URL to Markdown

Fetches any URL via baoyu-fetch CLI (Chrome CDP + site-specific adapters) and converts it to clean markdown.

CLI Setup

Important: The CLI source is vendored in the scripts/vendor/baoyu-fetch/ subdirectory of this skill.

Agent Execution Instructions:

1. Determine this SKILL.md file's directory path as {baseDir}
2. CLI entry point = {baseDir}/scripts/vendor/baoyu-fetch/src/cli.ts
3. Resolve ${BUN_X} runtime: if bun installed → bun; if npx available → npx -y bun; else suggest installing bun
4. ${READER} = ${BUN_X} {baseDir}/scripts/vendor/baoyu-fetch/src/cli.ts
5. Replace all ${READER} in this document with the resolved value

Preferences (EXTEND.md)

Check EXTEND.md existence (priority order):

# macOS, Linux, WSL, Git Bash
test -f .baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md && echo "project"
test -f "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md" && echo "xdg"
test -f "$HOME/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md" && echo "user"

# PowerShell (Windows)
if (Test-Path .baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md) { "project" }
$xdg = if ($env:XDG_CONFIG_HOME) { $env:XDG_CONFIG_HOME } else { "$HOME/.config" }
if (Test-Path "$xdg/baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md") { "xdg" }
if (Test-Path "$HOME/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md") { "user" }

Path	Location
.baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md	Project directory
$HOME/.baoyu-skills/baoyu-url-to-markdown/EXTEND.md	User home

Result	Action
Found	Read, parse, apply settings
Not found	MUST run first-time setup (see below) — do NOT silently create defaults

EXTEND.md Supports: Download media by default | Default output directory

First-Time Setup (BLOCKING)

CRITICAL: When EXTEND.md is not found, you MUST use AskUserQuestion to ask the user for their preferences before creating EXTEND.md. NEVER create EXTEND.md with defaults without asking. This is a BLOCKING operation — do NOT proceed with any conversion until setup is complete.

Use AskUserQuestion with ALL questions in ONE call:

Question 1 — header: "Media", question: "How to handle images and videos in pages?"

• "Ask each time (Recommended)" — After saving markdown, ask whether to download media
• "Always download" — Always download media to local imgs/ and videos/ directories
• "Never download" — Keep original remote URLs in markdown

Question 2 — header: "Output", question: "Default output directory?"

• "url-to-markdown (Recommended)" — Save to ./url-to-markdown/{domain}/{slug}.md
• (User may choose "Other" to type a custom path)

Question 3 — header: "Save", question: "Where to save preferences?"

• "User (Recommended)" — ~/.baoyu-skills/ (all projects)
• "Project" — .baoyu-skills/ (this project only)

After user answers, create EXTEND.md at the chosen location, confirm "Preferences saved to [path]", then continue.

Full reference: references/config/first-time-setup.md

Supported Keys

Key	Default	Values	Description
download_media	ask	ask / 1 / 0	ask = prompt each time, 1 = always download, 0 = never
default_output_dir	empty	path or empty	Default output directory (empty = ./url-to-markdown/)

EXTEND.md → CLI mapping:

EXTEND.md key	CLI argument	Notes
download_media: 1	--download-media	Requires --output to be set
default_output_dir: ./posts/	Agent constructs --output ./posts/{domain}/{slug}.md	Agent generates path, not a direct CLI flag

Value priority:

1. CLI arguments (--download-media, --output)
2. EXTEND.md
3. Skill defaults

Features

• Chrome CDP for full JavaScript rendering via baoyu-fetch CLI
• Site-specific adapters: X/Twitter, YouTube, Hacker News, generic (Defuddle)
• Automatic adapter selection based on URL, or force with --adapter
• Interaction gate detection: Cloudflare, reCAPTCHA, hCAPTCHA, custom challenges
• Two capture modes: headless (default) or interactive with wait-for-interaction
• Clean markdown output with YAML front matter
• Structured JSON output available via --format json
• X/Twitter: extracts tweets, threads, and X Articles with media
• YouTube: transcript/caption extraction, chapters, cover images
• Hacker News: threaded comment parsing with proper nesting
• Generic: Defuddle extraction with Readability fallback
• Download images and videos to local directories
• Chrome profile persistence for authenticated sessions
• Debug artifact output for troubleshooting

