Website: https://cloudownloader.com/
A command-line tool for website adapters, browser automation and media downloads. Source: jyjyxt/cloudownloader.
The executable is cloudl, with ~/.cloudl configuration, CLOUDL_* environment variables, and cloudl-* skills.
cloudl gives you one surface for three different kinds of automation:
- Use built-in adapters for sites like Bilibili, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu, Reddit, HackerNews, Twitter/X, and many more.
- Let AI agents operate browser pages — install the
cloudl-browserskill in your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), and it can navigate, click, type/fill, extract, and inspect any page through your logged-in browser viacloudl browserprimitives. - Write new adapters end-to-end with
cloudl browser+ thecloudl-adapter-authorskill, which guides from first recon through field decoding, code, andcloudl browser recon verify <site>/<command>.
It also works as a CLI hub for local tools such as gh, docker, longbridge, tg, discord, wx, ntn (Notion), and other binaries you register yourself, plus desktop app adapters for Electron apps like Cursor, Trae CN, Codex, Antigravity, ChatGPT, and Trae SOLO.
Requires Node.js >= 20.18.1. Install from this repository:
git clone https://github.com/jyjyxt/cloudownloader.git
cd cloudownloader
npm install
npm link
cloudl --helpnpm install builds the CLI through its prepare script; npm link installs the cloudl command. When working in this website workspace, run these commands inside its cloudl/ subdirectory.
cloudl connects to Chrome/Chromium through a lightweight Browser Bridge extension plus a small local daemon. The daemon auto-starts when needed.
Install using either option below.
Option A: Install from the Chrome Web Store (recommended)
- Open Cloudl on the Chrome Web Store in Chrome.
- Click Add to Chrome and confirm the installation. No build or Developer mode is required.
Option B: Build and load the extension from this repository
Run these commands from the repository root:
npm --prefix extension install
npm --prefix extension run buildOpen chrome://extensions, enable Developer mode, click Load unpacked, and select the repository's extension/ directory. This directory contains manifest.json, which references the built files in dist/. Do not select the repository root or extension/dist/.
The root npm run build builds only the CLI; the extension needs its own build. After changing extension source code, rerun npm --prefix extension run build, then click Reload on the Cloudl extension in Chrome.
For a source installation, keep the extension/ directory in its original location: Chrome continues to read its files.
cloudl doctorEach Chrome profile runs its own cloudl extension instance. If you use multiple Chrome profiles, list the connected profiles and assign local aliases:
cloudl profile list
cloudl profile rename <contextId> work
cloudl profile use work
cloudl --profile work browser main stateWith only one connected profile, cloudl uses it automatically. With multiple connected profiles and no default, cloudl asks you to choose instead of guessing.
cloudl list
cloudl hackernews top --limit 5
cloudl bilibili hot --limit 5The CLI and website adapters live in this repository. The Chrome extension executes browser operations requested by the CLI. When a website changes its layout or API, updating the affected adapter is usually enough; the extension does not need an update for every CLI change.
Run these commands in your existing repository directory:
git pull --ff-only
npm install
cloudl --version
cloudl doctornpm install updates dependencies and rebuilds the CLI through its prepare script. An existing npm link continues to point to this directory, so you do not need to link again unless you move the repository or switch Node.js installations.
After editing CLI or adapter code locally, run npm run build, then rerun the affected command to verify the change. If you also changed dependencies, run npm install instead.
Update the extension when a release requires new browser capabilities, permissions, or communication protocol changes, or includes extension fixes you need. CLI-only and website adapter changes usually do not require it.
Chrome Web Store installation: Chrome automatically updates the extension when a new store version is available.
Source installation: Manually loaded extensions need to be rebuilt and reloaded:
- Run
git pull --ff-onlyin the repository root. - Run
npm --prefix extension installandnpm --prefix extension run build. - Open
chrome://extensionsand click Reload on the Cloudl extension. - Run
cloudl doctorto verify connectivity, then rerun the browser command you need.
