Agent skill

Open Syllabus API

by wentorai in wentorai/research-plugins

Analyze most-taught books and texts via Open Syllabus analytics

MITAuto-check passedEducation

Install Open Syllabus API

skills CLI
$ npx skills add wentorai/research-plugins --skill open-syllabus-api -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install wentorai/research-plugins open-syllabus-api --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wentorai/research-plugins.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/domains/education/open-syllabus-api .claude/skills/open-syllabus-api && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
open-syllabus-api
GitHub stars
298
Used in
1 other repo
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
242 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
405
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Analyze most-taught books and texts via Open Syllabus analytics

  • Works in 5 steps: Curriculum design: Find canonical texts… → Textbook market research: Identify… → Teaching trends: Track changes in… → …
  • Tasks that involve Curriculum and course design
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, Explorer Interface, Key Metrics and Python Usage, plus 3 more sections
  • Calls curl; reaches api.opensyllabus.org and explorer.opensyllabus.org; needs OS_TOKEN

What it does

Open Syllabus API is an agent skill from wentorai/research-plugins. Analyze most-taught books and texts via Open Syllabus analytics

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Education, covering Curriculum and course design. The repository describes itself as: 350+ academic research skills, MCP configs, and plugins for Research-Claw and AI agents. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Tasks that involve Curriculum and course design

Example prompts

  • “/open-syllabus-api”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Curriculum design: Find canonical texts in a discipline
  2. Textbook market research: Identify widely adopted materials
  3. Teaching trends: Track changes in assigned readings over time
  4. Interdisciplinary mapping: Discover texts bridging fields
  5. Academic publishing: Understand teaching impact vs. citation impact

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit bf44b3c. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • curl

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • api.opensyllabus.org
    • explorer.opensyllabus.org

    Also links to:

    • opensyllabus.org

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

    • OS_TOKEN

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Open Syllabus API loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 20 tokens; SKILL.md has 242 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~20
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from wentorai/research-plugins at commit bf44b3c, republished under its MIT licence (© wentorai). 242 words, ~1,418 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/open-syllabus-api/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
open-syllabus-api
description
Analyze most-taught books and texts via Open Syllabus analytics

Open Syllabus API

Overview

Open Syllabus analyzes 20M+ college course syllabi from 7,000+ institutions in 140+ countries, tracking which books, articles, and media are most frequently assigned in higher education. The Explorer provides teaching frequency rankings and co-assignment patterns. Useful for curriculum research, textbook selection, and understanding disciplinary norms. Free for basic search; institutional subscription for full API access.

Explorer Interface

bash
# The primary interface is the web explorer:
# https://explorer.opensyllabus.org/

# Search by title, author, or field
# Filter by country, institution, discipline, year range
API Access
bash
# API requires institutional subscription
# Base URL: https://api.opensyllabus.org/v1/

# Search titles
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $OS_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.opensyllabus.org/v1/titles?query=republic+plato&limit=20"

# Get title details
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $OS_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.opensyllabus.org/v1/titles/12345"

# Co-assignment analysis
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $OS_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.opensyllabus.org/v1/titles/12345/co-assigned?limit=20"

# Rankings by field
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $OS_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.opensyllabus.org/v1/rankings?field=Economics&limit=50"
Query Parameters
ParameterDescriptionExample
querySearch textquery=machine+learning
fieldAcademic disciplinefield=Computer Science
countryCountry filtercountry=US
institutionInstitution filterinstitution=Harvard
year_fromStart yearyear_from=2020
year_toEnd yearyear_to=2026
limitResults per pagelimit=50

Key Metrics

MetricDescription
Teaching Score0-100 normalized frequency of syllabi appearances
CountRaw number of syllabi featuring the title
RankPosition in overall or field-specific ranking
Co-assignmentTitles frequently taught alongside this one