Usage

# Default: headless capture, markdown to stdout
${READER} <url>

# Save to file
${READER} <url> --output article.md

# Save with media download
${READER} <url> --output article.md --download-media

# Headless mode (explicit)
${READER} <url> --headless --output article.md

# Wait for interaction (login/CAPTCHA) — auto-detect and continue
${READER} <url> --wait-for interaction --output article.md

# Wait for interaction — manual control (Enter to continue)
${READER} <url> --wait-for force --output article.md

# JSON output
${READER} <url> --format json --output article.json

# Force specific adapter
${READER} <url> --adapter youtube --output transcript.md

# Connect to existing Chrome
${READER} <url> --cdp-url http://localhost:9222 --output article.md

# Debug artifacts
${READER} <url> --output article.md --debug-dir ./debug/

Options

Option	Description
<url>	URL to fetch
--output <path>	Output file path (default: stdout)
--format <type>	Output format: markdown (default) or json
--json	Shorthand for --format json
--adapter <name>	Force adapter: x, youtube, hn, or generic (default: auto-detect)
--headless	Force headless Chrome (no visible window)
--wait-for <mode>	Interaction wait mode: none (default), interaction, or force
--wait-for-interaction	Alias for --wait-for interaction
--wait-for-login	Alias for --wait-for interaction
--timeout <ms>	Page load timeout (default: 30000)
--interaction-timeout <ms>	Login/CAPTCHA wait timeout (default: 600000 = 10 min)
--interaction-poll-interval <ms>	Poll interval for interaction checks (default: 1500)
--download-media	Download images/videos to local imgs/ and videos/, rewrite markdown links. Requires --output
--media-dir <dir>	Base directory for downloaded media (default: same as --output directory)
--cdp-url <url>	Reuse existing Chrome DevTools Protocol endpoint
--browser-path <path>	Custom Chrome/Chromium binary path
--chrome-profile-dir <path>	Chrome user data directory (default: BAOYU_CHROME_PROFILE_DIR env or ./baoyu-skills/chrome-profile)
--debug-dir <dir>	Write debug artifacts (document.json, markdown.md, page.html, network.json)

Capture Modes

Mode	Behavior	Use When
Default	Headless Chrome, auto-extract on network idle	Public pages, static content
--headless	Explicit headless (same as default)	Clarify intent
--wait-for interaction	Opens visible Chrome, auto-detects login/CAPTCHA gates, waits for them to clear, then continues	Login-required, CAPTCHA-protected
--wait-for force	Opens visible Chrome, auto-detects OR accepts Enter keypress to continue	Complex flows, lazy loading, paywalls

Interaction gate auto-detection:

• Cloudflare Turnstile / "just a moment" pages
• Google reCAPTCHA
• hCaptcha
• Custom challenge / verification screens

Wait-for-interaction workflow:

1. Run with --wait-for interaction → Chrome opens visibly
2. CLI auto-detects login/CAPTCHA gates
3. User completes login or solves CAPTCHA in the browser
4. CLI auto-detects gate cleared → captures page
5. If --wait-for force is used, user can also press Enter to trigger capture manually

Agent Quality Gate

CRITICAL: The agent must treat default headless capture as provisional. Some sites render differently in headless mode and can silently return low-quality content without causing the CLI to fail.

After every headless run, the agent MUST inspect the saved markdown output.

Quality checks the agent must perform

1. Confirm the markdown title matches the target page, not a generic site shell
2. Confirm the body contains the expected article or page content, not just navigation, footer, or a generic error
3. Watch for obvious failure signs:
   • Application error
   • This page could not be found
   • Login, signup, subscribe, or verification shells
   • Extremely short markdown for a page that should be long-form
   • Raw framework payloads or mostly boilerplate content
4. If the result is low quality, incomplete, or clearly wrong, do not accept the run as successful just because the CLI exited with code 0

Tip: Use --format json to get structured output including status, login.state, and interaction fields for programmatic quality assessment. A "status": "needs_interaction" response means the page requires manual interaction.