Use cloudl directly when you want a reliable command instead of a live browser session:
cloudl listshows every registered command.cloudl <site> <command>runs a built-in or generated adapter.cloudl external register mycliexposes a local CLI through the same discovery surface.cloudl doctorhelps diagnose browser connectivity.
If you want to add your own commands, start with the Extending cloudl guide. README keeps this short; the guide covers the directory layout, source-control model, and install commands.
| Need | Recommended path |
|---|---|
| Keep personal website commands in your own Git repo | cloudl plugin create + cloudl plugin install file://... |
| Quickly draft a private local adapter | cloudl browser recon init <site>/<command> in ~/.cloudl/clis/ |
| Modify an official adapter locally | cloudl adapter eject <site> + cloudl adapter reset <site> |
| Publish or install third-party commands | cloudl plugin install github:user/repo |
| Wrap an existing local binary | cloudl external register <name> |
cloudl's browser commands can be run directly or by AI agents. Install skills into your AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.), and the agent operates websites on your behalf using your logged-in Chrome session.
The cloudl-* names below are the actual bundled skill identifiers; their command examples use cloudl.
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloaderOr install only what you need:
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloader --skill cloudl-adapter-author
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloader --skill cloudl-autofix
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloader --skill cloudl-browser
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloader --skill cloudl-browser-sitemap
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloader --skill cloudl-sitemap-author
npx skills add jyjyxt/cloudownloader --skill cloudl-usage| Skill | When to use | Example prompt to your AI agent |
|---|---|---|
| cloudl-adapter-author | Write a reusable adapter for a new site or add a command to an existing site | "Write an adapter for douyin trending" / "Make a command that grabs the top posts from this page" |
| cloudl-autofix | Repair a broken adapter when a built-in command fails | "cloudl zhihu hot is returning empty — fix it" |
| cloudl-browser | Drive a real Chrome page ad-hoc — navigate, fill forms, click, extract | "Help me check my Xiaohongshu notifications" / "Help me fill out this form" / "Use browser commands to scrape this page" |
| cloudl-browser-sitemap | Consume site sitemap context while driving a browser task | "Use the sitemap to navigate this website without blind clicking" |
| cloudl-sitemap-author | Create or update site sitemap knowledge for browser agents | "Record the stable workflow you just discovered for this site" |
| cloudl-usage | Quick reference for all cloudl commands and sites | "What commands does cloudl have for Twitter?" |
Once cloudl-browser is installed, your AI agent can:
- Navigate to any URL using your logged-in browser
- Read page content via structured DOM snapshots (not screenshots)
- Interact — click buttons, fill forms, select options, press keys
- Extract data from the page or intercept network API responses
- Wait for elements, text, or page transitions
The agent handles all the cloudl browser commands internally — you just describe what you want done in natural language.
Skill references:
skills/cloudl-browser/SKILL.md— drive Chrome ad-hoc (navigate, fill forms, click, extract)skills/cloudl-browser-sitemap/SKILL.md— use sitemap context while driving a browser taskskills/cloudl-sitemap-author/SKILL.md— create or update site sitemap knowledgeskills/cloudl-adapter-author/SKILL.md— write a new adapter end-to-endskills/cloudl-autofix/SKILL.md— repair broken adaptersskills/cloudl-usage/SKILL.md— command and site reference
Available browser commands include open, state, click, type, fill, select, keys, wait, get, find, extract, frames, screenshot, scroll, back, eval, network, tab list, tab new, tab select, tab close, init, verify, and close.
cloudl browser commands require a <session> positional immediately after browser. cloudl browser work open <url> and cloudl browser work tab new [url] both return a target ID. Use cloudl browser work tab list to inspect target IDs, then pass --tab <targetId> to route a command to a specific tab. tab new creates a new tab without changing the default browser target; only tab select <targetId> promotes that tab to the default target for later untargeted commands in the same session.
When the site you need is not yet covered, use the cloudl-adapter-author skill end-to-end:
- Recon the site and pick a pattern (SPA / SSR / JSONP / Token / Streaming).
- Discover the right endpoint — network inspection, initial state, bundle search, token trace, or interceptor fallback.
