docs(openlibrary): lastfm-model SKILL.md rewrite and README refresh

SKILL.md rebuilt to the lastfm model: keyless setup with covers-host table, intent-grouped commands including new editions/ratings, ISBN-to-work-to-author pipeline recipe, jq guidance, Known Gotchas grounded in researched behavior (ISBN 302 redirects, merge stubs inside HTTP 200, OL...M/W/A suffix system with double-nested author refs, availability-needs-ia projection rule, silent-empty search errors, rate etiquette), When-to-use/When-not-to-use boundaries, and a four-row reference routing table. Body 240 lines. README rewritten for humans with verified What You Get paths. Description updated with imperative verb start and negative boundary.

Co-authored-by: factory-droid[bot] <138933559+factory-droid[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
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Magnus Hedemark
2026-08-26 08:44:37 -04:00
co-authored by factory-droid[bot] <138933559+factory-droid[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
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# Open Library — Book Metadata from the Terminal
Search books and authors, look up works and ISBNs, and fetch detailed metadata from the public Open Library API. No API key, no registration — just works.
Search books and authors, resolve ISBNs, walk the edition/work/author graph,
enumerate editions, and read community ratings from the public Open Library
API. No API key exists — every read is keyless.
## Why Install This Skill
When your agent loads this skill, it can **access 50M+ book records** without any setup. That means:
When your agent loads this skill, it gets **structured access to 50M+ book records**
without any signup or credentials:
- **Search by keyword** — find books by title, author, or subject
- **Look up by ISBN** — get detailed metadata for any ISBN
- **Author details** — bio, birth/death dates, top works
- **Work and edition info** — publication dates, languages, formats
- **Filter and sort** — by language, year, rating, or new arrivals
- **Search anything** — keyword queries with sort by edition count, date, or title; field-scoped lookups by title, author, subject, publisher, or ISBN
- **Resolve any identifier** — turn an ISBN/LCCN/OCLC into a canonical edition record and follow it up to the abstract work and its author
- **Enumerate editions** — every published version of a work with dates, publishers, and ISBNs
- **Read community signals** — star ratings and want-to-read counts per work
- **Get cover images correctly** — proper URLs on Open Library's dedicated image host, with existence checks that actually return 404 instead of blank placeholders
The skill also encodes where agents typically trip: ISBN endpoints that answer
302 redirects, merged-record keys that hide redirect stubs inside HTTP 200
responses, the OL…M/W/A key-suffix system, `{type,value}`-wrapped text fields,
and rate-limit etiquette that keeps you unblocked.
## What You Get
| Directory | Purpose |
|-----------|---------|
| `SKILL.md` | Complete command reference with examples |
| `scripts/openlibrary` | CLI tool for the Open Library API |
| Path | Purpose |
|------|---------|
| `SKILL.md` | Command reference: setup, intent-grouped commands, pipeline recipes, jq guidance, known gotchas |
| `scripts/openlibrary` | CLI tool for the Open Library API (`--json`, `--dry-run`, automatic redirect resolution) |
| `scripts/test_openlibrary.py` | Offline test suite for the CLI (help/errors/dry-run/mocked logic; live probes env-guarded) |
| `references/api-overview-and-key-graph.md` | Access model, rate etiquette, OLID key graph, merge-stub behavior |
| `references/search-api-guide.md` | Search parameters, sort keys, query syntax, sibling search endpoints, error model |
| `references/books-isbn-and-covers.md` | ISBN/identifier resolution, view models, editions, ratings, covers-host rules |
| `references/recipes-and-gotchas.md` | Worked curl/jq pipelines and a symptom-indexed gotcha table |
| `evals/evals.json` | Behavioral eval cases covering searches, pipelines, gotchas |
## Quick Start
```bash
openlibrary search --query "dune"
openlibrary search --isbn "9780439358064"
openlibrary search-authors --query "asimov"
openlibrary search --query "dune" # find works
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 # resolve an ISBN to its edition
openlibrary editions OL81699W # list every edition of a work
openlibrary ratings OL45804W # community signals
```
Optional politeness knob:
```bash
export OL_EMAIL="you@example.com" # adds contact to User-Agent; ~3x rate budget
```
## Triggers
Load this for book research, ISBN lookups, author information, or cataloging projects.
Load this for book research, ISBN or OLID lookups, author biographies, edition
enumeration, reading-level community stats, cover-image URL assembly, or any
question about the Open Library catalog itself.
