Defuddle

Defuddle

Purpose

Extract readable Markdown from ordinary web pages by stripping navigation, ads, and page chrome.

When to Use

• User provides a documentation page, article, or blog post URL.
• Clean Markdown extraction is preferable to noisy HTML.
• Web page clutter would waste context.

Do not use when:

• URL already points to Markdown.
• Response is an API payload.
• Page requires authentication the tool cannot satisfy.

Requirements

Required tool:

• Defuddle CLI

Check:

Get-Command defuddle -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
defuddle --version

Install:

npm install -g defuddle

Rules:

• Do not assume Defuddle is installed.
• Do not auto-install without user approval.
• Show the install command before running it.

Inputs

• URL to parse

Workflow

1. Check whether Defuddle CLI is available.
2. If missing, tell the user before attempting extraction.
3. Prefer Markdown output:

defuddle parse <url> --md

4. Save to a file when needed:

defuddle parse <url> --md -o content.md

5. For metadata-only needs, query a specific property:

defuddle parse <url> -p title
defuddle parse <url> -p description
defuddle parse <url> -p domain

Output

• Clean Markdown content
• Optional metadata fields

Verification

• Defuddle availability was checked first
• No extraction was claimed if the tool was missing
• Output is the article or documentation body, not page chrome

Failure Modes

• Page blocks automated access
• JavaScript-heavy page renders poorly
• Auth-gated content is inaccessible

Missing Dependency Behavior

If Defuddle is missing:

1. Say extraction did not happen.
2. Tell the user Defuddle CLI is required.
3. Ask before installing it.
4. Show the install command.
5. Fall back to another web-reading method.