Python Usage

python
import requests

BASE_URL = "https://api.opensyllabus.org/v1"


def search_titles(query: str, field: str = None,
                  country: str = None,
                  limit: int = 20, token: str = "") -> list:
    """Search Open Syllabus for assigned titles."""
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"} if token else {}
    params = {"query": query, "limit": limit}
    if field:
        params["field"] = field
    if country:
        params["country"] = country

    resp = requests.get(
        f"{BASE_URL}/titles",
        headers=headers,
        params=params,
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()
    data = resp.json()

    results = []
    for item in data.get("results", []):
        results.append({
            "title": item.get("title"),
            "authors": item.get("authors"),
            "teaching_score": item.get("teaching_score"),
            "count": item.get("appearance_count"),
            "rank": item.get("rank"),
            "top_fields": item.get("top_fields", []),
        })
    return results


def get_co_assigned(title_id: int, limit: int = 20,
                    token: str = "") -> list:
    """Get titles frequently co-assigned with a given title."""
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"} if token else {}
    resp = requests.get(
        f"{BASE_URL}/titles/{title_id}/co-assigned",
        headers=headers,
        params={"limit": limit},
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json().get("results", [])


def get_field_rankings(field: str, limit: int = 50,
                       token: str = "") -> list:
    """Get most-taught titles in a field."""
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {token}"} if token else {}
    resp = requests.get(
        f"{BASE_URL}/rankings",
        headers=headers,
        params={"field": field, "limit": limit},
    )
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json().get("results", [])


# Example: find most-taught economics texts
# results = search_titles("microeconomics", field="Economics")
# for r in results:
#     print(f"#{r['rank']} {r['title']} — {r['authors']}")
#     print(f"  Teaching Score: {r['teaching_score']} "
#           f"({r['count']} syllabi)")

Top Assigned Works (Examples)

RankTitleAuthorField
1The Elements of StyleStrunk & WhiteWriting
2The RepublicPlatoPhilosophy
3A Manual for WritersTurabianWriting
~10Thinking, Fast and SlowKahnemanPsychology
~50Introduction to AlgorithmsCLRSCS

Use Cases

  1. Curriculum design: Find canonical texts in a discipline
  2. Textbook market research: Identify widely adopted materials
  3. Teaching trends: Track changes in assigned readings over time
  4. Interdisciplinary mapping: Discover texts bridging fields
  5. Academic publishing: Understand teaching impact vs. citation impact

References

© wentorai, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/domains/education/open-syllabus-api of wentorai/research-plugins.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit bf44b3c

Used in 1 other repository

We found 1 copy of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in wentorai/research-plugins, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

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AnythingAtlasLiuziyu77/AnythingAtlas195—~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Codex Skill Self-AssessmentFlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide6.1k—~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassCC-BY-SA-4.0
Curriculum PlannerTHU-MAIC/OpenMAIC40k—~2.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Open Syllabus API

What does Open Syllabus API do?

Analyze most-taught books and texts via Open Syllabus analytics. Open Syllabus API is an agent skill from wentorai/research-plugins.

When should I use Open Syllabus API?

Open Syllabus API fits situations like: tasks that involve Curriculum and course design.

How do I install Open Syllabus API in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add wentorai/research-plugins --skill open-syllabus-api -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/domains/education/open-syllabus-api in wentorai/research-plugins) into .claude/skills/open-syllabus-api in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Open Syllabus API in Codex?

Run `npx skills add wentorai/research-plugins --skill open-syllabus-api -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/domains/education/open-syllabus-api in wentorai/research-plugins) into .agents/skills/open-syllabus-api in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Open Syllabus API in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add wentorai/research-plugins --skill open-syllabus-api -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/open-syllabus-api, .gemini/skills/open-syllabus-api, .github/skills/open-syllabus-api and .opencode/skills/open-syllabus-api in your project.

What does Open Syllabus API need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Open Syllabus API needs the command-line tools its instructions call (curl) and credentials named OS_TOKEN. Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Open Syllabus API access the network?

SKILL.md names 3 domains. In commands or code: api.opensyllabus.org and explorer.opensyllabus.org; the agent is likely to contact these when it follows the instructions. As links in the text: opensyllabus.org. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Open Syllabus API safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Open Syllabus API use?

Open Syllabus API is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Open Syllabus API use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.7k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Open Syllabus API?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Open Syllabus API: AI Engineering Placement Quiz (rohitg00/ai-engineering-from-scratch, 66k stars), K-12 Core Literacy Lesson Design (THU-MAIC/OpenMAIC, 40k stars), AnythingAtlas (Liuziyu77/AnythingAtlas, 195 stars) and Codex Skill Self-Assessment (FlorianBruniaux/claude-code-ultimate-guide, 6.1k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Open Syllabus API?

wentorai (a GitHub user) maintains it in wentorai/research-plugins, which has 298 GitHub stars. The repository holds 405 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on June 19, 2026.

Source: wentorai/research-plugins on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.