--- title: "excelize vs book-to-skill" type: "comparison" canonical_url: "https://www.graphcanon.com/compare/qax-os-excelize-vs-virgiliojr94-book-to-skill" tools: ["qax-os-excelize", "virgiliojr94-book-to-skill"] --- # excelize vs book-to-skill *GraphCanon updated Sep 20, 2026* ## Verdict Pick excelize if excellize is a Go library focused on efficient, comprehensive manipulation of Excel files; pick book-to-skill if book-to-skill is a Python-based tool that converts technical book PDFs into Claude Code skills, facilitating effective study and reference. [excelize](https://xuri.me/excelize) reports 21k GitHub stars, 1.9k forks, and 134 open issues, last pushed Aug 16, 2026. [book-to-skill](https://github.com/virgiliojr94/book-to-skill) has 31k stars, 3.2k forks, and 16 open issues, last pushed Sep 17, 2026. Figures are from public GitHub metadata via [excelize's repository](https://github.com/qax-os/excelize) and [book-to-skill's repository](https://github.com/virgiliojr94/book-to-skill). | | [excelize](/tools/qax-os-excelize.md) | [book-to-skill](/tools/virgiliojr94-book-to-skill.md) | | --- | --- | --- | | Tagline | Go language library for reading and writing Excel spreadsheets | Converts technical book PDFs into Claude Code skills for study and reference | | Stars | 20,855 | 31,078 | | Forks | 1,936 | 3,224 | | Open issues | 134 | 16 | | Language | Go | Python | | Adopt for | Excellize is a Go library focused on efficient, comprehensive manipulation of Excel files | book-to-skill is a Python-based tool that converts technical book PDFs into Claude Code skills, facilitating effective study and reference. | | Persona | - | - | | Runtime | - | - | | License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT license applies to the converter code and skill definition in the repository, but not to any book or document processed with it. | | Categories | Data & Retrieval | AI Agents, Data & Retrieval, Developer Tools | ## Trust and health _Sourced signals - not a safety guarantee. No winner column._ | | [excelize](/tools/qax-os-excelize.md) | [book-to-skill](/tools/virgiliojr94-book-to-skill.md) | | --- | --- | --- | | Days since push | 2d | 0d | | Open issues (now) | 134 | 16 | | Stars delta | +59 (30d) | Unknown | | Open issues delta | +5 (30d) | Unknown | | Owner type | Organization | User | | Full report | [trust report](/tools/qax-os-excelize/trust.md) | [trust report](/tools/virgiliojr94-book-to-skill/trust.md) | ## Decision facts: excelize - **Pricing:** freemium - Excellize is free and open-source under the BSD-3-Clause license, which allows reuse in both commercial and non-commercial applications without royalty payments. - **Requirements:** Min 1 GB RAM; Operating system requirements are aligned with what is supported by Go itself. - **Adopt for:** Excellize is a Go library focused on efficient, comprehensive manipulation of Excel files ## Decision facts: book-to-skill - **Pricing:** freemium - The tool is free to use under the MIT license, but any books or documents processed with it are subject to their own licensing. - **Requirements:** Min 2 GB RAM; Requires Python environment to run the tool. - **Adopt for:** book-to-skill is a Python-based tool that converts technical book PDFs into Claude Code skills, facilitating effective study and reference. - **License detail:** MIT license applies to the converter code and skill definition in the repository, but not to any book or document processed with it. ## Choose when ### Choose excelize if… - excelize is primarily Go; book-to-skill is Python. - License: excelize is BSD-3-Clause, book-to-skill is MIT. - Pricing: Excellize is free and open-source under the BSD-3-Clause license, which allows reuse in both commercial and non-commercial applications without royalty payments.. - Requirements: Min 1 GB RAM; Operating system requirements are aligned with what is supported by Go itself.. - Tags unique to excelize: analytics, chart, excel, formula. - When developing applications in Go that require robust capabilities for reading and writing Excel spreadsheets including support for formulas, charts, tables, and VBA macros. ### Choose book-to-skill if… - book-to-skill is primarily Python; excelize is Go. - License: book-to-skill is MIT, excelize is BSD-3-Clause. - Pricing: The tool is free to use under the MIT license, but any books or documents processed with it are subject to their own licensing.. - Requirements: Min 2 GB RAM; Requires Python environment to run the tool.. - Tags unique to book-to-skill: agent-skills, ai-agents, book-to-skill, context-engineering. - Also covers AI Agents, Developer Tools. - When you need to convert technical book PDFs into a format that can be easily studied and referenced using Claude Code skills. ## When NOT to use excelize - If the development environment