article-extractor

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha bf9bf60ec8d6 · 20 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publishermichalparkola GitHub userOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source foldermichalparkola/tapestry-skills-for-claude-code/article-extractorThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceMITAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdictbf9bf60ec8d6A new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusNot archivedLast push 222 days ago
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Extract clean article content from URLs (blog posts, articles, tutorials) and save as readable text. Use when user wants to download, extract, or save an article/blog post from a URL without ads, navigation, or clutter.

---
name: article-extractor
description: Extract clean article content from URLs (blog posts, articles, tutorials) and save as readable text. Use when user wants to download, extract, or save an article/blog post from a URL without ads, navigation, or clutter.
allowed-tools: Bash,Write
---

# Article Extractor

This skill extracts the main content from web articles and blog posts, removing navigation, ads, newsletter signups, and other clutter. Saves clean, readable text.

## When to Use This Skill

Activate when the user:
- Provides an article/blog URL and wants the text content
- Asks to "download this article"
- Wants to "extract the content from [URL]"
- Asks to "save this blog post as text"
- Needs clean article text without distractions

## How It Works

### Priority Order:
1. **Check if tools are installed** (reader or trafilatura)
2. **Download and extract article** using best available tool
3. **Clean up the content** (remove extra whitespace, format properly)
4. **Save to file** with article title as filename
5. **Confirm location** and show preview

## Installation Check

Check for article extraction tools in this order:

### Option 1: reader (Recommended - Mozilla's Readability)

```bash
command -v reader
```

If not installed:
```bash
npm install -g @mozilla/readability-cli
# or
npm install -g reader-cli
```

### Option 2: trafilatura (Python-based, very good)

```bash
command -v trafilatura
```

If not installed:
```bash
pip3 install trafilatura
```

### Option 3: Fallback (curl + simple parsing)

If no tools available, use basic curl + text extraction (less reliable but works)

## Extraction Methods

### Method 1: Using reader (Best for most articles)

```bash
# Extract article
reader "URL" > article.txt
```

**Pros:**
- Based on Mozilla's Readability algorithm
- Excellent at removing clutter
- Preserves article structure

### Method 2: Using trafilatura (Best for blogs/news)

```bash
# Extract article
trafilatura --URL "URL" --output-format txt > article.txt

# Or with more options
trafilatura --URL "URL" --output-format txt --no-comments --no-tables > article.txt
```

**Pros:**
- Very accurate extraction
- Good with various site structures
- Handles multiple languages

**Options:**
- `--no-comments`: Skip comment sections
- `--no-tables`: Skip data tables
- `--precision`: Favor precision over recall
- `--recall`: Extract more content (may include some noise)

### Method 3: Fallback (curl + basic parsing)

```bash
# Download and extract basic content
curl -s "URL" | python3 -c "
from html.parser import HTMLParser
import sys

class ArticleExtractor(HTMLParser):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.in_content = False
        self.content = []
        self.skip_tags = {'script', 'style', 'nav', 'header', 'footer', 'aside'}
        self.current_tag = None

    def handle_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
        if tag not in self.skip_tags:
            if tag in {'p', 'article', 'main', 'h1', 'h2', 'h3', 'h4', 'h5', 'h6'}:
                self.in_content = True
        self.current_tag = tag

    def handle_data(self, data):
        if self.in_content and data.strip():
            self.content.append(data.strip())

    def get_content(self):
        return '\n\n'.join(self.content)

parser = ArticleExtractor()
parser.feed(sys.stdin.read())
print(parser.get_content())
" > article.txt
```

**Note:** This is less reliable but works without dependencies.

## Getting Article Title

Extract title for filename:

### Using reader:
```bash
# reader outputs markdown with title at top
TITLE=$(reader "URL" | head -n 1 | sed 's/^# //')
```

### Using trafilatura:
```bash
# Get metadata including title
TITLE=$(trafilatura --URL "URL" --json | python3 -c "import json, sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)['title'])")
```

### Using curl (fallback):
```bash
TITLE=$(curl -s "URL" | grep -oP '<title>\K[^<]+' | sed 's/ - .*//' | sed 's/ | .*//')
```

## Filename Creation

Clean title for filesystem:

```bash
# Get title
TITLE="Article Title from Website"

# Clean for filesystem (remove special chars, limit length)
FILENAME=$(echo "$TITLE" | tr '/' '-' | tr ':' '-' | tr '?' '' | tr '"' '' | tr '<' '' | tr '>' '' | tr '|' '-' | cut -c 1-100 | sed 's/ *$//')

# Add extension
FILENAME="${FILENAME}.txt"
```

## Complete Workflow

```bash
ARTICLE_URL="https://example.com/article"

# Check for tools
if command -v reader &> /dev/null; then
    TOOL="reader"
    echo "Using reader (Mozilla Readability)"
elif command -v trafilatura &> /dev/null; then
    TOOL="trafilatura"
    echo "Using trafilatura"
else
    TOOL="fallback"
    echo "Using fallback method (may be less accurate)"
fi

# Extract article
case $TOOL in
    reader)
        # Get content
        reader "$ARTICLE_URL" > temp_article.txt

        # Get title (first line after # in markdown)
        TITLE=$(head -n 1 temp_article.txt | sed 's/^# //')
        ;;

    trafilatura)
        # Get title from metadata
        METADATA=$(trafilatura --URL "$ARTICLE_URL" --json)
        TITLE=$(echo "$METADATA" | python3 -c "import json, sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin).get('title', 'Article'))")

        # Get clean content
        trafilatura --URL "$ARTICLE_URL" --output-format txt --no-comments > temp_article.txt
        ;;

    fallback)
        # Get title
        TITLE=$(curl -s "$ARTICLE_URL" | grep -oP '<title>\K[^<]+' | head -n 1)
        TITLE=${TITLE%% - *}  # Remove site name
        TITLE=${TITLE%% | *}  # Remove site name (alternate)

        # Get content (basic extraction)
        curl -s "$ARTICLE_URL" | python3 -c "
from html.parser import HTMLParser
import sys

class ArticleExtractor(HTMLParser):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.in_content = False
        self.content = []
        self.skip_tags = {'script', 'style', 'nav', 'header', 'footer', 'aside', 'form'}

    def handle_starttag(self, tag, attrs):
        if tag not in self.skip_tags:
            if tag in {'p', 'article', 'main'}:

Excerpt, first 6,000 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

npm install -g @mozilla/readability-cli
npm install -g reader-cli

git clone https://github.com/michalparkola/tapestry-skills-for-claude-code
git -C tapestry-skills-for-claude-code checkout bf9bf60ec8d6

Works in

1. 2026-10-20
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source bf9bf60ec8d6

Questions about article-extractor

• github.com/michalparkola/tapestry-skills-for-claude-code/tree/ma — the audited source at commit bf9bf60ec8d6 and every finding aboveObserved · 20 Oct 2026

Spotted something wrong? Report a correction · Methodology