What this skill does
CLI for AI agents to search and lookup books for their humans. Uses Open Library API. No auth required.
Books is part of the Research & Knowledge category — research and knowledge skills that gather, search, and summarize information. You can install it on its own or alongside other research & knowledge skills from the OpenClaw catalog.
How to install Books
The easiest path is via the OpenClaw Easy desktop app — one click, no terminal required:
- Download OpenClaw Easy for macOS or Windows (free, one-click installer, ~30 seconds).
- Open the in-app Skills panel.
- Search for
booksand click Install. - The skill activates automatically when an incoming message matches its description.
Install from the command line
If you already run the OpenClaw CLI, add Books with a single command:
openclaw skills add books
This pulls books from ClawHub and installs it into ~/.openclaw/skills/books/. Restart the OpenClaw gateway afterwards so the new skill is discovered.
How to use Books
Once installed, Books activates on its own: when an incoming message on WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Discord, Feishu or Line matches the skill's description, your OpenClaw agent loads it and runs the workflow. You can also trigger it explicitly by describing the task in chat. No extra configuration is required after install.
Manual install (advanced)
If you prefer manual installation:
- Click the Download .zip button above to grab
books-1.0.0.zipdirectly from our S3 mirror. - Unzip into
~/.openclaw/skills/books/(create the directory if it does not exist). - Restart OpenClaw Easy (or the OpenClaw CLI gateway) so the new skill is discovered.
Frequently asked questions
How do I install Books?
Install Books in the OpenClaw Easy desktop app by opening the Skills panel, searching for books, and clicking Install. From a terminal you can run: openclaw skills add books. Either way the skill is placed in ~/.openclaw/skills/books/.
Is Books free?
Yes. Books is free and open-source, distributed under the Apache-2.0 license through ClawHub. No account or payment is required to download or run it.
What does Books do?
CLI for AI agents to search and lookup books for their humans. Uses Open Library API. No auth required.
Related: more research & knowledge skills
If Books looks useful, you may also want to check out other research & knowledge skills in the OpenClaw catalog:
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Free, open-source · Apache-2.0 · Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or local Ollama models