mcpbeat

Web To Markdown

softaworks/web-to-markdown

Use ONLY when the user explicitly says: 'use the skill web-to-markdown ...' (or 'use a skill web-to-markdown ...'). Converts webpage URLs to clean Markdown by calling the local web2md CLI (Puppeteer + Readability), suitable for JS-rendered pages.

3k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
2
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
2271
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/softaworks/agent-toolkit --skill web-to-markdown

The instruction itself

7 sections, as written by the author

web-to-markdown

Convert web pages to clean Markdown by driving a locally installed browser (via web2md).

Hard trigger gate (must enforce)

This skill MUST NOT be used unless the user explicitly wrote exactly a phrase like:

  • use the skill web-to-markdown ...
  • use a skill web-to-markdown ...

If the user did not explicitly request this skill by name, stop and ask them to re-issue the request including: use the skill web-to-markdown.

What this skill does

  • Handles JS-rendered pages (Puppeteer → user Chrome).
  • Works best with Chromium-family browsers (Chrome/Chromium/Brave/Edge) via puppeteer-core.
  • Extracts main content (Readability).
  • Converts to Markdown (Turndown) with cleaned links and optional YAML frontmatter.

Non-goals

  • Do not use Playwright or other browser automation stacks; the mechanism is web2md.

Inputs you should collect (ask only if missing)

  • url (or a list of URLs)
  • Output preference:
  • Print to stdout (--print), OR
  • Save to a file (--out ./file.md), OR
  • Save to a directory (--out ./some-dir/ to auto-name by page title)
  • Optional rendering controls for tricky pages:
  • --chrome-path <path> (if Chrome auto-detection fails)
  • --interactive (show Chrome and pause so the user can complete human checks/login, then press Enter)
  • --wait-until load|domcontentloaded|networkidle0|networkidle2
  • --wait-for '<css selector>'
  • --wait-ms <milliseconds>
  • --headful (debug)
  • --no-sandbox (sometimes required in containers/CI)
  • --user-data-dir <dir> (login/session; use a dedicated profile directory)

Workflow

1) Confirm the user explicitly invoked the skill (use the skill web-to-markdown).

2) Validate URL(s) start with http:// or https://.

3) Ensure web2md is installed:

  • Run: command -v web2md
  • If missing, instruct the user to install it (assume the project exists at ~/workspace/softaworks/projects/web2md):
  • cd ~/workspace/softaworks/projects/web2md && npm install && npm run build && npm link
  • Or: cd ~/workspace/softaworks/projects/web2md && npm install && npm run build && npm install -g .

4) Convert:

  • Single URL → file:
  • web2md '<url>' --out ./page.md
  • Single URL → auto-named file in directory:
  • mkdir -p ./out && web2md '<url>' --out ./out/
  • Human verification / login walls (interactive):
  • mkdir -p ./out && web2md '<url>' --interactive --user-data-dir ./tmp/web2md-profile --out ./out/
  • Then: complete the check in the browser window and press Enter in the terminal to continue.
  • Print to stdout:
  • web2md '<url>' --print
  • Multiple URLs (batch):
  • Create output dir (e.g. ./out/) then run one web2md command per URL using --out ./out/

5) Validate output:

  • If writing files, verify they exist and are non-empty (e.g. ls -la <path> and wc -c <path>).

6) Return:

  • The saved file path(s), or the Markdown (stdout mode).
  • For most pages: --wait-until networkidle2
  • For heavy apps: start with --wait-until domcontentloaded --wait-ms 2000, then add --wait-for 'main' (or another stable selector) if needed.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take softaworks/web-to-markdown from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.

Install what it needs

The instructions reference npm. Without those the skill loads but fails at the first command.