## Requirements
Python 3.8+ with `requests` library. No API key needed — fully public API.
- Python 3.8+ with the `requests` library
- No API key, no account — reads are fully public
- `jq` recommended for processing `--json` output
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---
name: openlibrary
description: Search books, authors, and works on Open Library from the terminal. Look
up books by ISBN, search titles and authors, and fetch detailed work/author records
via the public Open Library API. No API key required.
description: >-
Query the Open Library catalog from the terminal: search books and authors,
look up works, editions, and ISBNs, enumerate every edition of a work, read
community ratings, and resolve cover-image URLs. Fully keyless public API.
Includes the OL…M/W/A key-graph reference, ISBN 302-redirect resolution,
search query syntax, covers-host rules, and worked pipelines. Do not use for
library-IT administration (Koha/MARC/ILS migration), commercial book-data
feeds, or managing your reading account on Open Library itself.
license: MIT
compatibility: Python 3.8+ and the `requests` library. No API key or registration
required — the Open Library API is fully public. Optional OL_EMAIL env var sets
a User-Agent contact for improved rate limiting.
required — reads are fully public. Optional OL_EMAIL env var adds a contact to
the User-Agent for better rate-limit treatment.
metadata:
tags: open-library, books, authors, isbn, library, book-search, api-client, catalog
sources: https://openlibrary.org/developers/api, https://openlibrary.org
sources: https://openlibrary.org/developers/api, https://openlibrary.org/dev/docs/api/books
---
# openlibrary — Book Metadata from Open Library
Search books and authors, look up works and ISBNs, and fetch detailed metadata from the public [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org) API. No API key, no registration — just works.
Query Open Library's 50M+ record catalog over its public HTTP API: search works
and authors, walk the edition/work/author graph by ISBN or OLID, enumerate
editions, and read community ratings. No API key exists; everything here is a
keyless GET.
## Setup
No authentication or API keys needed. The Open Library API is fully public.
Nothing to authenticate: **the public Open Library API requires no API key** for
reads. There is no token, no registration step, no lazy-auth dance.
```bash
# Optional: set your email to help with rate limiting (included in User-Agent):
# Optional etiquette: identified User-Agent gets ~3x rate budget (~3 req/s vs ~1)
export OL_EMAIL="you@example.com"
```
Only Python 3.8+ and the `requests` package are required. `--help` and `--dry-run` work without any setup.
Requires Python 3.8+ and `requests` only. `--help` and `--dry-run` work with no
environment at all. Write endpoints exist upstream but require an authenticated
Internet Archive session and are effectively internal — treat this surface as
read-only.
Three hosts matter and they serve different things:
| Host | Serves |
|------|--------|
| `openlibrary.org` | metadata JSON: search, records, ratings |
| `covers.openlibrary.org` | cover images + author photos (separate service) |
| `archive.org` | scan content / bulk dumps (redirect targets) |
## Essential Commands
### search — Search books by keyword
### find books — search
```bash
openlibrary search --query "dune" # basic search (20 results)
openlibrary search --query "dune" --limit 5 # just the top 5
openlibrary search --query "dune" # relevance order
openlibrary search --query "dune" --sort editions # most editions first
openlibrary search --query "dune" --sort new # newest first
openlibrary search --query "dune" --sort rating # highest rated first
openlibrary search --query "dune" --sort title # alphabetical by title
openlibrary search --query "foundation" --lang fr # French editions
openlibrary search --query "dune" --json # machine-readable JSON
openlibrary search --query "foundation" --lang fr # prefer French editions
openlibrary search --query "dune" --limit 5 --offset 10 # paginate
openlibrary search --query "dune" --json # machine-readable
```
Shows: title, first publish year, authors, edition count. Supports `--sort` (editions, new, old, rating, title), `--lang`, `--offset`, and `--availability`.
Results carry title, authors, `first_publish_year`, edition count, and the work
key (`/works/OL…W`) that feeds the other commands. The CLI validates `--sort`
choices client-side because an unknown sort value makes the server return a
plain-text HTTP 500.
### search-authors — Search authors by name
### find people who write — author search
```bash
openlibrary search-authors --query "asimov" # search authors
openlibrary search-authors --query "asimov" --limit 5 # top 5
openlibrary search-authors --query "asimov" --json # machine-readable
openlibrary search-authors --query "asimov" # name candidates
openlibrary search-authors --query "le guin" --limit 5
openlibrary search-authors --query "asimov" --json # includes top_work, work_count
```
Shows: name, birth/death years, author key, top work.
