Easy Bookshelf

An Obsidian plugin that fetches book metadata from ISBN and helps you manage your personal bookshelf as notes.

Features

• Fetch book metadata by ISBN from NDL (National Diet Library of Japan), Google Books, and Open Library
• Automatic cover image download with WebP conversion and local caching
• Bookshelf views via Bases (Want to read / Reading / Finished)
• Manual entry and editing of book notes
• Manual cover image (drag & drop, clipboard paste, or file picker)

Installation

From the Obsidian Community Plugins (planned)

Search for Easy Bookshelf in Settings → Community plugins and install.

Manual installation

Download the latest main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the Releases page and place them in:

<Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/easy-obookshelf/
├── main.js
├── manifest.json
└── styles.css

Then enable Easy Bookshelf in Settings → Community plugins.

Via BRAT

Add this repository through the BRAT plugin.

Usage

1. Click the book-open ribbon icon, or run the command "Add book by ISBN".
2. Enter an ISBN. Metadata and cover are fetched automatically and a new note is created in your configured bookshelf folder.
3. Use the book-marked ribbon icon to edit an existing book note.
4. Update an existing note's metadata via the "Update book note" command.
5. Replace the cover image via the "Set cover image manually" command.

Requirements

• Desktop only (uses Electron file dialog and local filesystem for cover caching).

Network use

This plugin makes HTTPS requests to the following public services to fetch book metadata and cover images by ISBN. No personal data is sent — only the ISBN you enter.

• NDL (National Diet Library of Japan) — https://ndlsearch.ndl.go.jp — primary metadata source for Japanese books.
• Google Books API — https://www.googleapis.com/books/v1 — fallback metadata source.
• Open Library — https://openlibrary.org and https://covers.openlibrary.org — final fallback for metadata and cover images.

All requests are issued through Obsidian's requestUrl API and are only triggered by an explicit user action (entering an ISBN). No background or telemetry traffic is generated.

File system access

On desktop, the "Set cover image manually" command opens an Electron file picker so you can choose an image from anywhere on your local disk. The selected file is read once via Node fs, converted to WebP, and saved into your vault's configured covers folder. The plugin does not retain any path outside your vault.

Vault access

The plugin enumerates Markdown files in the vault (vault.getMarkdownFiles()) for two reasons:

1. Duplicate detection — when you add a book by ISBN, the plugin scans existing notes for the same isbn value in frontmatter to avoid creating duplicates.
2. Book picker — the "Select and edit book note" command lists existing book notes filtered by the kind: book frontmatter.

The plugin does not read note bodies; only frontmatter is inspected. No file content is sent over the network.

Development

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24 (LTS) or later
• pnpm 9 or later

Setup

pnpm install

Commands

Releasing

Push a Git tag (matching the manifest.json version, no v prefix) and the GitHub Actions release workflow will build and attach main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css to the release.

# After bumping manifest.json and package.json
git tag 1.1.1
git push origin 1.1.1

Migration from ob-book (v1.0.x)

Starting with v1.1.0, the plugin ID has changed from ob-book to easy-obookshelf to comply with Obsidian's naming guidelines. To migrate:

1. Disable and remove the old ob-book plugin from Settings → Community plugins.
2. Delete the <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/ob-book/ folder.
3. Install easy-obookshelf (see Installation above).
4. Existing book notes and cover images in your vault are not affected — only the plugin folder name changes.

License

MIT

日本語

ISBN から書籍メタデータを取得してノートを作成し、本棚として管理する Obsidian プラグインです。

主な機能

• ISBN からの自動メタデータ取得（NDL / Google Books / Open Library）
• 表紙画像のダウンロード・WebP 変換・キャッシュ
• Bases ファイルによる本棚ビュー（読みたい / 読書中 / 読了）
• 書籍ノートの手動入力・編集
• 表紙画像の手動設定（ドラッグ&ドロップ / クリップボード貼り付け対応）

手動インストール

Releases から main.js / manifest.json / styles.css をダウンロードし、<Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/easy-obookshelf/ に配置してください。

v1.0.x からの移行

v1.1.0 でプラグイン ID が ob-book → easy-obookshelf に変更されました。旧プラグインを削除し、新フォルダ名で再インストールしてください。Vault 内の書籍ノート・表紙画像はそのまま使えます。