# Books

> Skill `books` on Faro. 3 sub-skills.

Searches for books and retrieves metadata including title, author, ISBN, publisher, subjects, and descriptions. Use this to look up a book by title or keyword, find books by a specific author, or get full bibliographic details for a known edition by ISBN.

**Category:** Knowledge & Reference  
**Tags:** books, isbn, authors, publishing, bibliographic  
**Use when:** You need accurate book facts, the right edition, an ISBN, or an author's works instead of guessing from memory.  
**Not for:** Reading or borrowing full book text, buying or pricing books, author biographies or photos, reviews, ratings, or bestseller lists.  
**Returns:** information — Returns clean book records (titles, authors, years, ISBNs, subjects, cover image links). Not a downloadable file and not the full text of any book.

## How to run
Skills run through one gateway with your Faro token. Hand it an `intent` in plain language; Faro routes to the right sub-skill, runs it, and bills per call. Raw tools are internal plumbing and are not directly callable.

```
POST https://skill.askfaro.com/skills/books/run
Authorization: Bearer faro_<your_key>
Content-Type: application/json

{"intent":{"prompt":"Find books by Cormac McCarthy"}}
```

Or from the CLI:

```bash
pip install askfaro-cli && askfaro auth login
askfaro run books "Find books by Cormac McCarthy"
```

Full run reference: https://askfaro.com/llms/run.md — Agent recipe: https://askfaro.com/llms/skill.md

## Example requests

- Find books by Cormac McCarthy
- What is 1984 about?
- What book is ISBN 9780451526538?

## Sub-skills

### Search books

Finds books by title, author, or keyword and returns matching works.

**Cost:** 0.1 credits / search

**Use when:** You are looking for a book, an author's works, or books on a topic and want the matches with their key facts.

**Details:** https://askfaro.com/llms/skills/books/search.md

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### Book record

Returns the full record for one book, including its description, subjects, authors, and cover.

**Cost:** 0.1 credits / lookup

**Use when:** You have identified a specific book and want its description, subjects, and cover details.

**Details:** https://askfaro.com/llms/skills/books/work_details.md

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### Look up by ISBN

Resolves one or more ISBNs into clean bibliographic data.

**Cost:** 0.1 credits / lookup

**Use when:** You have an ISBN (typed or scanned) and want the book's title, authors, publisher, and cover.

**Details:** https://askfaro.com/llms/skills/books/book_by_isbn.md

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On the web: https://askfaro.com/search/books