| name | parallel-web-extract |
| description | 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. |
| user-invocable | true |
| argument-hint | <url> [url2] [url3] |
| context | fork |
| agent | parallel:parallel-subagent |
| compatibility | Requires parallel-cli and internet access. |
| allowed-tools | Bash(parallel-cli:*) |
| metadata | {"author":"parallel"} |
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/$FILENAME.json"
Concrete example:
parallel-cli extract "https://docs.parallel.ai" --json -o "/tmp/parallel-docs.json"
Note: -o always saves JSON. The extension must be .json.
Options if needed:
--objective "focus area" to focus extraction on a specific goal (also silences the "neither objective nor search_queries" warning that V1 emits when neither is set)-q "keyword" (repeatable) to prioritize keywords in excerpts--full-content to include the complete page body (for long articles, PDFs, or when excerpts may not capture what you need)--full-content-max-chars N to cap full-content size per result--no-excerpts to strip excerpts when you only want full content
Handling failed extractions
If the response has an errors field, an empty results array, or a 404/timeout for the URL, do NOT fabricate content. Tell the user the extraction failed, surface the upstream status, and suggest:
- Verifying the URL (the page may have moved)
- Retrying with
--full-content if excerpts came back empty but the page exists
- Using
parallel-cli search to locate the current URL if the page was renamed
Response format
Return content as:
Page Title
Then the extracted content verbatim, with these rules:
- Keep content verbatim - do not paraphrase or summarize
- Parse lists exhaustively - extract EVERY numbered/bulleted item
- Strip only obvious noise: nav menus, footers, ads
- Preserve all facts, names, numbers, dates, quotes
After the response, mention the output file path (/tmp/$FILENAME.json) so the user knows it's available for follow-up questions.
Setup
If parallel-cli is not found, install and authenticate:
/parallel:parallel-cli-setup
If parallel-cli extract returns 403, tell the user balance is likely required. Offer to run parallel-cli balance get, and if needed ask for explicit confirmation before running parallel-cli balance add <amount_cents>. Then retry the original extract command.
