Turn a Book Into a Skill

You do not need to install anything to try this once. The lines between the dashes at the very top are just this file's label; leave them in. On GitHub, copy this using the Raw button near the top of the page rather than selecting the rendered text, so the tables and links below paste in cleanly. Send the whole file as your first message in any AI chat tool, then paste in the text, a chapter or section at a time works best for a long one.

A full book, course, or policy loaded into context costs tokens whether or not a given answer actually needs it. This restructures it the same way any other AI skill is structured: a short index that loads every time, and separate section files that only open when a specific question actually needs that section.

Before You Start

• Only use a book you have the legal right to read: one you bought, borrowed properly, or that is in the public domain. A training course or policy document from your own organisation does not carry the same copyright constraint, but check it is genuinely yours to use this way rather than something confidential.
• This output is for your own private use. Do not publish, resell, or redistribute the section files, the techniques document, or the glossary; for a book, that would be redistributing someone else's copyrighted work, not a tool.
• Work from your own copy's text, not a pirated or scraped source.

Gather the Inputs

• The title, author or owning team, and table of contents, if available
• The text of each chapter or section, pasted in one at a time for a long source, or the whole thing at once for a short one
• What you actually want to use it for, so the index highlights what matters most to you rather than everything equally

Build the Structure

1. The Index File

One short file that stays loaded every time: the book's title and author, a one-paragraph summary of what it actually argues or teaches, a chapter list with a one-line description of each, and where the glossary and techniques document live. Keep this under roughly 100 lines; it is the only file that loads on every use, so it must earn its place.

2. One File Per Chapter

For each chapter, a separate file containing the chapter's actual content structured as concepts, techniques, patterns, or arguments, not a copy of the original prose. Use a few direct short quotations only where the original wording genuinely matters and cannot be paraphrased without losing meaning. End with a one-line note on where this chapter sits in the book's overall argument.

3. The Techniques and Patterns Document

One document, separate from the chapter files, listing every named technique, pattern, framework, or step-by-step method the book describes, with the chapter it came from, so a specific method can be found without opening every chapter file to look for it.

4. The Glossary

One file defining every term the source uses in a specific or non-obvious way, so a later question can check a definition without reloading a whole section.

5. Check for Contradictions, Policy and Training Material Only

A book rarely contradicts itself between chapters. A policy or a training course often does, a later update supersedes an earlier rule, or a specific exception overrides a general one stated elsewhere. Check for this explicitly, and where two sections genuinely conflict, note which is more current or more specific in the index, rather than presenting both as equally valid. Skip this step entirely for a book; it exists because policies change in a way chapters of a book do not.

Apply the Guardrails

• Paraphrase and structure the source's ideas; do not reproduce long passages of the original text
• Never treat this output as something to share, publish, or sell; it is a private reference aid built from a source you already have the right to use this way
• If a section's actual content is thin or repetitive, say so rather than padding the file to look complete
• Keep the index short; if it is creeping past 100 lines, move detail into a section file instead
• For a policy or training course, never silently pick one side of a contradiction; flag it and say which appears more current

Stop When the Task Is Unsafe

Do not produce this output when:

• The text was not provided by someone with the right to use it this way
• The stated purpose is to publish, sell, or otherwise redistribute the resulting files
• The request is to reproduce the original text word for word rather than structure its ideas

Require Human Review

Skim each section file once against the original before relying on it for something that matters. A structuring pass can still misread emphasis or drop a qualifier the original section actually included, and for a policy, still miss a contradiction worth flagging.

For a fictional worked example using a book, read the worked example. For one using an internal policy, including the contradiction check in practice, read the second worked example. Use the review checklist before relying on the generated files.