Ink Reader

Intelligently read any URL content. Auto-detect platform, pick the best fetch strategy, output clean Markdown.

When to Activate

Activate this skill when the user:

• Shares a URL and asks to read / fetch / view / grab its content

• Says "read this link", "what does this say", "fetch this article"

• Uses /ink-reader <url>

Fetch Strategy Overview

Three-layer fallback, zero configuration required:

Layer 1: Jina Reader → Free, no API key, covers most public content Layer 2: WebFetch → Claude Code built-in, direct URL reading Layer 3: Playwright MCP → Browser automation, handles login-required sites

Platform Detection

Match the URL domain to determine platform and strategy routing:

Platform Domain Contains Needs Login Strategy Order

WeChat mp.weixin.qq.com

Yes Jina → Playwright

Zhihu zhihu.com

No Jina → WebFetch

Bilibili bilibili.com , b23.tv

No Jina → WebFetch

Toutiao toutiao.com

No Jina → WebFetch

Weibo weibo.com , m.weibo.cn

Yes Jina → Playwright

Xiaohongshu xiaohongshu.com

Yes Jina → Playwright

Douyin douyin.com

No Jina → WebFetch

X/Twitter x.com , twitter.com

Partial See X/Twitter Flow

Generic anything else No Jina → WebFetch

Routing Rules

• No login required: Jina → WebFetch → Playwright MCP (if available)

• Login required (WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu): Jina → Playwright MCP (skip WebFetch, it won't help)

• X/Twitter: Dedicated flow below

Execution Steps

Step 1: Identify Platform

Parse the URL domain and match against the platform table above.

Step 2: Fetch Content

For normal platforms (no login needed)

Try Jina Reader:

• Use WebFetch with URL: https://r.jina.ai/{original_url}

• Prompt: "Extract the article title, author, publish time, and full body content. Return as-is in Markdown."

• If result is meaningful (> 100 chars, no verification page), use it.

Try WebFetch direct:

• Use WebFetch with the original URL directly.

• Prompt: "Extract the article title, author, publish time, and full body content."

• If result is meaningful, use it.

Try Playwright MCP (if available):

• Navigate to the original URL.

• Wait for content to load.

• Take a snapshot and extract content.

• If Playwright MCP is not available, skip this step.

For login-required platforms (WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu)

Try Jina Reader (same as above, sometimes works even for login-required sites).

Try Playwright MCP (if available):

• Navigate to the original URL.

• If a verification/login page is detected, inform the user.

• If Playwright MCP is not available, inform the user:

"This platform requires login. Install Playwright MCP to enable browser-based reading."

For X/Twitter

Extract status ID from URL:

• Pattern: x.com/{user}/status/{id} or twitter.com/{user}/status/{id}

• Strip query parameters.

Try Thread Reader App via Jina:

• Use WebFetch with URL: https://r.jina.ai/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/{status_id}.html

• Prompt: "Extract the full thread content including all tweets. Return in Markdown."

• If result is meaningful (> 100 chars, contains actual thread content), output as thread.

Try Jina on original X URL:

• Use WebFetch with URL: https://r.jina.ai/{original_url}

• Prompt: "Extract the tweet content, author, and timestamp."

• If result is meaningful, output as single post.

Try Playwright MCP (if available):

• Navigate to https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/{status_id}.html

• Extract content from the page.

Step 3: Validate Content

Content is valid when ALL of these are true:

• Length > 100 characters after trimming

• Does NOT contain these verification markers: "环境异常", "完成验证", "请完成验证", "access denied", "please verify", "subscribe to continue", "sign in to read", "create a free account"

• Is NOT a login wall or CAPTCHA page

If content fails validation, treat it as a failure and try the next strategy.

Step 4: Output

Use the output format specified below.

Output Format

Success

{Title}

Source: {Platform Name} Author: {Author name, omit if unavailable} Published: {Time, omit if unavailable} URL: {Original URL} Strategy: {Jina Reader / WebFetch / Playwright MCP}

{Body content in Markdown}

Rules:

• Only include Author and Published lines if the information is actually available.

• Do NOT fabricate metadata. If it's not in the fetched content, omit it.

• Keep images as remote URLs. Do NOT attempt to download images.

• Clean up excessive whitespace, navigation elements, ads, and cookie banners from the content.

Failure

Failed to read URL

URL: {url} Platform: {detected platform} Attempted strategies:

• {strategy 1}: {error reason}
• {strategy 2}: {error reason}

Suggestions:

• {contextual suggestions}

Contextual suggestions by scenario:

• Login-required platform + no Playwright → "Install Playwright MCP to enable browser-based reading for this platform."

• WeChat verification → "WeChat has strict anti-scraping. Try opening the link in a browser and copying the content manually."

• All strategies returned empty → "The page may require JavaScript rendering. Try using Playwright MCP."

• X/Twitter thread failed → "Try opening https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/{id}.html in your browser."

Save Mode

When the user says "save", "save it", "keep this", or "save to file" AFTER a successful read:

• Create directory ./ink-reader-clips/ in current working directory (if not exists).

• Write file: ./ink-reader-clips/{YYYY-MM-DD}_{sanitized_title}.md

• File content:

title: "{Title}" source: "{Platform Name}" url: "{Original URL}" saved_at: "{YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS}"

{Body content}

• Sanitize title for filename: remove <>:"/|?* , replace whitespace with - , truncate to 50 chars.

• Report: "Saved to ./ink-reader-clips/{filename} "

Do NOT auto-save. Only save when explicitly asked.

Important Notes

• No Python scripts: Everything is done through Claude Code's built-in tools.

• No API keys needed: Jina Reader is free and keyless.

• Playwright MCP is optional: The skill works without it, just with reduced capability for login-required platforms.

• Images stay remote: Never download images. Keep original URLs in the Markdown output.

• Respect content: Output the content faithfully. Do not summarize or modify unless the user explicitly asks.