surprise-me · readwiseio — Claude Code skill: reading history insights
The skill digs through your Readwise highlights and saved documents to surface one surprising thing about you as a reader.
npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a claude-codeWhat surprise-me does
surprise-me works on your Readwise and Reader data. It pulls recent highlights, runs broad searches across them, lists tags, archived documents and shortlist items, then pages through the archive a few more times to widen the sample.
From there it looks for hidden obsessions, contradictions between what you save and what you highlight, shifts in interest over time, and gaps that stand out. You get one insight, two or three sentences long, backed by quotes from your own highlights and references to specific documents and authors. The skill then offers to go deeper or show other patterns it noticed.
Access to Readwise is the prerequisite: either MCP tools such as mcp__readwise__reader_list_documents or the readwise CLI with commands like readwise list and readwise search. Without one of the two the skill has nothing to read, so check that first.
What it helps with
- spot a non-obvious pattern in your reading history
- check whether your saved documents contradict each other
- see how your interests shifted over time
- find topics conspicuously missing from your library
- compare what you highlight against what you save
Example prompts for the agent
- analyze my Readwise reading history and tell me something surprising about myself
- find contradictions between what I save and what I highlight
- show me how my interests have changed over time
How to install surprise-me
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a claude-code2Manually: put the files in place
~/.claude/skills/surprise-me/SKILL.mdCopy the whole skill folder; for one project use .claude/skills/surprise-me/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a codex2Manually: put the files in place
.agents/skills/surprise-me/SKILL.mdFor all projects use ~/.agents/skills/
1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a cursor2Manually: put the files in place
.cursor/skills/surprise-me/SKILL.mdCursor also reads .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/
1GitHub CLI
gh skill install readwiseio/readwise-skills surprise-me2Manually: put the files in place
.github/skills/surprise-me/SKILL.md1Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a gemini-cli2Platform CLI
gemini skills install https://github.com/readwiseio/readwise-skills --path skills/surprise-meManually: put the files in place
.devin/skills/surprise-me/SKILL.mdThe legacy .windsurf/skills/ path still works
Skills CLI (Vercel)
npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a opencodeClaude.ai
Zip the folder and upload it in Settings → Capabilities → Skills
Step by step, with commands for each platform: How to install skills in Claude Code: five ways
Questions about surprise-me
How do I install surprise-me in Claude?
Run npx skills add readwiseio/readwise-skills --skill surprise-me -a claude-code. The skill lands in ~/.claude/skills/surprise-me/SKILL.md.
What does surprise-me do?
It reads your highlights, tags, archive and shortlist in Readwise and Reader, then delivers one surprising insight about you as a reader with evidence pulled from your own data.
What does the skill need to work?
Access to Readwise: MCP tools or the readwise CLI. Without either one it cannot read your data.
Similar skills
All skills for Agent setup: memory, context, orchestration →surprise-me by other authors comes first.
