
Book Study
Install when you turn books into a linked wiki (concepts, cases, models, chapter summaries) so agents and you can reuse evidence-backed notes across projects.
Overview
book-study is a journey-wide agent skill that standardizes book-derived wiki pages—concepts, cases, models, and chapter summaries—whenever a solo builder needs structured research notes before committing.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/sanyuan0704/sanyuan-skills --skill book-studyWhat is this skill?
- Four page archetypes: Concept, Case, Model, and Chapter Summary templates
- Each template enforces What the Book Says vs My Understanding plus Sources with chapter and page
- Wiki-style Related links for same-book and cross-book concept graphs
- Case pages require credibility notes (sample size, reproducibility, controversy)
- Model pages include structure, when to use, limitations, and complementary/alternative models
- 4 page templates: Concept, Case, Model, Chapter Summary
Adoption & trust: 854 installs on skills.sh; 3.6k GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You finish books with highlights scattered in apps and no linked concepts, cases, or sourced pages your agent can reuse in later work.
Who is it for?
Builders maintaining a Zettelkasten-style or Obsidian-style library who want repeatable book-to-wiki structure after each read.
Skip if: People who only need one-off summaries with no sources, links, or ongoing knowledge graph maintenance.
When should I use this skill?
When creating or restructuring book-based wiki pages for concepts, cases, models, or per-chapter summaries.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a consistent set of wiki markdown pages with sources, cross-links, and credibility fields ready to drop into your knowledge base or repo docs.
- Concept wiki page
- Case wiki page
- Model/framework page
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Useful at every journey phase - explore requirements and options before committing to a direction.
Where it fits
Capture a competitor-strategy book as concept and case pages with chapter citations before picking a niche.
Link model pages that define MVP boundaries and note limitations when they do not fit your market.
Attach architecture decisions to concept pages sourced from systems-design chapters.
Reuse chapter summaries with real-world application sections as briefs for newsletters or landing copy.
Add case pages from operations books when refining support playbooks and postmortems.
How it compares
Use as page-structure templates for book notes—not as an automated book summarizer or MCP ingestion pipeline.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is book-study for?
Solo builders and knowledge-heavy indies who read to inform product, growth, or technical decisions and want linked, citable wiki pages.
When should I use book-study?
In Idea when researching markets and mental models; in Validate when grounding scope in cited frameworks; in Grow when turning book insights into content; in Build when documenting architecture rationale from readings.
Is book-study safe to install?
It is template-only prose with no declared shell or network hooks; still review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing any skill.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Book Study
# Book Wiki Page Templates ## Concept Page (concepts/) ```markdown # Concept Name > One-line definition (in your own words) ## What the Book Says (Original explanation, preserve key phrasing) ## My Understanding (Restate in plain language — the simpler the better) ## Key Evidence - Case/Experiment A → [[cases/xxx]] - Data point B ## Real-World Application (How to use this concept in daily life/work) ## Related - Same book: [[concepts/related-concept]] - Cross-book: [[/cross-book/concepts/related-concept]] ## Sources - <Book Title> Chapter X, P.xxx ``` ## Case Page (cases/) ```markdown # Case Title > One-line summary ## Description (Concise retelling) ## What It Proves (Which concept/model does this case support) ## Credibility (Reproducible? Sample size? Controversial?) ## Related - [[concepts/related-concept]] - [[models/related-model]] ## Sources - <Book Title> Chapter X, P.xxx ``` ## Model Page (models/) ```markdown # Model/Framework Name > One-line summary of what problem this model solves ## Structure (Steps, elements, flow) ## When to Use (Applicable scenarios) ## Limitations (When it doesn't apply) ## Relationship to Other Models - Complementary: [[models/xxx]] - Alternative: [[models/yyy]] ## Sources - <Book Title> Chapter X, P.xxx ``` ## Chapter Summary (chapters/) ```markdown # Chapter X: Chapter Title > One-line summary of the core argument ## Core Argument (What this chapter is really saying) ## Knowledge Points - [[concepts/concept-a]] - [[models/model-b]] - [[cases/case-c]] ## Relationship to Adjacent Chapters (What it builds on, what it leads to) ## My Takeaway (Biggest insight from this chapter) ``` ## Question Page (questions/) ```markdown # Question Description - **Origin**: Raised while reading Chapter X - **Type**: Doubt / Extended Thinking / Conflicts with Existing Knowledge - **Status**: Open / Resolved ## My Thinking (Current understanding or hypothesis) ## Possible Answers (Fill in if later chapters provide answers) ## Related - [[concepts/related-concept]] ``` ## Quote Page (quotes/) ```markdown # Quote Excerpt > "Original quote text" - **Source**: <Book Title> Chapter X, P.xxx - **Context**: What the author was discussing when they said this - **Why It Resonates**: (user fills in) - **Related**: [[concepts/related-concept]] ``` ## Cross-Book Concept Page (cross-book/concepts/) ```markdown # Concept Name > Synthesized definition from multiple books ## Perspectives by Book - <Book A>: focus/definition → [[book-a/concepts/xxx]] - <Book B>: focus/definition → [[book-b/concepts/xxx]] ## Synthesized Understanding (Most complete understanding after reading multiple books) ## Consensus and Disagreements (Where authors agree, where they diverge) ``` # Pedagogy Reference — Socratic Mastery Learning for Reading ## Core Principle: Bloom's 2-Sigma One-on-one tutoring with mastery learning produces 2 standard deviations of improvement over conventional instruction. The two key ingredients: 1. **Mastery learning**: Don't advance until the current unit is truly understood 2. **1-on-1 tutoring**: Adapt pace, style, and content to the individual learner For book study specifically: "truly understood" means the reader can explain the idea in their own words, give a novel example, and apply it to their own problem — not just recall what the author wrote. ## Socratic Questioning Techniques Never lecture. Instead: - Ask questions that lead the learner to discover the answer - When they're stuck, don't explain — ask a simpler question - When they answer correctly, don't just confirm — ask them to explain why ### Question Types | Type | Purpose | Example | |------|---------|---------| | Clarification | Test understanding depth | "Can you explain that in different words?" | | Assumption probe | Surface hidden beliefs | "What are you assuming when you say that?" | | Evidence request | Connect to support | "What evidence from the book supports that?" | | Counter-example