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Overview

The Web2MD CLI lets you convert any URL to clean Markdown directly from your terminal. Pipe output to LLMs, batch-process URL lists, or ingest content into your Obsidian vault — all without opening a browser. 
npx web2md https://example.com/article
The CLI requires Node.js 18+. Run node -v to check your version.

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Installation

No installation needed — just run with npx: 
npx web2md <url> [options]
Or install globally for faster startup: 
npm install -g web2md
web2md <url> [options]

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Modes

Web2MD CLI operates in three modes depending on your configuration:

Local

Default mode. No API key required. Fetches pages and converts locally. Works for most public websites.

Server

With API key. Set WEB2MD_API_KEY to unlock Reddit, Fandom/Wikia, and other restricted sites that require server-side handling.

Bridge

With --bridge flag. Uses your Chrome extension to fetch JS-rendered or login-protected pages that static fetching cannot reach.

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Flags

FlagDescription
--no-imagesStrip image references from output
--no-linksStrip hyperlinks from output
--metaAdd YAML frontmatter (title, source, wordCount, tokenCount, readingTime, date)
--jsonOutput as JSON { markdown, metadata }
-o, --output <file>Write output to a file
--output-dir <dir>Write each URL to a separate .md file
--batch <file>Read URLs from a file (one per line, # = comment)
--vault <dir>Obsidian vault mode: saves to <dir>/raw/ and updates <dir>/INDEX.md
--concurrency <n>Max parallel fetches (default: 3, max: 20)
--bridgeUse Chrome extension for JS-rendered or login-protected sites
-q, --quietSuppress progress messages

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Environment variables

VariableDescription
WEB2MD_API_KEYAPI key (w2m_xxx) for Reddit and restricted sites
WEB2MD_API_URLOverride the API base URL
WEB2MD_EXTENSION_IDOverride the Chrome extension ID for --bridge mode
Add these to your shell profile (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc) so they persist across sessions:
export WEB2MD_API_KEY="w2m_your_key_here"

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Usage examples

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Basic conversion

npx web2md https://example.com/article
Prints Markdown to stdout.

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Pipe to an LLM

npx web2md https://react.dev/learn/thinking-in-react | llm "Summarize this page"

npx web2md https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/classes.html | claude "Explain the key concepts"

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Save to file

npx web2md https://example.com/article -o article.md

npx web2md https://example.com/article --meta -o article.md
The --meta flag prepends YAML frontmatter with title, source URL, word count, token count, reading time, and date.

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Batch from file

Create a file urls.txt: 
# Research papers
https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00001
https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.00002

# Blog posts
https://example.com/blog/post-1
https://example.com/blog/post-2
Then run: 
npx web2md --batch urls.txt --output-dir ./research --concurrency 5
Each URL is saved as a separate .md file in the ./research directory.

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Obsidian vault ingestion

npx web2md --batch urls.txt --vault ~/Documents/MyVault
This saves each page to ~/Documents/MyVault/raw/ and updates ~/Documents/MyVault/INDEX.md with links to all converted pages.

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Reddit with API key

export WEB2MD_API_KEY="w2m_your_key_here"
npx web2md https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/comments/example
Reddit requires a valid API key. Without one, Reddit URLs will fail due to Reddit’s bot restrictions.

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Bridge mode

Use the Chrome extension to handle JS-rendered or login-protected pages: 
npx web2md --bridge https://app.example.com/dashboard
Bridge mode requires the Web2MD Chrome extension to be installed and Chrome to be running. The CLI communicates with the extension via Chrome’s native messaging protocol.

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JSON output

npx web2md --json https://example.com/article
Returns structured output: 
{
  "markdown": "# Article Title\n\nContent here...",
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Article Title",
    "source": "https://example.com/article",
    "wordCount": 1250,
    "tokenCount": 1680,
    "readingTime": 5,
    "date": "2026-04-11T10:30:00.000Z"
  }
}
Useful for programmatic consumption or piping to jq: 
npx web2md --json https://example.com/article | jq '.metadata.tokenCount'

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Optimized sites

Web2MD includes built-in adapters for these sites, producing cleaner output than generic conversion:
  • Wikipedia — clean article extraction, infobox handling
  • arXiv — paper abstracts and metadata
  • Hacker News — threads with comments
  • GitHub — Issues and Pull Requests
  • Stack Overflow — questions and answers
  • dev.to — blog posts
  • Medium — articles (bypasses paywall preview)
  • Substack — newsletter posts
  • OpenAI Docs — documentation pages
  • Mintlify-based docs — documentation sites built on Mintlify
  • Reddit — posts and comments (requires API key)

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Common workflows

npx web2md --batch docs-urls.txt --output-dir ./context --quiet
Point your AI agent’s context directory at ./context for grounded answers.
npx web2md --batch papers.txt --vault ~/Obsidian/Research --meta --concurrency 10
Creates an indexed, searchable research vault in Obsidian.
npx web2md --no-images --no-links https://example.com/article | llm "Analyze this"
Removes images and links to reduce token usage when piping to LLMs.