cp-skill-snapshot-web— agent skill

EXECUTE NOW

Target: $ARGUMENTS

If no URL provided, ask the user for one.

If URL provided, start Step 1 immediately.

START NOW.

Step 1: Check for Duplicates

Use Grep to search for the URL in existing .md files in kb/sources/. If found, tell the user and stop:

Already snapshotted: kb/sources/{filename}

Step 2: Route by URL Type

Detect the URL type and branch:

• GitHub issue/PR (github.com/.../issues/N or github.com/.../pull/N) → Step 2a
• X/Twitter (x.com/.../status/... or twitter.com/.../status/...) → Step 2b
• PDF (URL ends in .pdf, or arxiv.org/pdf/) → Step 2c
• Everything else → Step 2d

Step 2a: GitHub Issue/PR

Run:

commonplace-github-snapshot "{url}"

Parse the "Snapshot saved:" line from the output to get the file path. Tell the user and stop — the script handles metadata, formatting, and saving.

Step 2b: X/Twitter Post

Run:

commonplace-x-snapshot "{url}"

Parse the "Snapshot saved:" line from the output to get the file path. Tell the user and stop — the script handles metadata, formatting, and saving.

Step 2c: Fetch PDF

Download the PDF to a temporary file:

curl -sL -o /tmp/snapshot_download.pdf "{url}"

Then use the Read tool to read the PDF:

• For short papers (< 20 pages): Read(file_path="/tmp/snapshot_download.pdf")
• For longer papers: read in chunks using the pages parameter (max 20 pages per request), e.g. pages: "1-20", then pages: "21-40", etc.

Set capture_method to pdf-read and go to Step 4.

Step 2d: Fetch Web Page

Use WebFetch with this prompt:

Extract the main article/post content from this page as clean markdown. Return ONLY the content — no navigation, sidebars, ads, cookie banners, or boilerplate. Preserve: headings, block quotes, code blocks, links, lists, emphasis. For blog posts: include the author name, publication date, and tags if visible. If the page has no extractable content (login wall, JS-only, error page), say "NO_CONTENT:" followed by a brief reason.

Set capture_method to web-fetch and go to Step 4.

Step 3: Handle Failures

If any fetch method fails (WebFetch NO_CONTENT, curl error, script error):

• Tell the user what happened
• Suggest they paste the content manually: "You can paste the text and I'll save it as a snapshot"
• Stop

Step 4: Determine Metadata

(Only for PDF and web page paths — GitHub and X scripts handle their own metadata.)

From the fetched content and URL, determine:

• title: The article/post title. Use the first H1 if present, otherwise derive from content.
• author: If identifiable from the content or URL (e.g. simonwillison.net → Simon Willison)
• family tag: the content-family tag per the snapshot type spec (kb/sources/types/snapshot.md), e.g. blog-post, academic-paper. Prefer a tag already in use in kb/sources/ over inventing a near-synonym; default to web-page when nothing more specific fits.
• description: One sentence describing what makes this source worth retrieving. Not a summary — a retrieval filter (e.g. "Anthropic CEO's capability-timeline predictions — verifiable domains get confident timelines, unverifiable ones get hedged"). Focus on what distinguishes this source from others on the same topic.
• slug: Lowercase, hyphenated, max 70 chars. Derived from title. Example: simon-willison-karpathy-claws

For academic papers: prefer the paper title over any page title, and extract authors from the author list.

Step 5: Write the Snapshot

Save to kb/sources/{slug}.md with this format:

---
source: {url}
description: {description}
captured: {YYYY-MM-DD}
capture: {capture_method}
type: kb/sources/types/snapshot.md
tags: [{family-tag}]
---

# {title}

Author: {author}
Source: {url}
Date: {publication date if known}

{extracted content}

For PDFs: convert the read content to clean markdown. Preserve section structure, tables, and lists. Drop page numbers, headers/footers, and layout artifacts.

Also tell the user where it was saved and show a 1-2 line preview.

Critical Constraints

Never:

• Fabricate or hallucinate content not on the page
• Add analysis or commentary — this is capture, not ingestion
• Modify the extracted content beyond cleaning HTML/PDF artifacts
• Save to any directory other than kb/sources/
• Install software — if a required tool is missing, bail with an error telling the user what to install

Always:

• Preserve the author's structure (headings, quotes, lists)
• Include the source URL in frontmatter
• Use today's date for captured
• Check for duplicates before fetching
• Clean up temporary PDF files after reading