Book-to-Skill: Open Source Tool Converts Tech Books into Agent Skills, Slashing Token Usage
alex_verem · x · 2026-08-06
Developers often face a dilemma with long technical books: dumping the entire book into context consumes massive tokens and loses mid-text details, while omitting it causes hallucinations.
The book-to-skill project solves this by supporting formats like PDF and EPUB. With a single command, it distills books into structured "skills," extracting frameworks, decision rules, and anti-patterns.
- On-Demand Loading: Agents read specific chapters on demand, answering from actual content.
- Cost-Effective: Reduces token usage from 200,000 to 5,000 per session (24x to 51x fewer tokens). Converting a 371-page book costs $1.
- Broad Compatibility: The universal skill format works across Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, and Amp. It is open-source under the MIT license.
Related event: Open-Source Tool 'book-to-skill' Saves 50x Tokens(2 posts)→
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