Article to Markdown

Convert external article URLs into structured Markdown notes and save them to the Obsidian vault.

Workflow

Step 1: Fetch and Detect Environment

1a. Detect vault root — follow ../../_shared/common-steps.md "Vault Detection" section.

1b. Fetch article content:

Use mcp__firecrawl__firecrawl_scrape to scrape the URL. This covers most pages including JS-rendered content.

If firecrawl fails, ask the user to paste the article content directly. Do not attempt other fallback tools.

Special cases:

• Tweet threads: use mcp__firecrawl__firecrawl_scrape, reconstruct thread order
• Paywalled content: ask the user to paste content directly

Step 2: Restructure and Link

2a. Understand and restructure — do NOT simply copy the raw text:

1. Identify the article's core thesis, key arguments, and supporting details
2. Determine author, publication date, and source platform
3. Restructure the content into logical sections with clear headings
4. Generate 3-8 relevant tags and a 1-3 sentence summary

2b. Search for bidirectional links — follow the Bidirectional Link Search in ../../_shared/common-steps.md.

2c. Format as Obsidian Markdown — follow the template in references/article-template.md exactly:

• YAML frontmatter with title, date, tags, summary, source
• Blockquote metadata line with original link, author, date
• Sections: Background → content → Key Conclusions → Further Thoughts
• Include [[wikilink]] connections from Step 2b
• Code blocks with language identifiers

2d. (Optional) Mermaid architecture diagram — if the article has a clear multi-layered architecture or flow worth visualizing, embed a Mermaid diagram after the blockquote metadata and before ## Background. Skip for simple or short articles. Use:

• graph TD / graph LR for flows
• subgraph for logical grouping
• Concise node labels (keywords, not sentences)
• 3-5 layers, 2-5 nodes per layer

Step 3: Save and Confirm

3a. Determine target directory — follow the Directory Mapping Rules in ../../_shared/common-steps.md. For external URL sources, match against the configured categories; if no rule matches, use the configured default directory.

3b. Save — follow the Save and Open in Obsidian section in ../../_shared/common-steps.md.

3c. Update index.md — follow the Index Update section in ../../_shared/common-steps.md. Use the article's title, summary (condensed to under 80 chars), and top 2 tags.

3d. Report to user:

• Article title and brief summary
• File path where it was saved
• Tag list for review
• Related notes linked (list the [[wikilink]] connections made)