Wechat Article Extractor

WeChat Article Extractor

Extract WeChat public account articles to clean Markdown. WeChat blocks headless browsers (环境异常 CAPTCHA) and web_fetch gets empty JS-rendered pages, so the reliable approach is: find a mirror on aggregator sites, then extract content.

Scope & Boundaries

This skill handles:

• Extracting article text, images, and metadata from WeChat article URLs
• Finding mirror copies when direct access is blocked
• Converting HTML to clean Markdown
• Saving output as .md files

This skill does NOT handle:

• Publishing or syncing to note-taking apps (that's the user's workflow)
• Batch extraction of multiple articles (handle one at a time)
• WeChat login, authentication, or account management
• Translating article content

Inputs

Outputs

• A Markdown file with full article content, images, and metadata header
• Console confirmation with file path and character count

Workflow

Step 1 — Try direct fetch (fast path)

web_fetch(url, extractMode="markdown", maxChars=50000)

Success check: If result rawLength > 500 AND content has real paragraphs (not just nav/footer text) → skip to Step 4 Option B.

Failure indicators: rawLength < 500, content is navigation/boilerplate only, or contains "环境异常" → go to Step 2.

Step 2 — Extract article metadata

From the URL or any partial content, identify:

• Article title (from <title> or og:title)
• Author / account name (from og:description or page content)

If metadata is unavailable from the URL, ask the user for the article title.

Step 3 — Search for mirrors

web_search("<article title> <author/account name>")

Mirror site priority (ranked by content quality and reliability):

1. 53ai.com — full content, reliable formatting
2. mp.ofweek.com — tech articles
3. juejin.cn — developer content
4. woshipm.com — product/business content
5. 36kr.com — tech/business news

If title is unknown, try: web_search("site:53ai.com <keywords from URL path>")

If no mirrors found: Try the Chrome Extension Relay fallback (see Fallback section).

Step 4 — Download and extract

Option A — Mirror found:

curl -s -L "<mirror_url>" -o /tmp/wechat-article.html

Verify file size > 10KB (smaller usually means redirect/error page).

Run the extraction script:

python3 <skill_dir>/scripts/extract_wechat.py /tmp/wechat-article.html /tmp/<output-filename>.md

Replace <skill_dir> with the directory containing this SKILL.md.

Option B — Direct fetch succeeded (Step 1): Format the fetched markdown with the header template below.

Step 5 — Verify output quality

Check the output file:

• Has a title (not "WeChat Article")
• Has multiple paragraphs of real content
• Images have valid URLs (not broken/placeholder)
• No excessive HTML artifacts remaining

If output looks truncated or garbled, try a different mirror site (return to Step 3).

Step 6 — Deliver to user

Report:

• File saved at: <path>
• Title: <title>
• Size: <char count> characters
• Image count: <N> images

If the user wants it saved to a specific location (e.g., Obsidian), follow their instructions for the final copy.

Markdown Header Template

Every extracted article must include this header:

# <title>

**作者：** <author>
**来源：** 微信公众号「<account_name>」
**日期：** <date>
**原文：** <original_wechat_url>

---

> **摘要：** <1-2 sentence summary generated from content>

---

Fields that cannot be determined should be omitted (don't write "Unknown").

Fallback: Chrome Extension Relay

If no mirror exists (very new or niche article):

Tell the user (in Chinese if they wrote in Chinese):

"没有找到镜像。请在 Chrome 中打开这篇文章，然后点击 OpenClaw Browser Relay 扩展图标（badge 亮起），我就能直接读取内容。"

Then use:

browser(action="snapshot", profile="chrome")

Extract content from the snapshot and format with the header template.

Error Handling

Success Criteria

• Output Markdown contains the full article text (not truncated)
• Title and metadata are correctly extracted
• Images are preserved with working URLs
• No HTML artifacts or navigation junk in output
• File is saved at the specified location

Notes

• WeChat image URLs from mirrors (e.g., api.ibos.cn proxy) are generally valid and render in most Markdown viewers
• Mirror sites typically publish within minutes of the original
• The · · · section dividers are WeChat style — preserve them
• For very long articles (>50K chars), the script handles them fine but web_fetch may truncate

Configuration

No persistent configuration required. The skill uses standard OpenClaw tools (web_fetch, web_search, exec) and optionally browser for the Chrome Relay fallback.

Required tools:

Optional tools:

System dependencies: