Book Summarizer - Detailed Documentation

Book Summarizer - Detailed Documentation

A TypeScript-based Claude Skill for parsing and progressively summarizing books in Markdown format with intelligent chapter detection and context preservation.

Overview

This skill provides comprehensive book processing capabilities for Markdown books:

• Flexible input: Single Markdown file or directory of chapter files
• Intelligent chapter detection: Automatically identifies chapters from headers or file structure
• Progressive summarization: Creates layered summaries with maintained context
• Resumable processing: Save and load progress for long-running tasks
• TypeScript native: Full type safety and modern async/​await patterns
• YAML frontmatter support: Extract metadata from frontmatter in Markdown files

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+ installed
• pnpm package manager (or npm/​yarn)
• TypeScript 5.0+

Installation

Quick Install

pnpm install

Required Dependencies

# Core dependencies
pnpm add gray-matter commander

# Development dependencies
pnpm add -D tsx typescript @types/​node prettier rimraf

Usage

Running with tsx

Parse a single Markdown file:

tsx src/​book-parser.ts path/​to/​book.md

Parse a directory of chapters:

tsx src/​book-parser.ts path/​to/​chapters/

Create progressive summary:

tsx src/​summary-builder.ts book-id --output summary.json

Development mode with watch:

pnpm run dev

Input Formats

Single Markdown File

A single .md file where chapters are detected from headers:

---
title: My Amazing Book
author: Jane Doe
---

# Chapter 1: Introduction

Content of chapter 1...

# Chapter 2: Deep Dive

Content of chapter 2...

Directory of Chapter Files

A directory where each .md file is a chapter:

my-book/
├── 01-introduction.md
├── 02-getting-started.md
├── 03-advanced-topics.md
└── 04-conclusion.md

Each file can have optional frontmatter:

---
title: Introduction
author: Jane Doe
---

Chapter content here...

Using as a Module

import { BookParser } from './​book-parser';
import { ProgressiveSummaryBuilder } from './​summary-builder';

// Parse a book (file or directory)
const parser = new BookParser();
const book = await parser.parseFile('./​my-book/');

console.log(`Found ${book.chapters.length} chapters`);

// Create progressive summary
const builder = new ProgressiveSummaryBuilder(book.metadata.title || 'book');
await builder.load(); // Load any existing progress

await builder.processBook(book, async (text, context) => {
  // Your AI summarization logic here
  return await callClaudeAPI(text, context);
});

console.log(`Progress: ${builder.getProgress()}%`);

Supported Formats

Markdown Files

• Parser: Native Node.js with gray-matter for frontmatter
• Frontmatter: YAML metadata extraction (title, author, etc.)
• Chapter detection:
  • Single file: Detects from # headers
  • Directory: Each file is a chapter
• Auto-naming: Converts filenames to titles (e.g., 01-intro.md → "Intro")

Chapter Detection

Single File Mode

Automatically detects chapters from Markdown headers:

# Chapter 1: Beginning    ← Level 1 chapter
## Section 1.1           ← Level 2 sub-chapter
### Subsection 1.1.1     ← Level 3 sub-chapter

# Chapter 2: Middle      ← Level 1 chapter

Directory Mode

Each .md file becomes a chapter. Files are sorted alphabetically by default:

• 01-introduction.md → Chapter 1: "Introduction"
• 02-setup.md → Chapter 2: "Setup"
• 10-advanced.md → Chapter 3: "Advanced"

Tip: Prefix filenames with numbers for custom ordering.

Progressive Summarization

Implements a layered approach inspired by Tiago Forte's progressive summarization method:

Layer 1: Original text chunks (with overlap for context) Layer 2: Initial summarization pass (key points extraction) Layer 3: Refined summaries (best insights) Layer 4: Executive summary (overall synthesis)

Context Window Management

• Maintains rolling window of last 5 chunk summaries
• 10-15% overlap between text chunks
• Hierarchical summarization for large books
• Metadata included in context (chapter, position)

State Persistence

The skill automatically saves progress to enable resumption:

State file location: ./​state/​{book-id}.json

Saved information:

• Book metadata (title, author, format)
• Processing progress (chunks completed)
• Generated summaries by layer
• Context window state
• Error log with retry counts

Resume processing:

const builder = new ProgressiveSummaryBuilder('my-book');
await builder.load(); // Automatically resumes from last checkpoint

if (!builder.isComplete()) {
  await builder.resume();
}

Frontmatter Support

Book-level Metadata

Use frontmatter in the first file of a directory or in a single file:

---
title: The Complete Guide
author: Jane Doe
bookAuthor: Jane Doe  # Alternative field name
isbn: 978-1-234-56789-0
custom_field: any value
---

Chapter-level Metadata

Each chapter file can have its own frontmatter:

---
title: Advanced Techniques
chapterTitle: Advanced Techniques  # Alternative
order: 5  # Optional: Override alphabetical sorting
summary: This chapter covers...
---

Configuration

TypeScript Configuration

Key settings in tsconfig.json:

• Target: ES2022
• Module: NodeNext for ESM support
• Strict mode: Enabled for type safety
• Source maps: Enabled for debugging

Environment Variables

Create a .env file for configuration:

# Optional: AI API configuration
CLAUDE_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

# Processing options
CHUNK_SIZE=2000
CHUNK_OVERLAP=300
MAX_CONTEXT_SUMMARIES=5

# Output options
OUTPUT_DIR=./​summaries
STATE_DIR=./​state

Type Definitions

Core types used throughout the skill:

interface ParsedBook {
  metadata: BookMetadata;
  chapters: Chapter[];
  rawText: string;
}

interface Chapter {
  title: string;
  content: string;
  startPosition: number;
  endPosition: number;
  level: number;
  fileName?: string;
  frontmatter?: Record<string, any>;
}

interface ProgressiveSummaryState {
  bookId: string;
  bookTitle: string;
  totalChunks: number;
  processedChunks: number;
  currentChunk: number;
  layers: Map<string, SummaryLayer[]>;
  contextWindow: string[];
  status: 'idle' | 'processing' | 'paused' | 'complete' | 'error';
}

Full type definitions available in src/​types/.

