snapdf

Convert JavaScript-rendered web pages to PDF or plain text. Built for sites with virtual scrolling (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) where the browser's native print fails because content isn't all in the DOM at once.

Instead of screenshotting, snapdf scrolls through the page collecting DOM nodes as virtual scroll renders them, reassembles them into a static document, and prints it with Chrome's native PDF engine — giving you a real text-based, searchable PDF.

Installation

npm install -g snapdf

CLI

snapdf <url> [output]

Options

| Flag | Description | |------|-------------| | -t, --txt | Save as plain text file instead of PDF | | -p, --page-size | letter or a4 (default: letter) | | -m, --margin | Margin in points, 72pt = 1in (default: 36) | | -l, --landscape | Landscape orientation | | -T, --timeout | Page load timeout in milliseconds (default: 60000) | | -s, --selector | CSS selector for message elements (auto-detected for ChatGPT and Claude) | | -H, --hide-user-input | Omit user messages from the output | | -A, --hide-assistant-output | Omit assistant messages from the output |

Examples

# Save a ChatGPT shared conversation to PDF
snapdf https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123

# Save a Claude shared conversation to PDF
snapdf https://claude.ai/share/abc123

# Custom output path
snapdf https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123 conversation.pdf

# Plain text
snapdf https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123 -t

# A4, 0.5in margins, landscape
snapdf https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123 -p a4 -m 36 -l

# Custom selector for other sites
snapdf https://example.com/thread -s "article.message"

# Longer timeout for slow pages
snapdf https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123 -T 120000

If no output path is given, the filename is derived from the page title (e.g. crumby-app-discussion.pdf). If a name is given without an extension, the correct one is added automatically (conversation → conversation.pdf). Existing files are never overwritten — snapdf increments the filename (output-1.pdf, output-2.pdf, etc.).

Programmatic API

npm install snapdf

import { fetchPdf, fetchTxt, type FetchResult } from 'snapdf'

fetchPdf(url, options?): Promise<FetchResult>

Returns { buffer: Buffer, title: string }.

const { buffer, title } = await fetchPdf('https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123', {
  pageSize: 'letter',   // 'letter' | 'a4'
  margin: 36,           // points, 72pt = 1in
  landscape: false,
  timeout: 60000,       // ms
  selector: '[data-message-author-role]',
  cookies: [{ name: 'session', value: '...', domain: 'chatgpt.com' }],
  executablePath: '/path/to/chrome',
  args: ['--no-sandbox'],
  onProgress: (msg) => console.log(msg),
})

await fs.writeFile(`${title}.pdf`, buffer)

fetchTxt(url, options?): Promise<string>

const text = await fetchTxt('https://chatgpt.com/share/abc123', {
  timeout: 60000,
  selector: '[data-message-author-role]',
  cookies: [...],
  executablePath: '/path/to/chrome',
  args: ['--no-sandbox'],
  onProgress: (msg) => console.log(msg),
})

Types

interface FetchOptions {
  pageSize?: 'letter' | 'a4'        // PDF only
  margin?: number                    // PDF only, points
  landscape?: boolean                // PDF only
  timeout?: number                   // ms, applies to page load
  selector?: string                  // CSS selector for content nodes
  cookies?: CookieParam[]            // Puppeteer cookie objects
  executablePath?: string            // Path to Chrome binary
  args?: string[]                    // Puppeteer launch args (e.g. ['--no-sandbox'])
  onProgress?: (msg: string) => void // Progress callback
  hideUserInput?: boolean            // Omit user messages from output
  hideAssistantOutput?: boolean      // Omit assistant messages from output
}

interface FetchResult {
  buffer: Buffer  // PDF bytes
  title: string   // Page title, sanitized for use as a filename
}

Express example

import express from 'express'
import { fetchPdf } from 'snapdf'

const app = express()

app.get('/pdf', async (req, res) => {
  const { url } = req.query
  const { buffer } = await fetchPdf(String(url))
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'application/pdf')
  res.send(buffer)
})

Cookies / Private pages

Pass session cookies to access pages behind a login:

const { buffer } = await fetchPdf('https://chatgpt.com/c/private-thread', {
  cookies: [
    { name: '__Secure-next-auth.session-token', value: '...', domain: 'chatgpt.com' }
  ]
})

Serverless / Custom Chrome

Puppeteer bundles its own Chrome, which works on standard servers and locally. For serverless environments (Lambda, Vercel, etc.) use @sparticuz/chromium and pass its executable path:

import chromium from '@sparticuz/chromium'
import { fetchPdf } from 'snapdf'

const { buffer } = await fetchPdf(url, {
  executablePath: await chromium.executablePath(),
  args: chromium.args,
})

Other sites

ChatGPT and Claude share URLs are auto-detected — no selector needed. For other sites, pass a CSS selector that matches the repeating content nodes you want captured:

// Generic blog/article
await fetchPdf(url, { selector: 'article' })

// Any custom format
await fetchPdf(url, { selector: '.message-bubble' })