Calibre Bridge

Import books from your Calibre library as structured notes, complete with cover images, descriptions, and metadata.

Re-importing is safe — your personal notes and reading status are never overwritten, only the Calibre data is refreshed.

How to use

Enable Calibre's built-in Content Server (Connect/share → Start Content Server) and point the plugin at it in settings. Then run Import books from Calibre from the command palette, pick any books from the list, and they appear in your vault.

Each book note contains a cover image, description, and frontmatter fields such as title, authors, series, rating, and tags. Three fields are yours to manage and will never be touched on re-import: status, date_started, and date_finished.

Run Create library overview to generate a Bases file in your book folder with five pre-built views — All Books, Reading, Unread, Read, and Did Not Finish — filtered automatically by reading status.

Note on tags: The tags field is sourced from Calibre and overwritten on re-import. Use a separate field (e.g. my_tags) for your own tags.

Installation

The recommended way to install Calibre Bridge is to search for it in the community plugin browser (Settings → Community plugins → Browse).

Pre-release versions can be installed via BRAT using P24L/calibre-bridge, or manually by copying main.js, styles.css, and manifest.json from the latest release into .obsidian/plugins/calibre-bridge/.

Permissions and data access

The plugin connects only to the Calibre Content Server you configure — no external services are contacted. It also scans frontmatter in your book folder to detect already-imported notes; no files outside that folder are read or modified. If you use a Calibre password, credentials are stored in plaintext in the plugin's data file.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.