Readwise Skill
Use this skill to perform Readwise (highlights/books) and Reader (documents) workflows through readwise-cli.
Prerequisites
1) Ensure readwise-cli is installed
Preferred: install from GitHub Releases of this repository.
# 1) Inspect releases gh release list -R Leechael/readwise-skills # 2) Download latest artifacts gh release download -R Leechael/readwise-skills --pattern 'readwise-cli-*.tar.gz' # 3) Extract your platform artifact and install binary tar -xzf readwise-cli-$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')-$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/amd64/;s/aarch64/arm64/').tar.gz install -m 0755 readwise-cli /usr/local/bin/readwise-cli
Quick check:
readwise-cli --help
2) Configure credentials
Required environment variable:
export READWISE_TOKEN="<token>"
Alternatively, pass --token on every invocation.
3) Verify login/config status before operations
Use the built-in auth check command:
readwise-cli auth check
If credentials are missing or invalid, this command will fail with guidance. Do not continue with operations until auth check is successful.
Recommended Credential Management (1Password CLI)
Prefer running readwise-cli with the 1Password CLI (op) so credentials are injected at runtime instead of stored in shell profiles.
Reference:
Example pattern:
op run --env-file=.env -- readwise-cli auth check op run --env-file=.env -- readwise-cli highlight list --json
(Your .env should define READWISE_TOKEN with a 1Password secret reference.)
Command Mapping
v2 — Highlights & Books
- •Check auth:
readwise-cli auth check - •List highlights:
readwise-cli highlight list - •Get highlight:
readwise-cli highlight get <id> - •Create highlights:
readwise-cli highlight create - •Update highlight:
readwise-cli highlight update <id> - •Delete highlight:
readwise-cli highlight delete <id> - •Highlight tags:
readwise-cli highlight tag list|add|update|delete - •List books:
readwise-cli book list - •Get book:
readwise-cli book get <id> - •Book tags:
readwise-cli book tag list|add|update|delete - •Export highlights:
readwise-cli export - •Daily review:
readwise-cli review
v3 — Reader
- •List documents:
readwise-cli reader list - •Save document:
readwise-cli reader save - •Update document:
readwise-cli reader update <id> - •Delete document:
readwise-cli reader delete <id> - •List Reader tags:
readwise-cli reader tag list
Recommended Workflow
- •Run
readwise-cli auth checkfirst. - •Prefer read commands first:
highlight list,book list,reader list. - •Use filters to narrow results:
--category,--book-id,--updated-after. - •Pipe JSON output through
--jqfor scripting:--json --jq '.results[]'. - •Use write commands when needed:
highlight create,reader save.
Usage Examples
1) Check authentication
readwise-cli auth check readwise-cli auth check --json
2) List and filter highlights
readwise-cli highlight list --json
readwise-cli highlight list --book-id 12345 --page-size 10 --json
readwise-cli highlight list --json --jq '.results[] | {id, text}'
3) Get a single highlight
readwise-cli highlight get 67890 --json readwise-cli highlight get 67890 --plain
4) Create a highlight
readwise-cli highlight create --text "Important quote" --title "Book Title" --author "Author Name" --json
echo '{"highlights":[{"text":"From stdin","title":"Source"}]}' | readwise-cli highlight create --stdin --json
5) Manage highlight tags
readwise-cli highlight tag list 67890 --json readwise-cli highlight tag add 67890 --name "favorite" --json readwise-cli highlight tag update 67890 111 --name "must-read" readwise-cli highlight tag delete 67890 111
6) List and get books
readwise-cli book list --category books --json
readwise-cli book list --json --jq '.results[] | {id, title, author}'
readwise-cli book get 12345 --json
7) Export and daily review
readwise-cli export --json
readwise-cli export --updated-after "2025-01-01T00:00:00Z" --json
readwise-cli review --json
readwise-cli review --json --jq '.highlights[] | {text, title}'
8) Reader: list and save documents
readwise-cli reader list --json readwise-cli reader list --category article --location new --json readwise-cli reader save --url "https://example.com/article" --json readwise-cli reader save --url "https://example.com" --title "Custom Title" --tag reading --tag tech --json
9) Reader: update and delete documents
readwise-cli reader update abc123 --title "New Title" --location archive readwise-cli reader delete abc123
10) Reader tags
readwise-cli reader tag list --json readwise-cli reader tag list --plain
Error Handling Rules
- •Missing credentials: explicitly report missing
READWISE_TOKEN. - •API failures: include HTTP status code and response body.
- •Not found: clearly include the identifier that was requested.
- •Auth failures: exit code 2. Not found: exit code 3. General errors: exit code 1.
Output Rules
- •Use
--jsonfor machine-readable JSON output. - •Use
--plainfor tab-separated stable output. - •Use
--jqwith--jsonfor filtered JSON output. - •Human hints are printed to stderr, data to stdout.
- •Never invent Readwise data; only report real command results.