- Pick auth —
PUBLIC/COOKIE/INTERCEPT/UI/LOCAL. - Decode response fields and design output columns.
cloudl browser recon analyze <url>→cloudl browser recon init <site>/<name>→ write adapter →cloudl browser recon verify <site>/<name>.- Site knowledge persists to
~/.cloudl/sites/<site>/so the next adapter for the same site starts from context.
| Variable | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
CLOUDL_PROFILE |
— | Browser Bridge profile alias/contextId to use when multiple Chrome profiles are connected |
CLOUDL_WINDOW |
command default | Set to foreground or background to override Browser Bridge window placement. Browser-backed commands also accept --window <foreground|background>. |
CLOUDL_SITE_SESSION |
adapter default | Set to ephemeral or persistent to override siteSession metadata for browser-backed adapter commands. ephemeral closes the one-shot automation window when the command finishes; persistent reuses the site's session. Per-command --site-session takes precedence. |
CLOUDL_BROWSER_CONNECT_TIMEOUT |
45 |
Seconds to wait for browser connection |
CLOUDL_BROWSER_COMMAND_TIMEOUT |
60 |
Seconds to wait for a single browser command |
CLOUDL_CDP_ENDPOINT |
— | Chrome DevTools Protocol endpoint for remote browser or Electron apps |
CLOUDL_CDP_TARGET |
— | Filter CDP targets by URL substring (e.g. detail.1688.com) |
CLOUDL_VERBOSE |
false |
Enable verbose logging (-v flag also works) |
DEBUG_SNAPSHOT |
— | Set to 1 for DOM snapshot debug output |
cloudl browser * requires an explicit <session> positional, uses a foreground browser window by default, and keeps that session's tab lease until cloudl browser <session> close or idle cleanup. Browser-backed adapters use a background adapter window and release one-shot tab leases by default. Interactive adapters can declare siteSession: 'persistent' to keep a stable site tab for continuity; pass --site-session ephemeral for a one-shot tab.
These commands are registered in the repository. Live availability depends on the target site, login state and required local tools. Use cloudl list and cloudl <site> <command> --help for the installed command set and arguments.
| Site | Commands |
|---|---|
| xiaohongshu | search ask note comments feed user download publish follow unfollow notifications creator-notes creator-notes-summary creator-note-detail creator-profile creator-stats |
| bilibili | hot search history feed ranking download comments dynamic favorite following follow unfollow me subtitle summary video user-videos creator-stats |
| zhihu | hot search question download follow like favorite comment answer |
| hackernews | top new best ask show jobs search user |
| hltv | search player-summary player-matches player-form player-map-pool player-vs-team player-teammate-impact player-duel match-map match-series team-matches team-map-pool event-matches |
| geogebra | eval add-point add-line add-circle add-polygon triangle hexagon list info |
connect inbox job-detail jobs-preferences post-analytics posts profile-experience profile-projects profile-read profile-analytics safe-send search services-read sent-invitations thread-snapshot timeline salesnav-search salesnav-inbox salesnav-message salesnav-thread |
|
hot frontpage popular search subreddit read user user-posts user-comments upvote upvoted save saved comment subscribe |
|
trending search timeline tweets lists list-tweets list-create list-delete list-add list-add-batch list-remove list-remove-batch bookmarks post download profile article like likes notifications reply reply-dm thread follow unfollow followers following block unblock bookmark unbookmark delete hide-reply accept |
|
| claude | ask send new status read history detail |
| gemini | new ask image deep-research deep-research-result |
| notebooklm | status list open current get history summary note-list notes-get source-list source-get source-fulltext source-guide |
| amazon | bestsellers search product offer discussion movers-shakers new-releases |
| upwork | search feed detail |
| slock | message-send message-read message-search channel-list channel-info channel-create channel-members channel-join task-list task-create task-claim task-status task-convert task-delete thread-list thread-follow attachment-upload attachment-download bookmark-add inbox dm-list server-list server-use whoami |
| huodongxing | events |
| midjourney | login whoami settings quota generate describe history status action download |
Curated highlights — → see all 100+ supported sites & commands (douyin / weibo / spotify / 1688 / quark / nowcoder / google-scholar / hupu / xianyu / weread / weread-official / xiaoyuzhou / Chess.com / and more).
