Hardcover
Your Hardcover status, ratings and dates in your notes, and your want-to-read list as notes you do not own yet.
Hardcover 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#
- In Hardcover, open your account settings, find API, and copy the token (it starts
hc_pat_). - 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.