webclaw/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to webclaw are documented here. Format follows Keep a Changelog.

[0.3.14] — 2026-04-16

Security

• --on-change command injection closed (P0). The --on-change flag on webclaw watch and its multi-URL variant used to pipe the whole user-supplied string through sh -c. Anyone (or any LLM driving the MCP surface, or any config file parsed on the user's behalf) that could influence the flag value could execute arbitrary shell. The command is now tokenized with shlex and executed directly via Command::new(prog).args(args), so metacharacters like ;, &&, |, $(), <(...), and env expansion no longer fire. A WEBCLAW_ALLOW_SHELL=1 escape hatch is available for users who genuinely need pipelines; it logs a warning on every invocation so it can't slip in silently. Surfaced by the 2026-04-16 workspace audit.

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[0.3.13] — 2026-04-10

Fixed

• Docker CMD replaced with ENTRYPOINT: both Dockerfile and Dockerfile.ci now use ENTRYPOINT ["webclaw"] instead of CMD ["webclaw"]. CLI arguments (e.g. docker run webclaw https://example.com) now pass through correctly instead of being ignored.

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[0.3.12] — 2026-04-10

Added

• Crawl scope control: new allow_subdomains and allow_external_links fields on CrawlConfig. By default crawls stay same-origin. Enable allow_subdomains to follow sibling/child subdomains (e.g. blog.example.com from example.com), or allow_external_links for full cross-origin crawling. Root domain extraction uses a heuristic that handles two-part TLDs (co.uk, com.au).

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[0.3.11] — 2026-04-10

Added

• Sitemap fallback paths: discovery now tries /sitemap_index.xml, /wp-sitemap.xml, and /sitemap/sitemap-index.xml in addition to the standard /sitemap.xml. Sites using WordPress or non-standard sitemap locations are now discovered without needing external search.

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[0.3.10] — 2026-04-10

Changed

• Fetch timeout reduced from 30s to 12s: prevents cascading slowdowns when proxies are unresponsive. Worst-case per-URL drops from ~94s to ~25s.
• Retry attempts reduced from 3 to 2: combined with shorter timeout, total worst-case is 12s + 1s delay + 12s = 25s instead of 30s + 1s + 30s + 3s + 30s = 94s.

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[0.3.9] — 2026-04-04

Fixed

• Layout tables rendered as sections: tables used for page layout (containing block elements like <p>, <div>, <hr>) are now rendered as standalone sections instead of pipe-delimited markdown tables. Fixes Drudge Report and similar sites where all content was flattened into a single unreadable line. (by @devnen in #14)
• Stack overflow on deeply nested HTML: pages with 200+ DOM nesting levels (e.g., Express.co.uk live blogs) no longer overflow the stack. Two-layer fix: depth guard in markdown.rs falls back to iterator-based text collection at depth 200, and extract_with_options() spawns an 8 MB worker thread for safety on Windows. (by @devnen in #14)
• Noise filter swallowing content in malformed HTML: <form> tags no longer unconditionally treated as noise — ASP.NET page-wrapping forms (>500 chars) are preserved. Safety valve prevents unclosed noise containers (header/footer with >5000 chars) from absorbing entire page content. (by @devnen in #14)

Changed

• Bold/italic block passthrough: <b>/<strong>/<em>/<i> tags containing block-level children (e.g., Drudge wrapping columns in <b>) now act as transparent containers instead of collapsing everything into inline bold/italic. (by @devnen in #14)

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[0.3.8] — 2026-04-03

Fixed

• MCP research token overflow: research results are now saved to ~/.webclaw/research/ and the MCP tool returns file paths + findings instead of the full report. Prevents "exceeds maximum allowed tokens" errors in Claude/Cursor.
• Research caching: same query returns cached result instantly without spending credits.
• Anthropic rate limit throttling: 60s delay between LLM calls in research to stay under Tier 1 limits (50K input tokens/min).

Added

• dirs dependency for ~/.webclaw/research/ path resolution.

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[0.3.7] — 2026-04-03

Added

• --research CLI flag: run deep research via the cloud API. Prints report to stdout and saves full result (report + sources + findings) to a JSON file. Supports --deep for longer reports.
• MCP extract/summarize cloud fallback: when no local LLM is available, these tools now fall back to the cloud API instead of erroring. Set WEBCLAW_API_KEY for automatic fallback.
• MCP research structured output: the research tool now returns structured JSON (report + sources + findings + metadata) instead of raw text, so agents can reference individual findings and source URLs.

