webmd

Convert web pages to agent-friendly markdown using headless Chrome.

Fetches URLs with a real browser (renders JavaScript), then extracts clean markdown. Two modes:

• Full page (default) — converts the entire page
• Article — extracts main article content via readability

Install

go install github.com/boozedog/webmd@latest

From a local clone:

go install .

Or with Docker:

docker pull ghcr.io/boozedog/webmd

Usage

# Full page conversion (default)
webmd https://example.com

# Extract main article content via readability
webmd --article https://example.com

# Write to file
webmd -o article.md https://example.com

# Custom timeout and extra wait for JS-heavy sites
webmd --timeout 60s --wait 3s https://example.com

# Use system Chrome only (no auto-download)
webmd --no-download https://example.com

# Specify Chrome binary path
webmd --browser-path /usr/bin/chromium https://example.com

Flags

Flag	Default	Description
--article	false	Extract main article content via readability
--mobile	false	Emulate a mobile device (iPhone viewport and user-agent)
--images	false	Include images in markdown output
--browser-path		Path to Chrome/Chromium binary
--no-download	false	Disable auto-download of Chromium
--timeout	15s	Page load timeout
--wait	0s	Extra wait after page load for JS-heavy sites
--user-agent		Custom User-Agent string
-o, --output		Write to file instead of stdout

Server Mode

Run webmd serve to start an HTTP server with a persistent browser instance:

webmd serve                    # listen on 0.0.0.0:8080
webmd serve --port 9090        # custom port
webmd serve --host 127.0.0.1   # bind to localhost only

Convert pages via GET request:

GET /?url=https://example.com
GET /?url=https://example.com&article
GET /?url=https://example.com&preview
GET /?url=https://example.com&timeout=30s&wait=2s&user-agent=MyBot

Returns plain text markdown by default, or rendered HTML with &preview. Query parameters:

Parameter	Default	Description
url	(required)	URL to convert
article	false	Extract main article content via readability
mobile	false	Emulate a mobile device (iPhone viewport and user-agent)
images	false	Include images in markdown output
preview	false	Return rendered HTML instead of markdown
timeout	15s	Page load timeout
wait	0s	Extra wait after page load
user-agent		Custom User-Agent string

Docker

docker build -t webmd .

# Server mode (default)
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 webmd

# One-shot CLI
docker run --rm webmd https://example.com

The Docker image uses chromedp/headless-shell so no external Chrome is needed.

Browser Resolution

webmd finds Chrome/Chromium in this order:

1. --browser-path flag
2. WEBMD_BROWSER_PATH environment variable
3. System Chrome (auto-detected)
4. Auto-download via rod (unless --no-download)

Building from Source

make build    # → bin/webmd
make test
make lint
make clean