gemini-fetch

Gemini Fetch

Fetch web content from URLs that Claude Code's WebFetch can't access, using Gemini CLI as a proxy.

How this skill is invoked

Manual (/gemini-fetch <url> [instruction]): URL comes from $0, optional instruction from $1.

Auto-trigger (WebFetch failure): The skill body is loaded as context. Extract the target URL from the conversation (the URL that WebFetch failed on) and any user instruction, then build the command yourself.

Manual usage examples

/gemini-fetch https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/hot
/gemini-fetch https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/hot "list top 10 post titles with scores"
/gemini-fetch https://example.com/blocked-page "extract the main content as markdown"

If manually invoked without a URL, display the examples above and stop.

Execution

Build and run the following command:

gemini -y -p "<prompt>" -o text 2>/dev/null

Prompt construction

Important: Escape the URL for shell safety. Replace any single quotes in the URL with '\'' before embedding it in the prompt.

If an instruction is provided:

Use run_shell_command to run: curl -sL -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36' '<escaped-url>'
Then from the fetched content: <instruction>

If no instruction is provided:

Use run_shell_command to run: curl -sL -H 'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36' '<escaped-url>'
Then convert the fetched HTML to clean, readable markdown. Preserve structure (headings, lists, links, code blocks). Remove navigation, ads, footers, and boilerplate. Return only the main content.

Timeout

Set a Bash timeout of 90 seconds (timeout: 90000). Gemini CLI startup + model invocation takes time.

Output

Present the fetched content directly to the user. Do not add wrapper commentary — just show what Gemini returned.

If the output contains error messages (e.g., "503", "quota exceeded", "model unavailable"), report the error and suggest:

1. Retry after a moment
2. Try with a different instruction
3. Use the Reddit JSON API fallback if the URL is Reddit (see /reddit-fetch if available)

Gotchas

• Always use -y flag: Without it, Gemini can't use run_shell_command and falls back to google_web_search, which returns search results instead of the actual page content.
• -o text is essential: Without it, output includes ANSI escape codes and interactive UI elements that pollute the result.
• Stderr noise: Gemini CLI prints keychain warnings and skill conflicts to stderr. 2>/dev/null discards all of it cleanly.
• Single quotes in URLs: The curl command is wrapped in single quotes. If the URL itself contains ', replace each with '\'' before embedding (standard shell escaping).
• Rate limits: Gemini CLI uses Google API quota. If you get quota errors, wait a minute before retrying.
• Cloudflare-protected sites: Sites like Medium use Cloudflare JS challenges that block curl even inside Gemini. Gemini will automatically fall back to google_web_search and reconstruct content from cached/mirrored sources. The result is accurate but may not be the exact original HTML — this is expected and usually good enough.
• Not for bulk fetching: Each invocation starts a new Gemini process. For multiple URLs, consider batching them in one prompt rather than calling this skill repeatedly.