Needle Remote vs book-to-skill
Needle Remote is an MCP server published by docker. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). book-to-skill is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Alireza Rezvani. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-11-11. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  Needle Remote | |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: not stated No figure published Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Community marketplace alirezarezvani/claude-skills | Not listed | Listed Version: 2.14.6 Forks (GitHub): 4 090 Stars (GitHub): 29 522 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Needle Remote | book-to-skill |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | No figure on GitHub | 29 522 |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | No figure on GitHub | 4 090 |
| Last release (differs) | Not published | 2026-11-02 |
| Where it runs (differs) | Remote server (mcp.needle.app/mcp) | Installs as a plugin bundle |
| Transport (differs) | Streamable HTTP | Not stated |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 1, secrets among them: 1 | Not published |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | Not a bundle | 4 |
| Licence (differs) | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Repository (differs) | Not stated | github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills |
| Changes in the last 7 days | 0 | 0 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-14 |
| Endpoint at the last check (differs) | Answered with HTTP 301 (10 h ago) | no remote endpoint we check |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Needle Remote
Production-ready RAG service to search and retrieve data from your documents.
book-to-skill
Converts books, documentation folders, and source collections (PDF, EPUB, DOCX, HTML, Markdown, RST, AsciiDoc, RTF, MOBI/AZW) into structured agent skills: a master SKILL.md with core frameworks and a topic index, on-demand chapter files, a glossary, a patterns file, and a decision cheatsheet. Ships 4 stdlib-only tools (multi-format extractor with invisible-Unicode sanitization, four-family generated-skill validator covering frontmatter/safety/budget/index, pre- and post-flight token budget estimator with a worth-converting verdict, and a plugin emitter that wraps a compiled skill as an installable claude-skills package behind a rights gate), 5 references citing 7-8 sources each, a cs-book-to-skill agent, and /cs-book-to-skill + /cs-book-to-plugin commands. Derived from virgiliojr94/book-to-skill (MIT).
How to run each
Needle Remote As a remote MCP server
claude mcp add --transport http needle https://mcp.needle.app/mcpRequires: NEEDLE_API_KEY (secret)
book-to-skill As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add alirezarezvani/claude-skills
/plugin install book-to-skill@claude-code-skillsCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Only Needle Remote has a remote endpoint we check. How we check endpoints
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of book-to-skill publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Needle Remote · What it can do: book-to-skill · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.