The EPUB Reader skill enables Claude to seamlessly read, search, and extract content from EPUB ebook files. By converting ebook data into clean, structured Markdown, it allows for efficient text extraction, metadata retrieval, and deep content analysis. This tool is essential for users looking to bridge the gap between static ebook formats and AI-powered knowledge processing.

When should I use epub?

epub is useful in the following scenarios: • Academic Research: Extracting specific chapters or searching for key academic concepts within textbooks to facilitate literature reviews and study summaries. • Content Repurposing: Converting ebook content into Markdown format for easy integration into personal knowledge bases, blogs, or documentation systems. • Digital Library Management: Quickly retrieving book metadata such as author, publisher, and publication date, and navigating table of contents for better file organization. • Thematic Analysis: Performing parallel searches across an entire book to identify recurring themes, character arcs, or specific terminology with contextual snippets.

name	epub
description	Read and extract content from EPUB ebook files. Use this skill when the user wants to read an EPUB file, extract text from an ebook, view EPUB metadata (title, author), list chapters or table of contents, search within EPUB content, or analyze ebook content.

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).

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.

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).

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.

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

5. Search Text

Find text occurrences with surrounding context.

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

Recommended Workflow

Start with metadata to understand what book you're working with
View the TOC to see available chapters and structure
Read specific chapters for targeted analysis, or use full for complete extraction
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:

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.
Run searches in parallel for each expanded term
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

# 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

epub

When & Why to Use This Skill

Use Cases