I’ve been working on epub-utils, a Python library and command-line tool that makes it quick and easy to inspect EPUB files from the terminal or in your Python scripts.
The problem I was trying to solve
I frequently work with EPUB files and found myself constantly needing to peek inside them to check metadata, validate structure, or debug formatting issues. The existing tools were either too heavy-weight (full EPUB readers/editors) or required extracting the ZIP manually and parsing XML by hand.
I wanted something as simple as file or head but for EPUB files – just run a command and immediately see what’s inside.
Quick examples
Install from PyPI:
pip install epub-utils Then inspect any EPUB file:
# See the container.xml structure epub-utils book.epub container # Extract metadata from package.opf epub-utils book.epub package # View table of contents epub-utils book.epub toc By default you get syntax-highlighted XML output, but you can get plain text with --format text if you’re piping to other tools.
As a Python library
A Document interface is available in the Python library
from epub_utils import Document doc = Document("book.epub") # See the container.xml structure doc.container.to_str() # Extract metadata from package.opf doc.package.to_str() # View table of contents doc.toc.to_str() This makes it trivial to batch-process EPUB collections, validate metadata, or build other tools on top of it.
Why I built this
I work with digital publishing workflows and kept running into the same friction: I’d have a folder of EPUB files and need to quickly check their metadata or structure. Opening each one in a full reader was too slow, and manually extracting the ZIP was tedious.
epub-utils scratches that itch – it’s designed for the command line first, with the Python API as a nice bonus for automation.
What’s next
I’m considering adding features like:
- Metadata validation against EPUB specs
- Bulk operations (process entire directories)
- Export to CSV/JSON for analysis
If you work with EPUB files, I’d love to hear what features would be most useful to you!
Links:
- GitHub: [https://github.com/ernestofgonzalez/epub-utils](vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Visual%20Studio%20Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-sandbox/workbench/workbench.html)
- PyPI: [https://pypi.org/project/epub-utils/](vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Visual%20Studio%20Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-sandbox/workbench/workbench.html)
- Docs: [https://ernestofgonzalez.github.io/epub-utils/](vscode-file://vscode-app/Applications/Visual%20Studio%20Code.app/Contents/Resources/app/out/vs/code/electron-sandbox/workbench/workbench.html)
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