mCurl

curl but in markdown - fetches content from URLs and converts to markdown.

By default, mCurl returns the body/article/content of any URL that's HTML and converts it to valid Markdown. If the response is in JSON, it also converts it to Markdown in a readable format.

Features

• Converts HTML to Markdown, extracting main content by default
• Converts JSON to Markdown in a structured, readable format
• Pluggable handlers for different content types (extensible architecture)
• Selector support for extracting specific parts of HTML
• Global config file support (~/.udx/mcurl.yml) for domain-specific settings
• Options to include site's menu/header/footer
• Designed for AI tool integration and chaining with SERP API responses
• Customizable headers, user agents, and authentication

Installation

# Install globally
npm install -g @udx/mcurl
# After installation, the command is available as 'mcurl'

After installation, you can use the command mcurl directly.

Usage

# Basic usage - fetch a URL and convert to markdown
mcurl https://udx.io

# Extract specific content using CSS selector
mcurl --selector "article.main-content" https://udx.io/about

# Include header and footer
mcurl --include header,footer https://udx.io

# Use custom headers
mcurl --header "Authorization: Bearer token" https://api.example.com

# Save output to file
mcurl --output result.md https://udx.io

# Use custom user agent
mcurl --user-agent "MyBot/1.0" https://udx.io

# Verbose output
mcurl --verbose https://udx.io

# Use like curl with JSON response converted to markdown
mcurl -X POST "https://api.example.com/endpoint" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"query": "example"}'

# WARNING: Never use internal development ports (like localhost:3456) in production or share them externally
# Always use public API endpoints for production use

# Example with Elasticsearch-like query (for development environments)
mcurl -X POST "http://localhost:3456/harvest-v1/_search" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "size": 0,
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": [
        {"range": {"date": {"gte": "2024-01-01", "lte": "2024-12-31"}}}
      ]
    }
  },
  "aggs": {
    "by_billable": {
      "terms": {
        "field": "billable"
      },
      "aggs": {
        "hours_sum": {"sum": {"field": "hours"}},
        "cost_estimate": {"sum": {"script": {"source": "doc[\"hours\"].value * 85"}}},
        "revenue": {"sum": {"field": "billableAmount"}}
      }
    }
  }
}'

# Complex Elasticsearch-like queries (for production)
mcurl -X POST "https://api.example.com/search" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "size": 0,
  "query": {
    "bool": {
      "must": [
        {"range": {"date": {"gte": "2024-01-01", "lte": "2024-12-31"}}}
      ]
    }
  },
  "aggs": {
    "by_billable": {
      "terms": {
        "field": "billable"
      },
      "aggs": {
        "hours_sum": {"sum": {"field": "hours"}},
        "cost_estimate": {"sum": {"script": {"source": "doc[\"hours\"].value * 85"}}},
        "revenue": {"sum": {"field": "billableAmount"}}
      }
    }
  }
}'

Configuration File

mCurl supports a global configuration file at ~/.udx/mcurl.yml that allows you to specify default options and domain-specific settings:

# Global defaults
user-agent: "mCurl/1.0"
timeout: 30000
format: markdown

# Domain-specific settings
domains:
  "udx.io":
    headers:
      - "Cookie: session=abc123"
    selector: "main.content"
  
  "api.example.com":
    headers:
      - "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN"
    user-agent: "CustomBot/2.0"

Examples

HTML Example

# Fetch and convert HTML to markdown
mcurl https://udx.io

Output:

# UDX - Digital Experience Agency

We build digital experiences that transform businesses and drive growth.

## Our Services

- Web Development
- Digital Marketing
- UX Design
- Cloud Solutions

JSON Example

# Fetch and convert JSON to markdown
mcurl https://udx.io/wp-json/udx/v2/works/search?query=&page=0

Output:

# JSON Response

## results

| id | title | excerpt | ... |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 123 | Project A | This is project A | ... |
| 456 | Project B | This is project B | ... |
...

## pagination

```json
{
  "currentPage": 0,
  "totalPages": 5,
  "totalItems": 48
}

## Web Search Integration

mCurl integrates with [SearchAPI](https://searchapi.io) for web research directly from the command line. Requires the `SEARCH_API_KEY` environment variable. If the key is not set, search features return empty results with a stderr warning.

### Search Mode

```bash
# Basic web search - returns titles, URLs, and snippets
mcurl --search "federal government website redesign"

# Deep search - fetches and converts each result page to markdown
mcurl --search "enterprise WordPress architecture" --deep

# Limit results and max characters per page
mcurl --search "Drupal vs WordPress government" --limit 5 --max-chars 2000

# Restrict search to a specific domain
mcurl --search "contract vehicles" --site coforma.io

# Filter by freshness: d(ay), w(eek), m(onth), y(ear)
mcurl --search "federal website award 2024" --freshness y

Domain Mapping

Map a domain's indexed pages (uses Google's site: operator):

# List top pages indexed by Google for a domain
mcurl --map example.com

# Get more results
mcurl --map example.com --limit 15

# Deep mode fetches each indexed page
mcurl --map example.com --deep --max-chars 1000

Search Options

| Option | Description | |--------|-------------| | --search <query> | Perform a web search and return results | | --map <domain> | List top indexed pages for a domain | | --deep | Fetch and convert each result page to markdown | | --limit <n> | Number of results to return (default: 20) | | --max-chars <n> | Max characters per fetched page in deep mode (default: 5000) | | --site <domain> | Restrict search to a specific domain | | --freshness <period> | Filter by recency: d, w, m, or y |

Piping Search Results to mq

Combine mcurl --search with @udx/mq for powerful analysis of search results:

# Analyze search results structure
mcurl --search "cloud infrastructure" --limit 3 | mq --analyze

# Extract headings from search results
mcurl --search "cloud infrastructure" --limit 3 | mq '.headings[]'

# Get document structure of search results
mcurl --search "udx cloud" --site udx.io --limit 3 | mq --structure

# Clean narrative content from search results (strip code blocks)
mcurl --search "udx devops" --site udx.io --limit 3 | mq --clean-content

# Deep search + word count via mq
mcurl --search "WordPress hosting" --limit 3 --deep --max-chars 500 | mq --count

# Map a domain then analyze its page structure
mcurl --map udx.io --limit 5 | mq --analyze

Integration with AI Tools

mCurl is designed to be easily integrated with AI tools and command-line workflows:

# Fetch content and pipe to other tools
mcurl https://udx.io | head -20

# Chain with jq for JSON processing
mcurl https://api.github.com/repos/torvalds/linux --format json | jq '.stargazers_count'

License

MIT