article-exporter

Export web articles to Obsidian-ready Markdown directories with local images and optional AI translation.

1.6k|119|Updated Dec 28, 2025
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/actionbook/actionbook --skill article-exporter
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: article-exporter
Source: https://github.com/actionbook/actionbook/tree/main/playground/article-exporter
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/actionbook/actionbook --skill article-exporter

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill requires @actionbookdev/cli, obsidian-cli, and includes references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve?

Saving online articles, blog posts, and social threads into a personal knowledge base usually means manual copy-pasting, broken image links, and lost formatting. This Skill automates the entire archival workflow: fetching page content, downloading images locally, rewriting references, and organizing everything into a self-contained Obsidian-ready folder.

Core Features & Use Cases

  • Automated Article Archiving: Fetches any web article via the actionbook CLI, reformats it into clean Markdown, and downloads all images to a local images/ folder with rewritten relative paths.
  • Twitter/X Special Handling: Reconstructs headings, code blocks, and lists lost by readability extraction on Twitter/X through a mandatory AI reformatting step.
  • Optional AI Translation: Translates the exported article into languages like Chinese, Spanish, or Japanese while preserving Markdown formatting and image references.
  • Use Case: You find a long technical post on X and want it in your Obsidian vault. The Skill fetches the content, reformats the structure, downloads images, generates an index.md navigation file with metadata, and opens it directly in Obsidian.

Quick Start

Export the article at this URL to my Obsidian articles folder and translate it to Chinese.

Frequently Asked Questions about article-exporter

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I export a web article to Obsidian Markdown?

Use the actionbook CLI fetch command with the article URL, then let the AI reformat the plain text into structured Markdown. The workflow downloads images locally, rewrites references to relative paths, and creates an index.md navigation file.

How to save Twitter/X threads as Markdown with images?

Fetch the tweet URL with actionbook using the --wait-hint heavy flag, then apply AI reformatting to reconstruct headings, code blocks, and lists. Twitter's non-semantic HTML loses structure during extraction, so the AI reformatting step is mandatory.

Why does actionbook fetch return empty or partial content?

Dynamic sites like Medium and Twitter render content asynchronously, so extraction happens before the page finishes loading. Use the --wait-hint heavy flag and verify your actionbook CLI version is 0.9.1 or higher.

Why are downloaded images 0 bytes after export?

Zero-byte images usually mean the URL expired or requires a different format parameter. Retry with ?format=jpg&name=orig appended for Twitter images, or add a Referer header if the server returns 403.

Can I batch export multiple articles at once?

Yes, but you must add 3-5 second random delays between requests to avoid being flagged as a bot. Keep batches to 5-10 articles and always test with a single article first.

What are the limitations of exporting paywalled articles?

The exporter cannot bypass paywalls; it only works if you are already logged in through your browser session. Content behind authentication you lack access to will export as truncated or limited text.