Author docs arrive with bare keys (`OL23919A`), unlike book search's path keys.
### author — Get author details by key
### inspect records — author / work
```bash
openlibrary author OL23919A # Isaac Asimov
openlibrary author OL34184A # Ursula K. Le Guin
openlibrary author OL23919A --json # full biography
openlibrary author OL23919A # bio, dates, photo URL
openlibrary work OL1168083W # description, subjects, cover URL
openlibrary work OL1168083W --json # full record
```
Shows: name, birth/death dates, biography (up to 500 chars), Wikipedia link, personal name. Author keys are the `OL#####A` identifiers from search results.
Keys may be passed bare (`OL23919A`) or as paths (`/authors/OL23919A`) — the CLI
normalizes both.
### work — Get work details by key
### resolve an ISBN
```bash
openlibrary work OL123W # work by key
openlibrary work OL81699W # "Foundation"
openlibrary work OL81699W --json # full description
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 # ISBN-10 or ISBN-13
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 --json # + resolved edition_key, work_keys, cover_url
```
Shows: title, author keys, subjects, description (up to 500 chars). Work keys are the `OL#####W` identifiers found in search results.
Upstream, `/isbn/<isbn>.json` answers a **302 redirect** to the canonical
edition JSON (`/books/<OL…M>.json`). The CLI follows it and reports which
edition matched via `edition_key`. If the edition record lacks author names
(some ship `authors:null`), the CLI recovers them from the linked work.
### isbn — Lookup a book by ISBN
### list every edition of a work
```bash
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 # ISBN lookup
openlibrary isbn 9780553382563 # another book
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 --json # full edition metadata
openlibrary editions OL81699W # publisher/date/ISBN per edition
openlibrary editions OL81699W --limit 50 --offset 50 # page through large sets
openlibrary editions OL81699W --json # + next_offset when more exist
```
Shows: title, author(s), page count, publish date, publisher, subjects (top 5). Accepts both ISBN-10 and ISBN-13.
Backs onto `/works/<key>/editions.json`; `next_offset` is computed from the
server's prebuilt next-page link.
### read the room — community signals
```bash
openlibrary ratings OL45804W # average rating + shelf counts
openlibrary ratings OL45804W --json # full distribution + bookshelves
```
Joins `/works/<key>/ratings.json` (`summary.average`, per-star `counts`) with
`/works/<key>/bookshelves.json` (`want_to_read`, `currently_reading`,
`already_read`).
## Global Flags
These flags work anywhere in the command — before or after the subcommand:
Position-independent; put them before or after the subcommand:
```bash
openlibrary --json search --query "dune" # JSON output
openlibrary search --query "dune" --json # same result, after subcommand
openlibrary --dry-run search --query "dune" # preview without API call
openlibrary --quiet search --query "dune" # suppress diagnostic output
openlibrary --verbose author OL23919A # verbose logging
openlibrary --dry-run isbn 9780451524935 # see what URL would be used
openlibrary --json search --query "dune" # machine output anywhere
openlibrary --dry-run isbn 9780451524935 # preview the exact URL, no network
openlibrary --quiet search --query "dune" # suppress diagnostics
```
| Flag | Effect |
|------|--------|
| `--json` | Output machine-readable JSON instead of human-readable text |
| `--dry-run` | Show what API call would be made without executing it |
| `--quiet` | Suppress non-essential diagnostic output |
| `--verbose` | Enable verbose/debug logging |
| `--json` | One JSON object on stdout instead of human text |
| `--dry-run` | Print the planned request as JSON without executing it |
| `--quiet` | Suppress non-essential output |
| `--verbose` | Verbose logging |
## Multi-Step Pipeline Recipes
### ISBN → edition → work → author bio
The canonical walk across all three key types:
```bash
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 --json | jq -r '.work_keys[0]' # OL1168083W
openlibrary work OL1168083W --json | jq -r '.authors[0]' # bare OL…A key
openlibrary author OL118077A # bio, dates
```
Each hop uses a different key suffix (M → W → A); see Known Gotchas before
hand-assembling these URLs yourself.