Recovery workflow the agent must follow

1. First run headless (default) unless there is already a clear reason to use interaction mode
2. Review markdown quality immediately after the run
3. If the content is low quality or indicates login/CAPTCHA:
   • --wait-for interaction for auto-detected gates (login, CAPTCHA, Cloudflare)
   • --wait-for force when the page needs manual browsing, scroll loading, or complex interaction
4. If --wait-for is used, tell the user exactly what to do:
   • If login is required, ask them to sign in in the browser
   • If CAPTCHA appears, ask them to solve it
   • If the page needs time to load, ask them to wait until content is visible
   • For --wait-for force: tell them to press Enter when ready
5. If JSON output shows "status": "needs_interaction", switch to --wait-for interaction automatically

Output Path Generation

The agent must construct the output file path since baoyu-fetch does not auto-generate paths.

Algorithm:

1. Determine base directory from EXTEND.md default_output_dir or default ./url-to-markdown/
2. Extract domain from URL (e.g., example.com)
3. Generate slug from URL path or page title (kebab-case, 2-6 words)
4. Construct: {base_dir}/{domain}/{slug}/{slug}.md — each URL gets its own directory so media files stay isolated
5. Conflict resolution: append timestamp {slug}-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS/{slug}-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS.md

Pass the constructed path to --output. Media files (--download-media) are saved into subdirectories next to the markdown file, keeping each URL's assets self-contained.

Output Format

Markdown output to stdout (or file with --output) as clean markdown text.

JSON output (--format json) returns structured data including:

• adapter — which adapter handled the URL
• status — "ok" or "needs_interaction"
• login — login state detection (logged_in, logged_out, unknown)
• interaction — interaction gate details (kind, provider, prompt)
• document — structured content (url, title, author, publishedAt, content blocks, metadata)
• media — collected media assets with url, kind, role
• markdown — converted markdown text
• downloads — media download results (when --download-media used)

When --download-media is enabled:

• Images are saved to imgs/ next to the output file (or in --media-dir)
• Videos are saved to videos/ next to the output file (or in --media-dir)
• Markdown media links are rewritten to local relative paths

Built-in Adapters

Adapter	URLs	Key Features
x	x.com, twitter.com	Tweets, threads, X Articles, media, login detection
youtube	youtube.com, youtu.be	Transcript/captions, chapters, cover image, metadata
hn	news.ycombinator.com	Threaded comments, story metadata, nested replies
generic	Any URL (fallback)	Defuddle extraction, Readability fallback, auto-scroll, network idle detection

Adapter is auto-selected based on URL. Use --adapter <name> to override.

Media Download Workflow

Based on download_media setting in EXTEND.md:

Setting	Behavior
1 (always)	Run CLI with --download-media --output <path>
0 (never)	Run CLI with --output <path> (no media download)
ask (default)	Follow the ask-each-time flow below

Ask-Each-Time Flow

1. Run CLI without --download-media with --output <path> → markdown saved
2. Check saved markdown for remote media URLs (https:// in image/video links)
3. If no remote media found → done, no prompt needed
4. If remote media found → use AskUserQuestion:
   • header: "Media", question: "Download N images/videos to local files?"
   • "Yes" — Download to local directories
   • "No" — Keep remote URLs
5. If user confirms → run CLI again with --download-media --output <same-path> (overwrites markdown with localized links)

Environment Variables

Variable	Description
BAOYU_CHROME_PROFILE_DIR	Chrome user data directory (can also use --chrome-profile-dir)

Troubleshooting: Chrome not found → use --browser-path. Timeout → increase --timeout. Login/CAPTCHA pages → use --wait-for interaction. Debug → use --debug-dir to inspect captured HTML and network logs.

YouTube Notes

• YouTube adapter extracts transcripts/captions automatically when available
• Transcript format: [MM:SS] Text segment with chapter headings
• Transcript availability depends on YouTube exposing a caption track. Videos with captions disabled or restricted playback may produce description-only output
• Use --wait-for force if the page needs time to finish loading player metadata

X/Twitter Notes

• Extracts single tweets, threads, and X Articles
• Auto-detects login state; if logged out and content requires auth, JSON output will show "status": "needs_interaction"
• Use --wait-for interaction for login-protected content

Hacker News Notes

• Parses threaded comments with proper nesting and reply hierarchy
• Includes story metadata (title, URL, author, score, comment count)
• Shows comment deletion/dead status

Extension Support

Custom configurations via EXTEND.md. See Preferences section for paths and supported options.