Article Clip

Local content archiver for Twitter/X, Zhihu, and WeChat Official Accounts. Save web articles as Markdown with images.

Features

• Multi-platform support: Twitter/X, Zhihu, WeChat Official Accounts
• Smart deduplication: Skip already archived content automatically
• Batch processing: Process multiple URLs at once
• Asset downloading: Automatically download images
• Persistent sessions: Save login state across runs
• Browser flexibility: Support for Chrome and Edge

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or higher
• Chrome or Edge browser (for rendering pages)

Installation

npm install -g article-clip

Quick Start

# Archive a single URL
article-clip "https://x.com/user/status/123"

# Archive with custom output directory
article-clip "https://x.com/user/status/123" --out ~/my-clips

# Batch processing from file
article-clip --file urls.txt

Output Structure

clips/
├── .archived.json           # Deduplication database
└── twitter/
    └── 2026/
        └── 01/
            └── 24/
                └── slug-hash/
                    ├── content.md
                    └── assets/
                        ├── 001.jpg
                        └── 002.png

Commands

Archive Single URL

article-clip "url"

Batch Processing

article-clip --file urls.txt
article-clip --stdin  # Read URLs from stdin

Install Browsers (Optional Fallback)

article-clip install-browsers

Options

| Option | Description | Default | |--------|-------------|---------| | --out <dir> | Output directory | ./clips | | --format <format> | Output format (md or md+html) | md | | --browser <browser> | Browser to use (chrome, edge, auto) | auto | | --no-assets | Skip asset downloads | - | | --force | Force overwrite existing archives | - | | --verbose | Show detailed deduplication info | - | | --json | Output JSON to stdout | - | | --jsonl | Output JSONL stream (batch mode) | - | | --debug | Save debug artifacts | - |

Browser & Login

First Run

When you first run article-clip, it will:

1. Open a browser window
2. Navigate to the platform (Twitter/Zhihu)
3. Wait for you to log in
4. Save your session for future runs

Session Persistence

Login state is saved under the OS app data directory:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\\article-clip\\session-chrome / %LOCALAPPDATA%\\article-clip\\session-edge
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/article-clip/session-chrome / ~/Library/Application Support/article-clip/session-edge
• Linux: $XDG_DATA_HOME/article-clip/session-chrome / $XDG_DATA_HOME/article-clip/session-edge (fallback: ~/.local/share/article-clip/...)

Close the browser when prompted to save your session properly.

Browser Selection

# Auto-detect (Edge -> Chrome fallback)
article-clip "url"

# Force Chrome
article-clip "url" --browser chrome

# Force Edge
article-clip "url" --browser edge

Deduplication

Article Clip automatically skips already archived content:

# First run: archives the URL
article-clip "https://x.com/user/status/123"

# Second run: skips (already archived)
article-clip "https://x.com/user/status/123"
# Output: ⊘ Already archived: clips/twitter/2026/01/24/...

# Force re-archive
article-clip "https://x.com/user/status/123" --force

The .archived.json file in your output directory tracks all archived URLs.

Supported Platforms

| Platform | URL Pattern | Notes | |----------|-------------|-------| | Twitter/X | x.com/*, twitter.com/* | Requires login for full content | | Zhihu | zhihu.com/* | Answers and articles | | WeChat | mp.weixin.qq.com/* | Official Account articles |

Development

For development and contributing guidelines, see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT