# Summarize

> Summarize or extract text from URLs, articles, PDFs, and local files. Use when: user asks to summarize a link, article, web page, or document, or asks 'what is this link about?'. NOT for: YouTube transcripts (use youtube skill), full document editing, or real-time news (use news skill).

- Skill: `ericwang915/summarize` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add ericwang915/summarize`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/ericwang915/summarize/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search
- Author: ericwang915 (https://skillmd.com/u/ericwang915)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/ericwang915/summarize

---


# Summarize

Extract and summarise content from URLs, articles, and local files.

## When to Use

✅ **USE this skill when:**

- "Summarize this article/URL"
- "What's this link about?"
- "Give me the key points from this page"
- "TL;DR this document"
- "Extract the main content from this URL"

## When NOT to Use

❌ **DON'T use this skill when:**

- YouTube video transcripts → use `youtube` skill
- Real-time news search → use `news` skill
- PDF text extraction → use `pdf_reader` skill
- Web search for information → use `tavily_search` or `web_search` tool

## Usage

### Summarize a URL

```bash
python {skill_path}/summarize_url.py "https://example.com/article"
```

### Options

```bash
# Short summary (default)
python {skill_path}/summarize_url.py "https://example.com" --length short

# Detailed summary
python {skill_path}/summarize_url.py "https://example.com" --length long

# Extract text only (no summarization)
python {skill_path}/summarize_url.py "https://example.com" --extract-only

# JSON output
python {skill_path}/summarize_url.py "https://example.com" --format json
```

### Quick Alternative (curl + readability)

For simple text extraction without the script:

```bash
curl -sL "https://example.com" | python -c "
import sys
from html.parser import HTMLParser
class S(HTMLParser):
    def __init__(s): super().__init__(); s.t=[]; s.skip={'script','style','nav','footer','header'}; s.s=set()
    def handle_starttag(s,t,a): (s.s.add(t) if t in s.skip else None)
    def handle_endtag(s,t): s.s.discard(t)
    def handle_data(s,d): (s.t.append(d.strip()) if not s.s and d.strip() else None)
p=S(); p.feed(sys.stdin.read()); print('\n'.join(p.t[:100]))
"
```

## Notes

- Requires `requests` and `beautifulsoup4` (installed by default)
- Some sites block automated access — try adding a User-Agent header
- For paywalled content, the script can only extract freely available text
- Large pages are truncated to avoid context overflow

## Resources

| File | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `summarize_url.py` | Fetch, extract, and summarise web page content |