Examples

Example 1: Parse a Directory of Chapters

import { BookParser } from './​book-parser';

const parser = new BookParser();
const book = await parser.parseFile('./​book-chapters/');

console.log('Title:', book.metadata.title);
console.log('Chapters:', book.chapters.length);

book.chapters.forEach((chapter, i) => {
  console.log(`Chapter ${i + 1}: ${chapter.title}`);
  console.log(`  File: ${chapter.fileName}`);
  console.log(`  Length: ${chapter.content.length} chars`);
});

Example 2: Parse a Single File with Auto-Detection

import { BookParser } from './​book-parser';

const parser = new BookParser();
const book = await parser.parseFile('./​complete-book.md');

console.log('Detected chapters from headers:');
book.chapters.forEach((ch, i) => {
  console.log(`${i + 1}. ${ch.title} (Level ${ch.level})`);
});

Example 3: Progressive Summarization

import { ProgressiveSummaryBuilder } from './​summary-builder';
import { BookParser } from './​book-parser';

// Parse book
const parser = new BookParser();
const book = await parser.parseFile('./​book-chapters/');

// Create builder
const builder = new ProgressiveSummaryBuilder(book.metadata.title);

// Process with custom summarization function
await builder.processBook(book, async (text, context) => {
  // Call your AI API here
  const prompt = `
    Previous context: ${context.join('\n')}

    Summarize the following text, extracting key insights:
    ${text}
  `;

  return await yourAISummarizer(prompt);
});

// Save final summary
const summary = builder.getFinalSummary();
await builder.saveToFile('./​output/​summary.json');

Example 4: Using Frontmatter

import { BookParser } from './​book-parser';

const parser = new BookParser();
const book = await parser.parseFile('./​book.md');

// Access book-level frontmatter
console.log('ISBN:', book.metadata.frontmatter?.isbn);
console.log('Custom:', book.metadata.frontmatter?.custom_field);

// Access chapter-level frontmatter
book.chapters.forEach(ch => {
  if (ch.frontmatter?.summary) {
    console.log(`${ch.title}: ${ch.frontmatter.summary}`);
  }
});

Development

Running in Development Mode

# Watch mode with auto-reload
pnpm run dev

# Type checking only
pnpm run type-check

# Build for production
pnpm run build

Testing Chapter Detection

# Test with sample directory
tsx src/​book-parser.ts ./​test-chapters/

# Test with sample file
tsx src/​book-parser.ts ./​test-book.md

Debugging

Enable source maps for debugging:

# Run with Node.js inspector
tsx --inspect src/​index.ts

# Debug in VS Code
# Add to launch.json:
{
  "type": "node",
  "request": "launch",
  "name": "Debug tsx",
  "runtimeExecutable": "tsx",
  "args": ["src/​index.ts"]
}

Performance Optimization

For large books:

• Process in batches of 3-5 chunks concurrently
• Save state every 5-10 chunks
• Use streaming for files >10MB
• Implement caching for repeated processing

Memory management:

• Clear processed chunks from memory
• Trim context window to last 5 summaries
• Use generators for large file iteration

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Issue: "Module not found" errors

• Solution: Run pnpm install to ensure all dependencies are installed
• Check that @types/​node is installed for Node.js types

Issue: Chapters not detected in single file

• Solution: Ensure chapters start with # headers (not ## or lower)
• Check that headers are on their own line

Issue: Wrong chapter order in directory mode

• Solution: Prefix filenames with numbers: 01-, 02-, etc.
• Alternatively, use order field in frontmatter

Issue: Out of memory errors

• Solution: Process books in smaller chunks
• Increase Node.js heap size: NODE_OPTIONS=--max-old-space-size=4096 tsx src/​index.ts

Issue: State file not loading

• Solution: Ensure ./​state/ directory exists
• Check file permissions
• Verify JSON structure is valid

API Reference

BookParser

parseFile(path: string): Promise<ParsedBook>

Parses a book from either a single Markdown file or a directory of chapter files.

Parameters:

• path (string): Path to the markdown file or directory

Returns:

• Promise<ParsedBook>: Parsed book with metadata and chapters

Throws:

• Error if path doesn't exist
• Error if no markdown files found (directory mode)

ProgressiveSummaryBuilder

processBook(book: ParsedBook, summarizeFn: SummarizeFn): Promise<void>

Processes book with progressive summarization.

Parameters:

• book (ParsedBook): Parsed book object
• summarizeFn (Function): Async function that takes (text, context) and returns summary

Returns:

• Promise<void>

save(): Promise<void>

Saves current state to disk.

load(): Promise<void>

Loads state from disk if exists.

getProgress(): number

Returns completion percentage (0-100).

isComplete(): boolean

Returns true if all chunks processed.

Additional Resources

• TypeScript Documentation
• tsx Documentation
• Claude Skills Guide
• Progressive Summarization Method
• YAML Frontmatter

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests if applicable
4. Ensure pnpm run type-check passes
5. Submit a pull request

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This skill is designed for use with Claude AI and follows Anthropic's Agent Skills specification.