Unified passthrough for your existing command-line tools. Run cloudl <tool> ... for any of:
gh · docker · vercel · wrangler · obsidian · longbridge · lark-cli · ntn(notion) · dws(DingTalk Workspace) · wecom-cli(企业微信) · tg(tg-cli) · discord(discord-cli) · wx(wx-cli)
Register your own with cloudl external register <name>; list everything with cloudl external list.
Desktop app adapters (Electron, via CDP): Cursor / Trae CN / Codex / Antigravity / ChatGPT App / ChatWise / Qoder / Discord / Doubao / Trae SOLO — see docs/adapters/desktop/.
cloudl supports downloading images, videos, and articles from supported platforms.
| Platform | Content Types | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| xiaohongshu | Images, Videos | Downloads all media from a note |
| rednote | Images, Videos | Downloads all media from a signed rednote note URL |
| bilibili | Videos | Requires yt-dlp installed |
| Images, Videos | From user media tab or single tweet | |
| douban | Images | Poster / still image lists |
| pixiv | Images | Original-quality illustrations, multi-page |
| 1688 | Images, Videos | Downloads page-visible product media from item pages |
| xiaoyuzhou | Audio, Transcript | Downloads episode audio and transcript JSON/text with local credentials |
| zhihu | Column articles, answers (Markdown) | Exports with optional image download |
| weixin | Articles (Markdown) | WeChat Official Account articles |
For the Bilibili video adapter, install yt-dlp first: brew install yt-dlp
cloudl xiaohongshu download "https://www.xiaohongshu.com/search_result/<id>?xsec_token=..." --output ./xhs
cloudl xiaohongshu download "https://xhslink.com/..." --output ./xhs
cloudl rednote download "https://www.rednote.com/search_result/<id>?xsec_token=..." --output ./rednote
cloudl bilibili download BV1xxx --output ./bilibili
cloudl twitter download elonmusk --limit 20 --output ./twitter
cloudl 1688 download 841141931191 --output ./1688-downloads
cloudl xiaoyuzhou download 69b3b675772ac2295bfc01d0 --output ./xiaoyuzhou
cloudl xiaoyuzhou transcript 69dd0c98e2c8be31551f6a33 --output ./xiaoyuzhou-transcriptscloudl xiaoyuzhou download and transcript require local Xiaoyuzhou credentials in ~/.cloudl/xiaoyuzhou.json.
Adapter commands support --format / -f with table (default), json, yaml, md, and csv.
cloudl bilibili hot -f json # Pipe to jq or LLMs
cloudl bilibili hot -f csv # Spreadsheet-friendly
cloudl bilibili hot -v # Verbose: show pipeline debug stepscloudl follows Unix sysexits.h so CI / scripts can branch on failure mode: 0 success, 66 empty result, 69 Browser Bridge down, 75 timeout, 77 auth required, 78 config error, 130 Ctrl-C. Full reference: docs/guide/exit-codes.md.
Extend cloudl with community-contributed adapters:
cloudl plugin list
cloudl plugin update --all
cloudl plugin uninstall my-toolSee Plugins Guide for creating your own plugin.
See TESTING.md for how to run and write tests.
- "Extension not connected" — Ensure the Browser Bridge extension is installed using either option above and enabled in
chrome://extensions. - "attach failed: Cannot access a chrome-extension:// URL" — Another extension may be interfering. Try disabling other extensions temporarily.
- Empty data or 'Unauthorized' error — Your Chrome/Chromium login session may have expired. Navigate to the target site and log in again.
- Node API errors / missing
fetch/ startup crash on old Node — cloudl requires Node.js >= 20.18.1. Runnode --version, upgrade Node if needed, then retry. - Daemon issues — Check status:
curl localhost:19825/status· View logs:curl localhost:19825/logs