- name
- wechat-article-reader
- description
- Extract full text from WeChat Official Account (微信公众号) article URLs. Use when a user shares an mp.weixin.qq.com link and asks to read, summarize, analyze, or save the article. Handles WeChat's JS-rendered content and anti-bot detection via headless Chromium. Falls back to mirror-site search when headless browser is unavailable.
- metadata
- openclaw
- requires
- bins
- [python3]
- install
- kind
- pip
- package
- playwright
- label
- Install Playwright (pip)
WeChat Article Reader
Extract full article content from mp.weixin.qq.com URLs.
When to Use
- User shares a WeChat article link (
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xxx) - Need to read/summarize/analyze/archive a WeChat article
- ContentPipe Scout node receives a WeChat URL for reference
Quick Start
# First-time setup (installs headless Chromium ~200MB)
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/setup.py
# Extract article
python3 SKILL_DIR/scripts/fetch_article.py "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xxx"
# Output: JSON with title, author, publish_time, content, word_countHow It Works
WeChat articles are JS-rendered — HTTP requests only get an empty shell. This skill uses Playwright headless Chromium to:
- Launch headless browser with anti-detection flags
- Navigate to the WeChat URL, wait for
networkidle - Wait for
#js_content(article body container) - Extract title (
h1#activity-name), author, time, body text - Clean HTML → plain text (strip scripts/styles, compress whitespace)
- Return structured JSON
Fallback: Mirror Search
If Playwright is unavailable, the skill searches Chinese content aggregators (53ai.com, 36kr.com, juejin.cn, woshipm.com) for mirror copies of the article.
Python API
from fetch_article import fetch_wechat_article
result = fetch_wechat_article("https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xxx")
# result = {
# "success": True,
# "title": "文章标题",
# "author": "作者名",
# "publish_time": "2026-03-10",
# "content": "正文全文...",
# "word_count": 2500,
# "source": "playwright", # or "mirror"
# "url": "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xxx"
# }Limitations
- Requires one-time Chromium install (
python3 scripts/setup.py) - First fetch takes ~5-10s (browser startup); subsequent fetches ~3-5s (browser reuse)
- Cannot bypass WeChat login walls (paid content, follower-only articles)
- Mirror fallback only works for popular/widely-shared articles