apple-books

# Apple Books

Query your local Apple Books library on macOS. Read-only access to books, highlights, notes, collections, and reading progress.

## Requirements

- **macOS only** — Apple Books stores data in `~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/`
- **Full Disk Access** required for the process running queries (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access)
- **sqlite3** (pre-installed on macOS)
- Apple Books must have been opened at least once (databases are created on first launch)

## Database discovery

The database filenames are consistent across macOS installs, but always resolve them dynamically in case Apple changes them in future versions:

```bash
BKLIBRARY_DB="$(ls ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/BKLibrary/*.sqlite 2>/dev/null | head -1)"
AEANNOTATION_DB="$(ls ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/AEAnnotation/*.sqlite 2>/dev/null | head -1)"
```

If either variable is empty, Apple Books has not been set up on this Mac.

> **Important:** These are read-only queries. Never INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE rows — doing so may corrupt Apple Books data or cause iCloud sync issues.

## List all books

```bash
BKLIBRARY_DB="$(ls ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/BKLibrary/*.sqlite 2>/dev/null | head -1)"
sqlite3 "$BKLIBRARY_DB" \
  "SELECT ZTITLE, ZAUTHOR, ZGENRE, ZPAGECOUNT, ZREADINGPROGRESS, ZISFINISHED, ZASSETID
   FROM ZBKLIBRARYASSET
   WHERE ZTITLE IS NOT NULL
   ORDER BY ZLASTOPENDATE DESC;"
```

## Search books by title or author

```bash
BKLIBRARY_DB="$(ls ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iBooksX/Data/Documents/BKLibrary/*.sqlite 2>/dev/null | head -1)"
sqlite3 "$BKLIBRARY_DB" \
  "SELECT ZTITLE, ZAUTHOR, ZGENRE, ZREADINGPROGRESS, ZASSETID
   FROM ZBKLIBRARYASSET
   WHERE ZTITLE IS NOT NULL AND (ZTITLE LIKE '%SEARCH_TERM%' OR ZAUTHOR LIKE '%SEARCH_TERM%')
   ORDER BY ZLASTOPENDATE DESC;"
```

Replace `SEARCH_TERM` with the user's query.

## Currently reading (in progress, not finished)

```bas...