Media and Entertainment

Open Library

open-library-pp-cli

Read-only Open Library recipes for book search, ISBN edition lookup, author works, work metadata, bounded editions, and subject browsing with source/rate-limit caveats.

Printed by @sdhilip200 (Dhilip Subramanian)

Install

npx — recommended

npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install open-library

Installs the CLI binary and the agent skill (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot, and more). Add --cli-only or --skill-only for one half. Requires Node.

Hermes

hermes skills install mvanhorn/printing-press-library/cli-skills/pp-open-library --force

From the Hermes CLI. Inside a chat session use /skills install with the same path.

OpenClaw

Install the pp-open-library skill from https://github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/tree/main/cli-skills/pp-open-library. The skill defines how its required CLI can be installed.

Paste this to your OpenClaw agent — the skill describes how to install its CLI.

View source on GitHub →

open-library-pp-cli is a read-only Printing Press CLI for Open Library book, author, edition, work, and subject metadata. It returns compact --agent JSON for bibliography and discovery workflows while preserving Open Library source URLs, rate-limit posture, and non-bulk caveats.

Sources

Open Library API index: public JSON/YAML/RDF APIs for book discovery and lookup.
Book Search API: preferred book/work search endpoint at https://openlibrary.org/search.json.
Books API: work, edition, ISBN, and legacy book lookup behavior.
Authors API: author search, individual author JSON, and bounded works lists.
Subjects API: subject work lists and optional facets; documented as experimental.

Setup

No API key is required.

For regular or frequent use, Open Library asks clients to identify requests with a User-Agent and contact email:

export OPEN_LIBRARY_USER_AGENT="my-research-tool"
export OPEN_LIBRARY_CONTACT_EMAIL="you@example.org"

Without a contact email, keep usage near Open Library's documented non-identified posture of 1 request per second. With a contact-bearing request identity, Open Library documents 3 requests per second.

Direct Go installs require a Go toolchain compatible with the module's go 1.26.4 declaration.

Commands

open-library-pp-cli book "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" --agent
open-library-pp-cli isbn 9780131103627 --agent
open-library-pp-cli author "Ursula K. Le Guin" --limit 5 --agent
open-library-pp-cli work OL45804W --agent
open-library-pp-cli editions OL45804W --limit 10 --agent
open-library-pp-cli subjects "distributed systems" --details --agent
open-library-pp-cli sources --agent
open-library-pp-cli doctor --agent

Caveats

Do not use this CLI for borrowing, waitlists, patron data, account actions, or catalog edits.
Do not scrape Open Library HTML pages; this CLI uses JSON endpoints.
Do not use the API as a bulk backend. Use Open Library's monthly data dumps for bulk access.
Subject output comes from an API documented as experimental.
Metadata can vary across works and editions; cite returned Open Library source URLs.