Setup & Installation
Or with the ClawHub CLI, for registry-managed skill folders outside a full OpenClaw workspace:
Version History
calibre-metadata-apply 1.0.1 - Added detailed metadata about required/optional binaries, environment variables, and local/remote side effects to SKILL.md. - Documented security rules for authentication and handling of plain passwords. - Clarified data flow: local state, subagent orchestration, and remote write behavior. - Noted optional use of `pdffonts` for PDF evidence in requirements. - No functional changes to code logic—documentation and metadata enhancements only.
What This Skill Does
Updates metadata on existing books in a Calibre library using calibredb over a Content server. Requires confirmed book IDs before writing and enforces a mandatory dry-run before any changes are applied. Supports fields like title, authors, series, tags, publisher, pubdate, and structured HTML comment blocks.
Requires ID confirmation and a dry-run gate before any remote write, reducing the risk of bulk metadata corruption common with direct calibredb usage.
When to use it
- Correcting author names on imported ebooks
- Adding series and series index to a book collection
- Fixing publication dates on scanned PDFs
- Bulk updating tags after a library reorganization
- Setting language fields on foreign-language titles
Example Workflow
Here's how your AI assistant might use this skill in practice.
User asks: update the author and series fields for books with IDs 42 and 43
- 1Runs a read-only lookup and displays current title, authors, series, and series_index for IDs 42 and 43
- 2Asks user to confirm the target IDs before proceeding
- 3Builds a JSONL payload with the approved field changes
- 4Runs a dry-run to preview the changes without applying them
- 5Applies changes after explicit user approval and re-reads final values to confirm
Author and series metadata updated on the Calibre Content server for the confirmed book IDs
Requirements
Accounts, API keys, or tools you or your AI assistant may need to set up while using this skill.