// Access your Readwise highlights and Reader documents from the command line. Search, read, organize, and manage your entire reading library.
Visualize your highlights and their connections in an interactive 2D graph
How to use the Readwise CLI — access highlights, documents, and your entire reading library from the command line
How to use the Readwise MCP tools — access highlights, documents, and your entire reading library via MCP
Analyze your reading history and tell you something surprising you don't know about yourself
Catch up on your RSS feed — highlights up top, full browse below
Triage Reader inbox one doc at a time with personalized pitches
| name | readwise-official |
| description | Access your Readwise highlights and Reader documents from the command line. Search, read, organize, and manage your entire reading library. |
| metadata | {"openclaw":{"category":"productivity","requires":{"bins":["readwise"]},"cliHelp":"readwise --help"}} |
Use the readwise command to access the user's Readwise highlights and Reader documents. Readwise has two products:
If readwise is not installed:
npm install -g @readwise/cli
If not authenticated, ask the user for their Readwise access token (they can get one at https://readwise.io/access_token), then run:
readwise login-with-token <token>
Every command supports --help for full option details:
readwise --help
readwise reader-search-documents --help
readwise readwise-list-highlights --help
Add --json to any command for machine-readable output. Use --refresh to force-refresh cached data.
# Semantic search across all saved documents
readwise reader-search-documents --query "spaced repetition"
# Search with filters — by category, location, author, date range, tags
readwise reader-search-documents --query "machine learning" --category-in article --location-in later,shortlist
# List recent inbox items with minimal fields (saves tokens)
readwise reader-list-documents --location new --limit 10 --response-fields title,author,summary,word_count,category
# List archived articles by a specific tag
readwise reader-list-documents --location archive --tag "research" --category article
# List unseen documents
readwise reader-list-documents --location new --seen false
Reader locations: new (inbox), later, shortlist, archive, feed. When the user says "inbox", use new.
# Get full document details including Markdown content
readwise reader-get-document-details --document-id <id>
# Get all highlights on a document
readwise reader-get-document-highlights --document-id <id>
# Save a URL — Reader scrapes it automatically
readwise reader-create-document --url "https://example.com/article"
# Save with metadata and tags
readwise reader-create-document --url "https://example.com" --title "My Title" --tags research,important
# Save raw content (provide a unique URL as identifier)
readwise reader-create-document --title "Meeting Notes" --markdown "# Notes from today..." --url "https://me.com#notes-2024"
# Highlight a passage (html-content must match the document's HTML exactly)
readwise reader-create-highlight --document-id <id> --html-content "<p>The key passage</p>" --note "Connects to..."
# Move documents between locations (max 50 per call)
readwise reader-move-documents --document-ids <id1>,<id2> --location archive
# Bulk mark as seen
readwise reader-bulk-edit-document-metadata --documents '[{"document_id": "<id>", "seen": true}]'
# Tag management
readwise reader-list-tags
readwise reader-add-tags-to-document --document-id <id> --tag-names important,research
readwise reader-remove-tags-from-document --document-id <id> --tag-names old-tag
# Highlight tags and notes
readwise reader-add-tags-to-highlight --document-id <id> --highlight-document-id <hid> --tag-names concept
readwise reader-set-highlight-notes --document-id <id> --highlight-document-id <hid> --notes "My note"
# Export all documents as Markdown ZIP (async — poll for completion)
readwise reader-export-documents
readwise reader-get-export-documents-status --export-id <id>
# Delta export — only docs updated since last export
readwise reader-export-documents --since-updated "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z"
# Semantic search across all highlights (books, articles, podcasts, etc.)
readwise readwise-search-highlights --vector-search-term "learning techniques"
# List recent highlights
readwise readwise-list-highlights --page-size 20
# Highlights from a specific book
readwise readwise-list-highlights --book-id <id>
# Highlights from the last month
readwise readwise-list-highlights --highlighted-at-gt "2024-06-01T00:00:00Z"
# Create a highlight (goes into a book matched by title/author, or "Quotes" if no title)
readwise readwise-create-highlights --highlights '[{"text": "The key insight", "title": "Book Title", "author": "Author Name"}]'
# Update a highlight — change text, add note, manage tags, set color
readwise readwise-update-highlight --highlight-id <id> --note "Updated note" --add-tags concept,review --color blue
# Delete a highlight
readwise readwise-delete-highlight --highlight-id <id>
# Get today's spaced repetition review with highlights and interactive review URL
readwise readwise-get-daily-review
Triage the inbox: List recent saves, read each one, decide what's worth the user's time, and move to the right place.
readwise reader-list-documents --location new --limit 10 --response-fields title,author,summary,word_count,category,saved_at
readwise reader-get-document-details --document-id <id>
readwise reader-move-documents --document-ids <id> --location later
Search across everything: Search both Reader documents and Readwise highlights in parallel to find everything on a topic.
readwise reader-search-documents --query "spaced repetition"
readwise readwise-search-highlights --vector-search-term "spaced repetition"
Quiz on a recent read: Find recently finished documents, pick one, fetch its content and highlights, then quiz the user on what they read.
readwise reader-list-documents --location archive --limit 10 --response-fields title,author,summary,word_count
readwise reader-get-document-details --document-id <id>
readwise reader-get-document-highlights --document-id <id>
Catch up on RSS: Browse recent feed items, surface the best ones, mark the rest as seen.
readwise reader-list-documents --location feed --limit 20 --response-fields title,author,summary,word_count,site_name
readwise reader-bulk-edit-document-metadata --documents '[{"document_id": "<id>", "seen": true}]'
readwise reader-move-documents --document-ids <id> --location later
Save and annotate: Save a URL, highlight key passages, and organize with tags.
readwise reader-create-document --url "https://example.com/article" --tags research
readwise reader-create-highlight --document-id <id> --html-content "<p>Key passage</p>" --note "This connects to..."
readwise reader-add-tags-to-document --document-id <id> --tag-names important,research