# Hardcover

> Your Hardcover status, ratings and dates in your notes, and your want-to-read list as notes you do not own yet.

[Hardcover](https://hardcover.app) is a reading tracker. Turn it on in **Settings → Library Hub → Providers**, paste an API token, and what you recorded there reaches your notes.

## What it brings

- **Status, rating and dates** for every book of yours that has a note: the status (*want to read*, *reading*, *read*, *set aside*), the rating (half stars), and when you started and finished.
- **A wishlist.** A book you marked *want to read* that you have no note for becomes a note with that status. It has no format, so it shows as not owned, and it sits in the library folder with the rest. Turn this off with **Notes for books only another provider has**. Books you are reading or have read on Hardcover never get a note of their own.
- **A link** to the book's Hardcover page (**This book: Read** lists it).

## It fills blanks and shows differences

Hardcover only fills a status, rating or date your note leaves empty. Where it disagrees with what your note holds, the sync preview lists it under **Differences from providers**, unticked; tick the ones you want. Nothing you set is replaced unless you choose it.

Hardcover adds a read of its own when you change a status (a *read* gets a read finished today). When a book has several reads, the dates come from the read that has both a start and a finish, which is the one you entered.

## Connect

1. In Hardcover, open your account settings, find **API**, and copy the token (it starts `hc_pat_`).
2. In **Connect…** on the Hardcover tile, paste it. It is kept in Obsidian's keychain.

Tokens expire. If the tile says **Needs attention**, copy a new one.

## What it sends

Requests go to `api.hardcover.app` with your token and ask for your books, statuses, ratings and dates. Nothing from your vault is sent. Hardcover is a cloud service with its own terms. Library Hub never changes anything on your account.