### Rank a series by community love
```bash
for w in $(openlibrary search --query 'series:dune' --limit 8 --json | jq -r '.results[].key'); do
openlibrary ratings "${w##*/}" --json \
| jq -c '{work: .key, avg: .average, rated: .ratings_count,
want_to_read: .bookshelves.want_to_read}'
done
```
### Find readable ebooks, then their print editions
```bash
openlibrary search --query 'title:"moby dick"' --sort editions --json \
| jq '.results[] | select(.has_fulltext) | {title, key}'
openlibrary editions OL81699W --json | jq '.editions[] | {key, isbn_13}'
```
## Using --json with jq
```bash
openlibrary search --query "voracious" --json | jq '.results[] | {title, first_publish_year}'
openlibrary search-authors --query "butler" --json | jq '.results[0] | {name, key, top_work}'
openlibrary isbn 9780451524935 --json | jq -r '.cover_url' # covers host URL
openlibrary editions OL81699W --json | jq '[.editions[].publish_date]'
openlibrary ratings OL45804W --json | jq '.rating_distribution'
```
## Known Gotchas
- **Public API, rate-limited** — No API key is needed, but Open Library enforces rate limits on unauthenticated requests. Set `OL_EMAIL` in your environment to include a contact email in the User-Agent header for better rate limit treatment.
- **ISBN lookup uses an edition endpoint** — The `isbn` command fetches `/isbn/{isbn}.json` which returns edition-level metadata (publisher, page count, publish date). For work-level metadata (description, subjects of the underlying work), use the `work` command with the work key from search results.
- **Search results are not stable** — Open Library's search index can return slightly different results for the same query over time. Use `--sort` and `--limit` for reproducible result sets.
- **Author keys from search are relative paths** — Search results return `key` as `/authors/OL23919A`. The CLI strips the prefix so you can use the bare key (e.g. `OL23919A`) directly with the `author` command.
- **Biographies and descriptions may be nested** — The Open Library API sometimes returns bio/description as a dict with a `value` key instead of a plain string (e.g. `{"type": "/type/text", "value": "..."}`). The CLI handles this automatically.
- **No lazy auth** — Unlike other CLI skills, no authentication setup is needed at all. The API is fully public, so `--help`, `--dry-run`, and all commands work without any env vars.
- **Pagination** — Use `--offset` to paginate through search results. The CLI defaults to 20 results and does not auto-paginate.
- **Work vs Edition** — A "work" is the abstract creative work (e.g. "Dune"). An "edition" is a specific published version (e.g. the 1965 hardcover). The `work` command returns work-level data; the `isbn` command returns edition-level data. The `search` command returns work-level results with edition counts.
- **ISBN endpoints answer 302, not JSON** — `/isbn/<isbn>.json`, `/lccn/*.json`,
`/oclc/*.json` redirect to `/books/<OL…M>.json`. Clients must follow redirects
(`curl -L`; `requests` does by default) or they parse an HTML redirect page.
Direct `/books/<OLID>.json` calls return 200 immediately.
- **Merged keys return redirect stubs inside HTTP 200** — Open Library is a wiki;
when duplicate works merge, the old key keeps answering 200 with
`{"type":{"key":"/type/redirect"},"location":"/works/<master>"}` instead of a
3xx. Detect the stub type in success responses and re-fetch. The bundled CLI
does this automatically (and appends `.json` to stub locations, since
extension-less URLs redirect to HTML pages).
- **Key types are encoded in the suffix** — `OL…M` = edition (`/books/`),
`OL…W` = work (`/works/`), `OL…A` = author (`/authors/`). Works link to
authors double-nested (`authors[].author.key`); editions nest flat
(`authors[].key`) — or ship `authors:null` entirely, recovering names from the
linked work. Requesting a key under the wrong collection yields a 301 reroute.
- **Search empties are not errors** — malformed queries parse loosely and come
back HTTP 200 with `numFound:0`; conversely a bad `sort=` enum is a plain-text
HTTP 500 and non-integer `limit` is a FastAPI 422. Branch on bodies, not just
status codes.
- **`availability` needs `ia`** — in raw `/search.json` calls, requesting
`fields=availability` silently returns nothing unless `ia` is also requested.
- **Covers live on another host** — image URLs are always
`covers.openlibrary.org/b/id/<cover_id>-{S,M,L}.jpg` (or `/b/isbn/...`,
`/a/id/...` for author photos). Missing covers return a blank placeholder with
HTTP 200 unless you add `?default=false`; non-ID/non-OLID lookups cap at 100
req/IP per 5 min then 403; cover URLs often 302 into archive.org zip shards.
