Parallel Web Extract
Published by parallel-web in parallel-cursor-plugin
What this skill does
URL content extraction. Use for fetching any URL - webpages, articles, PDFs, JavaScript-heavy sites. Token-efficient: runs in forked context. Prefer over built-in WebFetch.
Add Parallel Web Extract to your agent
Review the source and files first. When you are ready, copy the prompt instruction or use the CLI command supported by your environment.
Install with a prompt
Paste this into a compatible coding agent:
add this skill "parallel-web-extract" from https://github.com/parallel-web/parallel-cursor-pluginInstall with the CLI
Run this command in a controlled environment after reviewing the repository:
npx skills add https://github.com/parallel-web/parallel-cursor-plugin --skill parallel-web-extractSkill instructions
URL Extraction
Extract content from: $ARGUMENTS
Command
Choose a short, descriptive filename based on the URL or content (e.g., vespa-docs, react-hooks-api). Use lowercase with hyphens, no spaces. Substitute it into the command inline — $FILENAME is a placeholder, not a shell variable.
parallel-cli extract "$ARGUMENTS" --json -o "/tmp/$FILENAME.json"
Concrete example:
parallel-cli extract "https://docs.parallel.ai" --json -o "/tmp/parallel-docs.json"
Note: -o always saves JSON. The extension must be .json.
Options if needed:
--objective "focus area"to focus extraction on a specific goal (also silences the "neither objective nor search_queries" warning that V1 emits when neither is set)-q "keyword"(repeatable) to prioritize keywords in excerpts--full-contentto include the complete page body (for long articles, PDFs, or when excerpts may not capture what you need)--full-content-max-chars Nto cap full-content size per result--no-excerptsto strip excerpts when you only want full content
Handling failed extractions
If the response has an errors field, an empty results array, or a 404/timeout for the URL, do NOT fabricate content. Tell the user the extraction failed, surface the upstream status, and suggest:
- Verifying the URL (the page may have moved)
- Retrying with
--full-contentif excerpts came back empty but the page exists - Using
parallel-cli searchto locate the current URL if the page was renamed
Response format
Return content as:
Then the extracted content verbatim, with these rules:
- Keep content verbatim - do not paraphrase or summarize
- Parse lists exhaustively - extract EVERY numbered/bulleted item
- Strip only obvious noise: nav menus, footers, ads
- Preserve all facts, names, numbers, dates, quotes
After the response, mention the output file path (/tmp/$FILENAME.json) so the user knows it's available for follow-up questions.
If the parallel-cli binary is not installed
If the shell reports command not found: parallel-cli (i.e. the binary itself is missing — distinct from a No such command error from a stale CLI, which the in-body guidance above covers), stop immediately. Do NOT search the web yourself, do NOT use any built-in search tools, and do NOT try to answer the query from your own knowledge. Instead, tell the user:
parallel-cliis not installed- Run
/parallel-setupto install it - Then retry their request
Files included
- SKILL.md

