Book Distiller

Book Distiller

This skill provides a workflow for transforming long-form content (books, manuals, guides) into high-signal AI Agent instructions.

Dependencies

The parsing scripts require the following Python libraries:

• pymupdf (for PDF)
• ebooklib (for EPUB)
• beautifulsoup4 (for EPUB cleaning)

Install them via: pip install pymupdf ebooklib beautifulsoup4

Core Workflow

1. File Parsing

Use the scripts/parse_book.py script to extract raw text from the source file.

python3 scripts/parse_book.py path/to/book.epub --output temp_raw.txt

2. Knowledge Distillation

Read the extracted text and use the prompt templates in references/PROMPT_TEMPLATES.md to distill the content.

Distillation Strategy:

• Persona Extraction: Identify the "Expert Role" the author represents.
• Principle Extraction: Identify the "Hard Truths" and "Axioms".
• Workflow Extraction: Identify "Step-by-Step" implementations.
• Constraint Extraction: Identify "Mandates" and "Anti-patterns".

3. Synthesis & Export

Follow the skill-manager SOP to save and register the results.

• Taxonomy: Ensure the new skill follows the "Flattened Design" and is placed in custom/books/<book-slug>/.
• Refactoring: If the distilled content is large (>100 lines), apply the Progressive Disclosure pattern as defined in REFACTORING.md.
• Registration: Run ./setup.sh and update SKILLS_LIST.md.
• Gem Export: Follow the Gem Export Workflow in yao-skill-manager to generate gem/<book-slug>.txt.

Guidance for AI Agents

When distilling, focus on Actionable Utility over narrative description.

• Good: "Workflow: Before starting task X, check for condition Y."
• Bad: "The book discusses the importance of Y in the context of X."

If the book is extremely large, distill chapter by chapter and consolidate the findings at the end.