book-to-skill vs planning-with-files
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
Turns a technical book or document folder into a structured skill your AI coding agent can query.
Open source · MIT
A file-based planning skill that keeps AI coding agents on track across resets and crashes.
The short answer
Choose book-to-skill if you need…
- Developers who want to query a technical book from inside their coding agent
- People who re-read reference material often and want it searchable by an agent
- Teams turning internal docs, runbooks, or specs into a queryable skill
- Users of hosts that support the Agent Skills standard, such as Claude Code or Codex
Choose planning-with-files if you need…
- Developers running long multi-step tasks in Claude Code or Codex CLI
- People who lose agent progress when the context window fills or is cleared
- Teams wanting a plan that lives in the project as plain markdown files
- Users of agents that support the Agent Skills standard
Side-by-side
| book-to-skill | planning-with-files | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Dev tool | Dev tool |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 36.7k | 27.8k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Beginner |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | Python | Shell |
| Last code update | 9 days ago | 7 days ago |
What each one is
book-to-skill
book-to-skill takes a technical book PDF (or other documents such as EPUB, DOCX, or Markdown, per the README badges) and converts it into an agent skill: a folder with a core SKILL.md, per-chapter files, a glossary, patterns, and a cheatsheet. It is meant to be loaded by AI coding agents like Claude Code so you can ask questions about the book while you work, and the README says this uses fewer tokens than pasting the whole book into context.
planning-with-files
This is a skill for AI coding agents that stores a task plan, research notes, and progress log as markdown files in your project. Lifecycle hooks re-inject that planning context so the agent can pick up where it left off after /clear, context compaction, or a crash. The README says it works across 60+ agents via the Agent Skills standard, with native plugins for several hosts including Claude Code and Codex CLI.
Best for
book-to-skill
- Developers who want to query a technical book from inside their coding agent
- People who re-read reference material often and want it searchable by an agent
- Teams turning internal docs, runbooks, or specs into a queryable skill
- Users of hosts that support the Agent Skills standard, such as Claude Code or Codex
planning-with-files
- Developers running long multi-step tasks in Claude Code or Codex CLI
- People who lose agent progress when the context window fills or is cleared
- Teams wanting a plan that lives in the project as plain markdown files
- Users of agents that support the Agent Skills standard
Strengths
book-to-skill
- The README describes a structured output with on-demand chapter loading, which keeps context small
- Works across several agent hosts that share the open Agent Skills SKILL.md format
- MIT licensed and actively pushed
planning-with-files
- Plain markdown files on disk that you can read, edit, and version-control or gitignore
- Works through the Agent Skills standard across many agents, with native plugins for several hosts
- MIT licensed with a published benchmark and install options via npm, the Claude Code marketplace, or npx
Not ideal for
book-to-skill
- People who only want to read a book normally, since the output is a skill for agents, not a reading app
- Users without an AI agent host, because the generated skill is meant to be loaded by one
- Anyone needing verified accuracy on legal or safety-critical content, since the README does not describe a review process for correctness
planning-with-files
- Short one-off questions where a plan file adds overhead
- People who want a hosted service rather than local files in their repo
- Users of hosts not listed in the README, since native support depends on the host and results may vary
Trade-offs
book-to-skill
- The README's token-savings figures come from the project's own measurements on real books; treat them as its claims
- Output quality depends on the source file and on the agent following the generator spec; scanned PDFs have needed fixes according to the README's use-case notes
- Publishing to GitHub is optional and private by default, but the README mentions it, so users should review that step
planning-with-files
- Benchmark figures are from the project's own measurements and are reported with stated limits; independent verification is not shown in the README
- Commands and tools vary by host, so the experience differs between integrations
- Session catchup modes can read local agent session records, which the README says requires an explicit opt-in
Getting started
book-to-skill
Install via the cross-agent skills CLI
npx skills add virgiliojr94/book-to-skillOr clone manually into Claude Code skills folder
git clone https://github.com/virgiliojr94/book-to-skill.git ~/.claude/skills/book-to-skillplanning-with-files
Install the skill globally via npx skills
npx skills add OthmanAdi/planning-with-files --skill planning-with-files -gFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between book-to-skill and planning-with-files?
book-to-skill: Turns a technical book or document folder into a structured skill your AI coding agent can query. planning-with-files: A file-based planning skill that keeps AI coding agents on track across resets and crashes. book-to-skill suits developers who want to query a technical book from inside their coding agent, while planning-with-files suits developers running long multi-step tasks in claude code or codex cli.
Are book-to-skill and planning-with-files free?
book-to-skill: Free and open source. planning-with-files: Free and open source.
Which is easier to set up, book-to-skill or planning-with-files?
planning-with-files is easier to get started with (rated beginner); book-to-skill is rated intermediate and usually needs more setup.
Is book-to-skill or planning-with-files more popular?
book-to-skill has more GitHub stars (36.7k) than planning-with-files (27.8k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to book-to-skill and planning-with-files?
Other options people compare them with include Trail-code, claude-obsidian, promptfoo, Agentic Awesome Skills, wshobson/agents.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.