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

Input	Required	Description
WeChat URL	Yes	An `mp.weixin.qq.com` link
Output filename	No	Defaults to kebab-case of article title
Save location	No	Defaults to `/tmp/`

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):

53ai.com — full content, reliable formatting
mp.ofweek.com — tech articles
juejin.cn — developer content
woshipm.com — product/business content
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

Problem	Detection	Action
WeChat blocks access	rawLength < 500 or "环境异常"	Search for mirrors (Step 3)
No mirrors found	Search returns 0 relevant results	Try Chrome Relay fallback
Mirror content truncated	Output < 1000 chars when original is long	Try next mirror site
Script extraction fails	Python error or empty output	Fall back to `web_fetch` on mirror URL
Images broken	Image URLs return 404	Note in output; images may expire

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:

Tool	Purpose
`web_fetch`	Direct article fetch attempt
`web_search`	Mirror site discovery
`exec`	Run curl and Python extraction script

Optional tools:

Tool	Purpose
`browser`	Chrome Extension Relay fallback

System dependencies:

Dependency	Purpose
Python 3.8+	Extraction script
curl	Mirror page download

wechat-article-extractor