# Agent Reach > Give your AI agent eyes on the whole internet — install and drive the open-source Agent Reach CLI to read and search web pages, Twitter/X, YouTube, Reddit, GitHub, RSS, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, LinkedIn, V2EX, Xueqiu, podcasts, and global web search (Exa) through one unified, zero-API-fee tool with automatic backend failover. Use whenever the user wants the agent to fetch, read, scrape, or search content from a site or platform a plain HTTP fetch can't reach — especially login-walled or JS-heavy sources like tweets, threads, video transcripts, or Reddit posts — or asks to "install agent-reach", "set up agent reach", or "give you internet access". Optionally pass a URL or search query as the argument. - Skill: `l3ad3r1/agent-reach` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add l3ad3r1/agent-reach` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/l3ad3r1/agent-reach/raw - Safety review: WARNING - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - License: MIT - Author: l3ad3r1 (https://skillmd.com/u/l3ad3r1) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/l3ad3r1/agent-reach --- # Agent Reach [Agent Reach](https://github.com/Panniantong/agent-reach) is an open-source CLI that gives an AI agent practical access to the live internet. It wraps a fleet of free / open-source backends (Jina Reader, twitter-cli, yt-dlp, OpenCLI, rdt-cli, bili-cli, `gh`, feedparser, Exa via MCP) behind one tool with a **primary + fallback** architecture: when one backend fails, it transparently switches to another, so you keep reading instead of debugging auth. Use this skill to **install** Agent Reach on the user's machine, **diagnose** which channels are live, and then **read and search** content from platforms a plain `WebFetch`/`curl` can't reach. `$ARGUMENTS` — if the user passed a URL or a search query, that's the target to fetch or search once the tool is ready. ## When to use this Reach for Agent Reach when the content lives behind something a simple HTTP fetch can't handle: - **Login-walled or JS-heavy pages** — tweets/threads, Xiaohongshu posts, LinkedIn, Reddit threads. - **Media transcripts** — YouTube, Bilibili, podcasts (Xiaoyuzhou). - **Structured feeds and code hosts** — RSS/Atom, GitHub issues/PRs/repos. - **Open-web research** — global search via Exa when you need to *find* sources, not just read a known URL. If a plain `WebFetch` of a public static page already works, just use that — don't install a whole CLI for a one-off readable page. ## Safety boundaries (read before installing) Agent Reach modifies the user's environment, so honor these limits: 1. **Stay inside `~/.agent-reach/`.** Config, tokens, and tool repos all live there (`~/.agent-reach/tools/`). Temp work goes to `/tmp/`. Do **not** clone repos or drop files into the user's project workspace. 2. **Never `sudo`** without explicit user approval. If a step needs elevated permissions, stop and ask first. 3. **Credentials stay local.** Cookies/tokens are written to `~/.agent-reach/config.yaml` with `600` permissions and are never transmitted off-machine. Treat that file as secret — never print or commit it. 4. **Account-ban risk on login channels.** Twitter/X and Xiaohongshu can ban accounts used for automated reading. Tell the user to log in with a **dedicated secondary account**, never their primary. 5. **Prefer a dry run first.** Use `--safe` (preview, no changes) or `--dry-run` to show the user what will happen before mutating anything. ## Install Agent Reach is **not vendored** in this skill — it's installed from upstream. Detect the OS and pick an install path. Run these in the user's shell (the Bash tool); on Windows, run them under WSL or a POSIX shell since the upstream tool targets Unix-like environments. **Preferred — pipx (isolated):** ```bash pipx install https://github.com/Panniantong/agent-reach/archive/main.zip agent-reach install --env=auto ``` **Fallback — virtualenv (use if PEP 668 blocks a global install):** ```bash python3 -m venv ~/.agent-reach-venv source ~/.agent-reach-venv/bin/activate pip install https://github.com/Panniantong/agent-reach/archive/main.zip agent-reach install --env=auto ``` `agent-reach install` detects local-vs-server environment, configures the search backend, and registers the per-channel capability docs the agent reads later. `--env=auto` lets it choose; pass `--safe` to preview without changes. ### Optional channels The default install brings up the no-login channels. Add login/extra channels explicitly: ```bash # install specific channels agent-reach install --env=auto --channels=opencli,twitter # install everything agent-reach install --env=auto --channels=all ``` Optional channels include `opencli`, `twitter`, `xiaohongshu`, `reddit`, `bilibili`, `xueqiu`, `xiaoyuzhou`, and `linkedin`. ## Verify & configure ```bash agent-reach doctor # status of every channel (ready / needs login / error) agent-reach watch # health + update check agent-reach configure proxy # set an outbound proxy URL agent-reach configure groq-key # set a Groq API key (for backends that use it) agent-reach update # update an existing install agent-reach uninstall [--keep-config] [--dry-run] ``` Always run `agent-reach doctor` after installing and report the result to the user — it's the source of truth for what's reachable right now and what still needs a login. ## Channels at a glance | Platform | Login required | |---|---| | Web pages (Jina Reader) | No | | YouTube (transcripts) | No | | RSS / Atom | No | | GitHub (`gh`) | No (richer with login) | | Global search (Exa) | No | | Bilibili | No | | V2EX | No | | Xueqiu | No (configurable) | | Twitter / X | **Yes** (ban risk — use a burner) | | Reddit | **Yes** | | Xiaohongshu | **Yes** (ban risk — use a burner) | | LinkedIn | **Yes** (configurable) | | Xiaoyuzhou (podcasts) | **Yes** | ## Reading & searching After install, fetch and search through the channels Agent Reach set up. The agent-facing reading workflow is driven by the capability docs that `agent-reach install` registers and that `agent-reach doctor` points to — read those for the exact, current invocation of each channel rather than guessing, because the upstream backends evolve. In practice that means: 1. Run `agent-reach doctor` to confirm the channel for the target URL/query is ready (and log in first if it reports "needs login"). 2. Follow the registered capability instructions for that channel to read the URL or run the search. For some channels you'll call the underlying tool the installer placed on `PATH` directly — e.g. `yt-dlp` for YouTube transcripts, `gh` for GitHub, `bili` for Bilibili, `rdt` for Reddit, `opencli` for Xiaohongshu, and `mcporter`/Exa for open-web search. 3. If a backend errors, let the primary→fallback design retry, or re-run `doctor` to see which backend degraded. If the user gave a target in `$ARGUMENTS`, route it to the matching channel once `doctor` confirms it's ready, then return the extracted content. ## Compatibility Agent Reach works with any agent that can run shell commands — Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, OpenClaw, and others. The upstream backends target Unix-like environments; on Windows, drive it through WSL. ## Credits Agent Reach is created by **Panniantong** ([@Neo_Reidlab](https://x.com/Neo_Reidlab), `pnt01@foxmail.com`) and released under the **MIT License** — . All credit for the tool and its backend integrations belongs to its author and contributors. This skill only documents how to install and drive the upstream CLI; it does not vendor or modify it. Skill packaged by Rinu ([l3ad3r1](https://github.com/l3ad3r1)) in collaboration with Claude (Anthropic).