💡 WiseUp! Vol. 60 — Export to OneNote, set up a Readwise Skill, and organize your tags
This week, we're featuring a piece that brings a fight to the usual "reading is declining" discourse. Spoiler: the problem isn't screens killing our attention. We're also showing you how to export your highlights to OneNote and how to use AI to organize your tags and search within your content.
On the app side we've launched a new MCP, a Readwise CLI, and Readwise skills for Claude. Read on for all the details or check out our log of weekly improvements.
Before we get into the tips…
📍 Let's start with a reading recommendation
Books and screens
You've already heard the doom-and-gloom stats: reading for pleasure is down 40% in twenty years, attention spans are shrinking, screens are melting our brains. But Librarian Carlo Iacono says the problem isn't screens vs. books. It's environments designed for contemplation vs. environments designed like casinos. And here's the twist: we haven't become post-literate. We've become post-monomodal. Your brain now parses text, image, sound, and motion simultaneously, synthesizing understanding from fragments scattered across a dozen sources. The people who thrive aren't rejecting technology. They're building what Iacono calls "containers for attention": bounded spaces where focus becomes possible. “Ideas now move through multiple channels simultaneously. A documentary provides emotional resonance and visual evidence. Its transcript enables the precision needed to locate a specific argument. A newsletter unpacks the implications. A podcast allows the ideas to marinate during a commute. Each mode contributes something the others cannot. This isn’t decline. It’s expansion.”
From the support inbox
Have questions about using Readwise or Reader in your workflow? We'd love to be your guide! Reply to this email with your question and you might be featured in an upcoming issue. Even if your question isn’t featured, we’ll respond to every message.
❓ A Readwise question from Caleb L:
Is there a way to export my highlights to OneNote?
You can send your Readwise highlights directly to OneNote, which makes it easier to keep your reading notes in one familiar place. Once connected, your highlights will export automatically without extra steps. You can find the setup instructions here: How does the Readwise to OneNote export integration work?
❓ A Reader question from Bruno M:
Is there a simple way to organize my reading list with tags and use it with AI to find things faster?
Bring your Readwise highlights into the AI tools you already use and make all that reading more useful. The Readwise MCP lets different AI systems find and work with what you have saved, helping you recall ideas or build on earlier thoughts. It feels like having your personal reading companion available wherever you go.
📖 New help doc of the week
Build an AI-native reading workflow with the Readwise CLI
The Readwise CLI turns your reading workflow into something you can script, automate, and hand off to AI. Cayla’s documentation breaks down how to install it, use core commands, and start building your own terminal-powered reading system.
🎬 New video of the week
Claude skills 🤝 your reading
This week we’re sharing a workflow from longtime Readwise user David Sparks. Here’s how he’s using Claude Skills to process items in his Reader account to support his writing workflow.
📰 Mar 7 - Mar 13 updates
What's new in Reader and Readwise
🤖 NEW! Readwise MCP — The (new, improved) Readwise MCP server gives Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI direct access to your Readwise highlights, and the full text of all your Reader documents. Once connected, you can ask your AI to search your notes, answer questions using your own reading history as context, or even make changes to your Reader library for you.
🚀 NEW! Readwise CLI — You can now search, read, and organize your Readwise and Reader data from the command line interface. The CLI lets you semantically search your library, save URLs to Reader, manage document locations, create highlights, and export your full library, all from the terminal. These work great with AI coding agents like Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex, and can access Reader in read-only mode if you prefer.
🎓 NEW! Readwise Skills — We pre-built AI workflows like inbox triage, feed catchup, a custom book review that is aware of related context in your vault, and a quiz mode for testing yourself on recent reads. You can also analyze your reading history and tell you something surprising you don't know about yourself. Works with the Readwise MCP or CLI.
👻 NEW! GPT-5.4 Support — If you bring your own OpenAI API key for custom Ghostreader prompts, you can now select GPT-5.4 as your model.
🦾 Improved MCP Reliability — Tristan fixed a bug where highlight colors were causing MCP server responses to break. Highlight data should now come through correctly when using the API or MCP tools. Piotr fixed an issue where bulk document updates via the MCP server could trigger rate limits, so operations should no longer fail silently. Piotr also added support for Mistral as an MCP client via OAuth.
⚡ Improved Search Indexing — Piotr fixed an issue where profiles with extremely large documents (like multi-volume epub collections at 50MB+) could cause issues with search indexing. Large document batches are now split by size, so even the biggest libraries should index smoothly.
🔀 Improved Google Docs Exports — Rasul improved how Reader detects certain Google account errors during export. Google recently started returning some revoked-token failures in a new format that Reader wasn't recognizing. These are now handled properly, so you should get a clean re-authentication prompt instead of silent export failures.
🛜 Parsing Updates — Mati improved the reliability of our YouTube parsing and fixed a bug where YouTube channel URLs (like youtube.com/@channel) were being treated as individual videos. YouTube content should also parse faster. Krzys improved how Reader handles documents from sparknotes.com, wavelength.asana.com, samhenri.gold, grist.org, codely.com, deepwiki.com, factory.strongdm.ai, wericmartin.com, bitwarden.com, emcrit.org, justin.poehnelt.com, stopsloppypasta.ai, theverge.com, and theadhocracy.co.uk.
👍 Three featured finds from the CX team
From quality assurance specialist Eleanor
Something to read 📖
Eleanor just finished reviewing a pop science book called The Rise & Reign of Mammals by former paleontologist Steve Brusatte. It covers our family tree from dinosaurs to early hominids, and is a wonderful love letter to teeth deserving of its bestseller status.
Something to focus 📦
Eleanor's new electronics box has been great for unwinding tidy and screen-free in the evenings with her family. It comes in wood, black, and white with a nice reminder to be present with those around you.
Something to unwind 🕹️
It's maybe a bit counterintuitive, but this retro gaming console is nice for training focus. Eleanor and her son enjoy the miyoo for its large library of old-school games that aren't hyper-optimized for hacking your dopamine circuits. It runs the Linux‑based Onion OS, so you can install your favorite mobile reading apps on it if you want.
💬 From the Readwise group chat
Writing with a view
One of the perks of working remotely is that while the editor stays the same, the background can improve immensely from week to week. I would love to see where you're reading WiseUp! from 😄
Warmly,
the Readwise customer support team