This GitHub action tracks the books that you read by updating a JSON file in your repository. Pair it with the iOS Shortcut to automatically trigger the action or click Run workflow from the Actions tab to submit details about the book.
Create a workflow dispatch event with information about the book.
Given an ISBN, a Libby, Libro.fm, or Apple Books share URL, the action will fetch the book's metadata and commit the change in your repository, always sorting by the date you finished the book.
Depending on the type of identifier you submit to the action, it will use the follow data provider.
| Identifier | Provider | Example identifier value |
|---|---|---|
| ISBN | @library-pals/isbn | 9780385353311 |
| Libby URL | Libby via metatag and HTML scraping | https://share.libbyapp.com/title/1499830 |
| Libro.fm URL | Libro.fm via metatag scraping | https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9780553397970-station-eleven |
| Apple Books URL | Apple Books via metatag scripaing | https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/circe/id1442351802 |
When you add or update a book, you can set it as: want to read, started, finished, or abandoned. This will set the value as bookStatus and will add an accompanying date for the status.
To update the book's status, trigger the action using the same identifier (ISBN or Libby share URL) that you used in the initial request.
To use this action, create a new workflow in .github/workflows and modify it as needed:
name: read action
run-name: 📚 ${{ inputs['book-status'] }} book ${{ inputs.identifier }}
# Grant the action permission to write to the repository
permissions:
contents: write
# Trigger the action
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
identifier:
description: The book's identifier. This is an ISBN, Libby or Libro.fm share URL. Required.
# Example values:
# 9780062315007
# https://share.libbyapp.com/title/9575390
# https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781797176888-the-ministry-of-time
required: true
type: string
book-status:
description: What is the status of the book? Required. You can completely customize the default value and options.
required: true
type: choice
default: "want to read"
options:
- "want to read"
- "started"
- "finished"
- "abandoned"
date:
description: Date to record the status of the book (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave blank for today. Optional.
type: string
notes:
description: Notes about the book. Optional.
type: string
# Adding a rating is optional.
# You can change the options to whatever you want to use.
# For example, you can use numbers, other emoji, or words.
rating:
description: Rate the book. Optional. You can completely customize the default value and options.
type: choice
default: "unrated"
options:
- "unrated"
- ⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
# Tags are optional.
tags:
description: Add tags to categorize the book. Separate each tag with a comma. Optional.
type: string
# Set up the steps to run the action
jobs:
update-library:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
name: Read
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Read
uses: library-pals/read-action@v9.2.0
- name: Commit updated read file
run: |
git pull
git config --local user.email "action@github.com"
git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
git add -A && git commit -m "📚 “${{ env.BookTitle }}” (${{ env.BookStatus }})"
git pushWhen book is missing metadata, create a pull request
name: When book is missing metadata, create a pull request
run-name: 📚 ${{ inputs['book-status'] }} book ${{ inputs.identifier }}
# Grant the action permission to write to the repository
permissions:
contents: write
pull-requests: write
# Trigger the action
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
book-status:
description: What is the status of the book? Required.
required: true
type: choice
default: "want to read"
options:
- "want to read"
- "started"
- "finished"
- "abandoned"
date:
description: Date to record the status of the book (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave blank for today. Optional.
type: string
identifier:
description: The book's identifier. This is an ISBN, Libby or Libro.fm share URL. Required.
# Example values:
# 9780062315007
# https://share.libbyapp.com/title/9575390
# https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781797176888-the-ministry-of-time
required: true
type: string
notes:
description: Notes about the book. Optional.
type: string
# Adding a rating is optional.
# You can change the options to whatever you want to use.
# For example, you can use numbers, other emoji, or words.
rating:
description: Rate the book. Optional.
type: choice
default: "unrated"
options:
- "unrated"
- ⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
# Tags are optional.
tags:
description: Add tags to categorize the book. Separate each tag with a comma. Optional.
type: string
# Set up the steps to run the action
jobs:
update-library:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
name: Read
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Read
id: read_action
with:
set-image: true
uses: library-pals/read-action@v9.2.0
- name: Download the book thumbnail
if: env.BookThumbOutput != ''
run: curl "${{ env.BookThumb }}" -o "img/${{ env.BookThumbOutput }}"
- name: Commit updated read file
if: env.BookNeedsReview != 'true' # Do not commit book if it needs review
run: |
git pull
git config --local user.email "action@github.com"
git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
git add -A && git commit -m "📚 “${{ env.BookTitle }}” (${{ env.BookStatus }})"
git push
# Create pull request instead of directly committing if book is missing metadata
# Occasionally, some books returned from @library-pals/isbn may be missing a few properties.
# Add this step to your workflow if you want the ability to fix the missing data by making the action open a new pull request.