strictly avoids using languages like Go, since Excellize requires a Go runtime. - When working on projects where Excel files are rarely needed for data processing, another more generic file handling library might be preferable to minimize dependencies and complexity ## When NOT to use book-to-skill - If your goal is to convert non-technical books or documents that do not require the specific format of Claude Code skills. - When you are looking for a tool that processes and converts documents into formats other than those compatible with Claude Code. ## Common questions ### What is the difference between excelize and book-to-skill? excelize: Go language library for reading and writing Excel spreadsheets. book-to-skill: Converts technical book PDFs into Claude Code skills for study and reference. See the comparison table for live GitHub stats and shared categories. ### When should I choose excelize over book-to-skill? Choose excelize over book-to-skill when excelize is primarily Go; book-to-skill is Python; License: excelize is BSD-3-Clause, book-to-skill is MIT; Pricing: Excellize is free and open-source under the BSD-3-Clause license, which allows reuse in both commercial and non-commercial applications without royalty payments.; Requirements: Min 1 GB RAM; Operating system requirements are aligned with what is supported by Go itself.; Tags unique to excelize: analytics, chart, excel, formula; When developing applications in Go that require robust capabilities for reading and writing Excel spreadsheets including support for formulas, charts, tables, and VBA macros. ### When should I choose book-to-skill over excelize? Choose book-to-skill over excelize when book-to-skill is primarily Python; excelize is Go; License: book-to-skill is MIT, excelize is BSD-3-Clause; Pricing: The tool is free to use under the MIT license, but any books or documents processed with it are subject to their own licensing.; Requirements: Min 2 GB RAM; Requires Python environment to run the tool.; Tags unique to book-to-skill: agent-skills, ai-agents, book-to-skill, context-engineering; Also covers AI Agents, Developer Tools; When you need to convert technical book PDFs into a format that can be easily studied and referenced using Claude Code skills. ### When should I avoid excelize? If the development environment strictly avoids using languages like Go, since Excellize requires a Go runtime. When working on projects where Excel files are rarely needed for data processing, another more generic file handling library might be preferable to minimize dependencies and complexity ### When should I avoid book-to-skill? If your goal is to convert non-technical books or documents that do not require the specific format of Claude Code skills. When you are looking for a tool that processes and converts documents into formats other than those compatible with Claude Code. ### Is excelize or book-to-skill more popular on GitHub? book-to-skill has more GitHub stars (31,078 vs 20,855). Stars measure visibility, not whether either tool fits your constraints. ### Are excelize and book-to-skill open source? Yes - both are open-source projects on GitHub (excelize: BSD-3-Clause, book-to-skill: MIT). ### Where can I find alternatives to excelize or book-to-skill? GraphCanon lists graph-backed alternatives at [excelize alternatives](/tools/qax-os-excelize/alternatives) and [book-to-skill alternatives](/tools/virgiliojr94-book-to-skill/alternatives) ([excelize markdown twin](/tools/qax-os-excelize/alternatives.md), [book-to-skill markdown twin](/tools/virgiliojr94-book-to-skill/alternatives.md)), ranked by typed relationship edges rather than popularity votes. ### Is there a machine-readable version of this comparison? Yes. The markdown twin at [this comparison](/compare/qax-os-excelize-vs-virgiliojr94-book-to-skill.md) mirrors this page for agents and LLM crawlers, with the same stats table and FAQ answers. ### Which is better maintained, excelize or book-to-skill? excelize: Very active. book-to-skill: Very active. Compare maintenance labels, days since push, and release cadence in the trust section below - stars alone do not measure maintenance. ### Where are the full trust reports for excelize and book-to-skill? GraphCanon publishes per-repo trust reports with dated maintenance, provenance, and scan summaries: [excelize trust report](/tools/qax-os-excelize/trust); [book-to-skill trust report](/tools/virgiliojr94-book-to-skill/trust). --- **Machine-readable endpoints** - JSON: [`/api/graphcanon/graph?tool=qax-os-excelize`](/api/graphcanon/graph?tool=qax-os-excelize) - LLM index: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt) - Full corpus: [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt) _GraphCanon - The knowledge graph for AI development. https://www.graphcanon.com/_