CLI Reference¶

Webdown offers a straightforward command-line interface for converting web pages to Markdown or Claude XML format.

Basic Usage¶

Single Page Conversion¶

webdown -u URL [options]
webdown -f FILE [options]

Convert a single web page or local HTML file to Markdown.

Multi-Page Crawling¶

webdown crawl URL [options]

Crawl multiple pages from a website and convert them all.

Complete Options Reference¶

Input/Output Options¶

Option	Description
`-o FILE, --output FILE`	Write Markdown output to FILE instead of stdout
`-p, --progress`	Display a progress bar during download (useful for large pages)

Content Selection¶

Option	Description
`-s SELECTOR, --css SELECTOR`	Extract content matching CSS selector (e.g., 'main', '.content')
`-L, --no-links`	Convert hyperlinks to plain text (remove all link markup)
`-I, --no-images`	Exclude images from the output completely

Formatting Options¶

Option	Description
`-t, --toc`	Generate a table of contents based on headings in the document
`-c, --compact`	Remove excessive blank lines for more compact output
`-w N, --width N`	Set line width (0 disables wrapping, 80 recommended for readability)

Claude XML Options¶

Option	Description
`--claude-xml`	Output in Claude XML format instead of Markdown
`--metadata`	Include metadata section in XML (default)
`--no-metadata`	Exclude metadata section from XML

Meta Options¶

Option	Description
`-V, --version`	Show version information and exit
`-h, --help`	Show help message and exit

Examples with Explanations¶

Basic Conversion¶

webdown https://example.com

Converts the web page at example.com to Markdown and outputs to the terminal.

Save to File¶

webdown https://example.com -o example.md

Converts the web page and saves the output to example.md.

Generate Table of Contents¶

webdown https://example.com -t

Adds a table of contents based on the headings found in the document.

Extract Main Content¶

webdown https://example.com -s "main"

Extracts only the content inside the <main> tag, ignoring headers, footers, sidebars, etc.

Plain Text (No Links or Images)¶

webdown https://example.com -L -I

Creates a plain text version by removing hyperlinks and images.

Compact Output with Custom Width¶

webdown https://example.com -c -w 80

Removes excessive blank lines and wraps text at 80 characters.

Show Progress for Large Pages¶

webdown https://example.com -p

Displays a progress bar during download, useful for large pages.

Claude XML Format¶

webdown https://example.com --claude-xml -o output.xml

Outputs the page content in Claude XML format, optimized for use with Anthropic's Claude AI.

Complete Example with Multiple Options¶

webdown https://example.com -s "main" -t -c -w 80 -p -o example.md

This example: - Extracts content from the <main> tag - Generates a table of contents - Removes excessive blank lines - Wraps text at 80 characters - Shows a progress bar during download - Saves output to example.md

CLI Cheat Sheet¶

Task	Command
Basic conversion	`webdown -u https://example.com`
Save to file	`webdown -u https://example.com -o file.md`
Add table of contents	`webdown -u https://example.com -t`
Extract main content	`webdown -u https://example.com -s "main"`
Plain text version	`webdown -u https://example.com -L -I`
Compact output	`webdown -u https://example.com -c`
Set text width	`webdown -u https://example.com -w 80`
Show progress	`webdown -u https://example.com -p`
Claude XML format	`webdown -u https://example.com --claude-xml`
Crawl site	`webdown crawl https://docs.example.com/ -o ./output/`
Crawl from sitemap	`webdown crawl --sitemap https://example.com/sitemap.xml -o ./output/`

Crawl Command Reference¶

The crawl subcommand converts multiple pages from a website.

Crawl Options¶

Option	Description
`-o DIR, --output DIR`	Output directory for converted files (required)
`--sitemap URL`	Parse sitemap.xml instead of crawling links
`--max-depth N`	Maximum crawl depth from seed URLs (default: 3)
`--delay SECONDS`	Delay between requests in seconds (default: 1.0)
`--same-domain`	Allow crawling any path on the same domain
`--path-prefix PREFIX`	Only crawl URLs starting with this path prefix
`--max-pages N`	Maximum number of pages to crawl (0 for unlimited)
`-q, --quiet`	Suppress progress output

All content selection and formatting options (-s, -L, -I, -t, -c, -w, --claude-xml) also work with the crawl command.

Crawl Examples¶

Crawl a documentation site:

webdown crawl https://docs.example.com/ -o ./output/

Crawl with depth and delay settings:

webdown crawl https://docs.example.com/ -o ./output/ --max-depth 5 --delay 2.0

Crawl from a sitemap:

webdown crawl --sitemap https://docs.example.com/sitemap.xml -o ./output/

Crawl with content extraction and Claude XML output:

webdown crawl https://docs.example.com/ -o ./output/ -s "main" --claude-xml

Crawl only a specific path prefix:

webdown crawl https://docs.example.com/api/ -o ./output/ --path-prefix /api/