# You can customize the properties that will trigger a pull request with the `required-metadata` input.
- name: If book needs review, create a pull request to review book metadata
if: env.BookNeedsReview == 'true'
run: |
git config pull.rebase true
git fetch origin
git config --local user.email "action@github.com"
git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
git checkout -b review-book-${{env.BookIsbn}}
git remote set-url origin https://x-access-token:${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}@github.com/${{ github.repository }}
git add -A && git commit -m "📚 “${{ env.BookTitle }}” (${{ env.BookStatus }})" -m "“${{ env.BookTitle }}” is missing the following properties: ${{env.BookMissingMetadata}}. Edit this pull request to add them or merge it in."
git push --set-upstream origin review-book-${{env.BookIsbn}}
gh pr create -B main -H "review-book-${{env.BookIsbn}}" --fill
env:
GH_TOKEN: ${{ github.token }}
- name: Now reading
if: steps.read_action.outputs.nowReading != ''
run: |
echo "Now reading: ${{ steps.read_action.outputs.nowReading }}"Download the book thumbnail
name: Download the book thumbnail
run-name: 📚 ${{ inputs['book-status'] }} book ${{ inputs.identifier }}
# Grant the action permission to write to the repository
permissions:
contents: write
# Trigger the action
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
identifier:
description: The book's identifier. This is an ISBN, Libby or Libro.fm share URL. Required.
# Example values:
# 9780062315007
# https://share.libbyapp.com/title/9575390
# https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781797176888-the-ministry-of-time
required: true
type: string
book-status:
description: What is the status of the book? Required.
required: true
type: choice
default: "want to read"
options:
- "want to read"
- "started"
- "finished"
- "abandoned"
date:
description: Date to record the status of the book (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave blank for today. Optional.
type: string
notes:
description: Notes about the book. Optional.
type: string
# Adding a rating is optional.
# You can change the options to whatever you want to use.
# For example, you can use numbers, other emoji, or words.
rating:
description: Rate the book. Optional.
type: choice
default: "unrated"
options:
- "unrated"
- ⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
# Tags are optional.
tags:
description: Add tags to categorize the book. Separate each tag with a comma. Optional.
type: string
# Set up the steps to run the action
jobs:
update-library:
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
name: Read
steps:
- name: Checkout
uses: actions/checkout@v4
- name: Read
uses: library-pals/read-action@v9.2.0
with:
thumbnail-width: 1280
set-image: true
- name: Download the book thumbnail
if: env.BookThumbOutput != ''
run: curl "${{ env.BookThumb }}" -o "img/${{ env.BookThumbOutput }}"
- name: Commit updated read file
run: |
git pull
git config --local user.email "action@github.com"
git config --local user.name "GitHub Action"
git add -A && git commit -m "📚 “${{ env.BookTitle }}” (${{ env.BookStatus }})"
git push-
filename: The file where you want to save your books. Default:_data/read.json. -
providers: Specify the ISBN providers that you want to use, in the order you need them to be invoked. If setting more than one provider, separate each with a comma. -
time-zone: Your time zone. Default:America/New_York. -
required-metadata: Required metadata properties. This can be used to make the action open a pull request if one of these values is missing data in the desired book instead of committing directly to a repository. Default:title,pageCount,authors,description,thumbnail. -
set-image: If true, the action will set theimagefor the book. This is helpful if you add an extra step to download this image. -
thumbnail-width: The width of the thumbnail image (for books sourced from Google Books). The default size is 128.
To trigger the action, create a workflow dispatch event with the following body parameters:
{
"ref": "main", // Required. The git reference for the workflow, a branch or tag name.
"inputs": {
"identifier": "", // Required. The book's identifier. This is an ISBN, Libby or Libro.fm share URL. Required.
"book-status": "", // Required. What is the status of the book? Required. You can completely customize the default value and options. Default: `want to read`. Options: `want to read`, `started`, `finished`, `abandoned`.
"date": "", // Date to record the status of the book (YYYY-MM-DD). Leave blank for today. Optional.
"notes": "", // Notes about the book. Optional.
"rating": "", // Rate the book. Optional. You can completely customize the default value and options. Default: `unrated`. Options: `unrated`, `⭐️`, `⭐️⭐️`, `⭐️⭐️⭐️`, `⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️`, `⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️`.
"tags": "", // Add tags to categorize the book. Separate each tag with a comma. Optional.
}
}nowReading: When a new book is started this output will contain an object with the book's: title, description, thumbnail, authors, and isbn.