- **Rate limits are policy, not headers** — no Retry-After/X-Rate-Limit headers
exist. Anonymous ≈1 req/s; a `User-Agent: App (email)` (set `OL_EMAIL`)
raises it to ≈3 req/s. Batch with one search rather than hundreds of lookups;
bulk belongs in monthly dumps.
- **Text fields nest `{type,value}` objects** — older records wrap `bio`,
`description`, `notes` as `{"type":"/type/text","value":"..."}` while newer
ones use plain strings. Handle both; the CLI unwraps centrally.
- **OLID ≠ long-term identity** — deleted keys can be reassigned to unrelated
books, and merged-away keys become redirect stubs. Pair OLIDs with title/ISBN
in any cache.
- **`.json` placement matters for slugged URLs** — append `.json` to the bare
key (`/authors/OL23919A.json`), never after a slug path.
## References
## When to use
- [scripts/openlibrary](scripts/openlibrary) — The CLI binary. Built following the cli-builder patterns: non-interactive, `--json`, `--dry-run`, `--quiet`, `--verbose`, dual-output via `emit()`, structured logging.
- [Open Library API Docs](https://openlibrary.org/developers/api) — Official API documentation.
- [Open Library](https://openlibrary.org) — The open, editable library catalog.
- Any question about books, authors, or works Open Library's public catalog can answer
- Resolving ISBNs/OLID keys to canonical records and walking edition/work/author graphs
- Finding readable or borrowable scans, cover images, community ratings/shelf counts
## When not to use
Do not use this skill for local library-catalog administration (Koha, Evergreen, MARC batch processing), for licensed commercial book data feeds (ISBNdb, Google Books), or for citation formatting — Open Library is a free public catalog API, not a bibliographic management system.
Do not use this skill for local library-catalog administration Koha/Evergreen
ILS configuration, MARC batch processing, patron management — or for licensed
commercial data feeds (ISBNdb, Google Books), citation formatting, or managing
your own Open Library reading account/lists (that requires site login this skill
deliberately does not handle). For movie/TV metadata use tmdb instead.
## Reference Files
| File | Topic | Read when |
|------|-------|-----------|
| [references/api-overview-and-key-graph.md](references/api-overview-and-key-graph.md) | Access model, rate-limit etiquette, OLID M/W/A key graph, cross-collection 301s, merge-stub handling, `{type,value}` text wrapping | Assembling record URLs by hand, handling merges/wrong-key errors, or planning request pacing |
| [references/search-api-guide.md](references/search-api-guide.md) | `/search.json` parameters, sort keys, field scopes (`title:`, `isbn:`, …), `fields=` projection incl. the availability/ia interaction, `/search/authors.json`, `/subjects/<name>.json`, inside-book search, error model | Building precise queries, paginating deep result sets, or debugging empty results |
| [references/books-isbn-and-covers.md](references/books-isbn-and-covers.md) | Identifier endpoints and their 302 resolution, raw records vs legacy `/api/books` view models, editions listing, ratings/bookshelves shapes, covers-host URL rules and limits | Working with ISBNs/LCCNs/OCLCs, enumerating editions, or fetching images |
| [references/recipes-and-gotchas.md](references/recipes-and-gotchas.md) | End-to-end curl/jq pipelines (ISBN→work→author chain, ebook discovery, cover assembly, disambiguation) plus a symptom-indexed gotcha table | Wiring multi-step workflows or diagnosing an unexpected response |
## Available Scripts
| Script | Purpose | Invocation |
|---|---|---|
| `scripts/openlibrary` | The CLI this skill drives: `search`, `search-authors`, `author`, `work`, `isbn`, `editions`, `ratings` — all with `--json`/`--dry-run`, automatic 302 + merge-stub resolution, `{type,value}` unwrapping, covers-host URL assembly, and client-side sort validation. Run it for every book-metadata question above. | `scripts/openlibrary search --query "dune" --json` |
| `scripts/test_openlibrary.py` | Offline pytest/unittest suite covering help, argument errors, dry-run plans, mocked-client logic (redirect stubs, author fallback, editions paging), plus two env-guarded live probes (`OPENLIBRARY_LIVE_TESTS=1`). Zero egress otherwise. | `.venv/bin/python3 -m pytest -p no:cacheprovider --strict-markers scripts/test_openlibrary.py` |
## Prerequisites
- Python 3.8+ with `requests` (stdlib otherwise); invoke as `python3 scripts/openlibrary ...` if not executable directly
- No credentials of any kind; optional `OL_EMAIL` for rate-limit etiquette
- `jq` recommended for `--json` post-processing