AutoBook

An ebook generator in development. Uses the OpenAI API.

You can:

• Create books
• Generate and edit book content
• Store books in a simple JSON database file
• Export books to text or epub

All books are generated using a simple outline structure. Prompts are naive: individual chapters will reflect content of outline but not content of other chapters.

To run

Setup

Clone or fork this repository.

Add your OpenAI API key to your environment as OPENAI_API_KEY.

Model and parameters are hardcoded (for now) in autobook/book.py.

CLI

./run -h to see available subcommands.

./run <subcommand> -h to see options for each command.

Examples

./run create to make your first book.

./run create -o "apples" -n 5 to begin creating a 5-chapter book about apples.

./run list to view all created books.

./run export -f epub 1 apples.epub to export the book with book_id 1 using the epub format.

Development notes

Actions

• Run the program on the command line: ./run
• Call tests: ./test
• Find anything marked TODO: ./todo
• Verify type checking: mypy .
• Clean up formatting: black .

Virtual environment:

• Install: python -m venv venv in the root folder
• Activate: source venv/bin/activate
• Deactivate: deactivate
• Freeze pip requirements: pip freeze -l > requirements.txt
• Install pip requirements: pip install -r requirements.txt

Contributor notes

Workflow:

Follow Github-flow.

Add a new feature

• Update main: git checkout main; git pull
• Start a new branch: git checkout -b new-branch
• Work on the branch: git commit -m message

Merge when new feature is complete

• Add the branch to the Github repo: git push origin new-branch
• Go to the repo's webpage and initiate a pull request for the new branch
• Document branch changes in the pull request
• Wait for approval or merge immediately

Post-merge cleanup

• Once merged, delete branch on Github
• Delete locally if you're done with the branch: git branch -d new-branch
• If you're still working on the branch locally, rebase with main (only do this for personal branches)
  • Rebase instructions
  • Switch to main and update: git checkout main; git pull
  • Since branch and main are now in alignment, have them split off at the current point: git rebase main new-branch

Standards

• Type hints: mypy cheatsheet
• Style guide: PEP 8 (Black should take care of this automatically)