cash report," "do the CFO snapshot," "CFO monthly," "let's run CFO," "cash projection," "runway forecast," "monthly financials," "cash pulse.

decideSkill

When you have a decision to make and want a structured workflow that picks the load-bearing questions, walks through them, reaches a call (or "wait"), and archives the rationale for future reference. Based on the 37signals Guide to Making Decisions (38 questions) plus house additions like Q39 opportunity cost ("what does saying yes displace?"). Triages to 6–8 relevant questions per decision instead of forcing the full set. Archives every decision to ~/.config/makerskills/decide/archive/ with a revisit date so you can check later whether the call was right. Triggers on "/decide," "help me decide," "should I [X]," "I need to make a decision about," "stuck on a decision," "deciding between," "go/no-go on," "what should I do about." This is both the decision-making workflow AND the decision log — making the decision is the act of logging it.

deep-researchSkill

When you want multi-source, multi-step research on a topic — competitor research before a sales call, market research for a new business idea, positioning angles, due diligence on a partnership or podcast guest, tech decision research (which DB, which auth), or any \"I need to actually understand X.\" Combines WebSearch, WebFetch, agent-browser, /last30days (Reddit/X/YouTube/HN/web recency), memory, and Notion. Outputs a structured brief with citations, contradictions, gaps, and recommended next steps. Archives every research run to ~/.config/makerskills/deep-research/archive/ so past work is searchable. Triggers on \"/deep-research,\" \"research X,\" \"investigate X,\" \"do a deep dive on X,\" \"look into X,\" \"what's actually happening with X,\" \"due diligence on X,\" \"validate this market.\" Differs from a one-shot WebSearch: this is multi-pass with verification.

domainSkill

When you want to brainstorm and check available .com domains for a new project — brand naming, aftermarket pricing (HugeDomains / Afternic / Sedo / Dan), USPTO trademark screening, and social handle availability. Built on Laura Roeder's \"work backwards from availability, not from a name you fell in love with\" methodology. Uses Vercel CLI + whois + Domainr API + Namecheap API + agent-browser for the pieces each tool actually reliably supports (multi-tool ensemble because no single tool covers everything cleanly). 11-step workflow: budget → brainstorm → primary availability check → whois cross-check → Domainr aggregation → Namecheap price → aftermarket sweep (+ liveness probe for parked/dead domains, drop-watch for expiring ones) → bucket → negotiate → NAME research (trademark + socials) → buy. Triggers on \"/domain,\" \"find a domain,\" \"check domain availability,\" \"brainstorm a domain,\" \"what .com is available for X,\" \"domain hunt,\" \"name my project,\" \"is X.com available,\" \"aftermarket price on X.com,\" \"trademark check for X.\"

jab-hookSkill

Gary Vaynerchuk's jab-jab-jab-right-hook framework applied to a personal portfolio rotation on X and LinkedIn. Jabs = build-in-public + educational (value). Hooks = promo (the ask). Each property in the user's configured portfolio (see `~/.config/makerskills/jab-hook/properties.yaml`) gets a hook at least once every ~3 weeks; jabs fill the rest. Drafts go into the user's Typefully workspace via MCP. Modes — plan (7-day plan), pick-next (single post), audit (coverage report), draft (specific post). Triggers on "/jab-hook," "what should I post," "plan my socials," "next promo," "next jab," "next hook," "social rotation," "promote [property]," "BIP post," "audit my socials," "what haven't I posted about.

loopifySkill

When you want to set up an agent loop, cron-scheduled task, or recurring workflow that runs autonomously in Claude Code. Judgment layer on top of ScheduleWakeup, CronCreate, and the /loop skill — decides whether to use dynamic pacing (self-scheduling wake-ups), cron scheduling (fixed intervals), or a one-shot loop; tunes delay to avoid the 5-minute cache-miss cliff; designs idempotent loop bodies; sets bail-out conditions so loops don't run forever. Examples of loops to loopify — weekly review pulse, daily brief generation, hourly monitoring of a metric, periodic vault compilation, upstream-check for an adapted skill, sponsorship-pipeline refresh, YouTube-transcript-batch-download, morning startup routine. Triggers on "/loopify," "set up a loop," "schedule this task," "run this daily," "run this weekly," "cron this," "make this recurring," "automate this on a schedule," "keep this running until X." Part of the -ify trifecta (skillify / toolify / loopify) for extending Claude Code. NOT for authoring a new skill — that's skillify. NOT for adding a tool/integration — that's toolify.