parallel-web-extract

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.