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[0.3.6] — 2026-04-02

Added

• Structured data in markdown/LLM output: __NEXT_DATA__, SvelteKit, and JSON-LD data now appears as a ## Structured Data section with a JSON code block at the end of -f markdown and -f llm output. Works with --only-main-content and all other flags.

Fixed

• Homebrew CI: formula now updates all 4 platform checksums after Docker build completes, preventing SHA mismatch on Linux installs (#12).

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[0.3.5] — 2026-04-02

Added

• __NEXT_DATA__ extraction: Next.js pages now have their pageProps JSON extracted into structured_data. Contains prices, product info, page state, and other data that isn't in the visible HTML. Tested on 45 sites — 13 now return rich structured data (BBC, Forbes, Nike, Stripe, TripAdvisor, Glassdoor, NASA, etc.).

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[0.3.4] — 2026-04-01

Added

• SvelteKit data island extraction: extracts structured JSON from kit.start() data arrays. Handles unquoted JS object keys by converting to valid JSON before parsing. Data appears in the structured_data field.

Changed

• License changed from MIT to AGPL-3.0.

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[0.3.3] — 2026-04-01

Changed

• Replaced custom TLS stack with wreq: migrated from webclaw-tls (patched rustls/h2/hyper/reqwest) to wreq by @0x676e67. wreq uses BoringSSL for TLS and the http2 crate for HTTP/2 fingerprinting — both battle-tested with 60+ browser profiles.
• Removed all [patch.crates-io] entries: consumers no longer need to patch rustls, h2, hyper, hyper-util, or reqwest. Just depend on webclaw normally.
• Browser profiles rebuilt on wreq's Emulation API: Chrome 145, Firefox 135, Safari 18, Edge 145 with correct TLS options (cipher suites, curves, GREASE, ECH, PSK session resumption), HTTP/2 SETTINGS ordering, pseudo-header order, and header wire order.
• Better TLS compatibility: BoringSSL handles more server configurations than patched rustls (e.g. servers that previously returned IllegalParameter alerts).

Removed

• webclaw-tls dependency and all 5 forked crates (webclaw-rustls, webclaw-h2, webclaw-hyper, webclaw-hyper-util, webclaw-reqwest).

Acknowledgments

• TLS and HTTP/2 fingerprinting powered by wreq and http2 by @0x676e67, who pioneered browser-grade HTTP/2 fingerprinting in Rust.

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[0.3.2] — 2026-03-31

Added

• --cookie-file flag: load cookies from JSON files exported by browser extensions (EditThisCookie, Cookie-Editor). Format: [{name, value, domain, ...}].
• MCP cookies parameter: the scrape tool now accepts a cookies array for authenticated scraping.
• Combined cookies: --cookie and --cookie-file can be used together and merge automatically.

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[0.3.1] — 2026-03-30

Added

• Cookie warmup fallback: when a fetch returns an Akamai challenge page, automatically visits the homepage first to collect _abck/bm_sz cookies, then retries the original URL. Enables extraction of Akamai-protected subpages (e.g. fansale ticket pages) without JS rendering.

Changed

• Fixed HTTP header wire order (accept/user-agent were in wrong positions) and added H2 PRIORITY flag in HEADERS frames.
• FetchResult.headers now uses http::HeaderMap instead of HashMap<String, String> — avoids per-response allocation, preserves multi-value headers.

[0.3.0] — 2026-03-29

Changed

• Replaced primp with webclaw-tls: switched to custom TLS fingerprinting stack.
• Browser profiles: Chrome 146 (Win/Mac), Firefox 135+, Safari 18, Edge 146 — captured from real browsers.
• HTTP/2 fingerprinting: SETTINGS frame ordering and pseudo-header ordering based on concepts pioneered by @0x676e67.

Fixed

• HTTPS completely broken (#5): primp's forked rustls rejected valid certificates (UnknownIssuer on cross-signed chains like example.com). Fixed by using native OS root CAs alongside Mozilla bundle.
• Unknown certificate extensions: servers returning SCT in certificate entries no longer cause TLS errors.

Added

• Native root CA support: uses OS trust store (macOS Keychain, Windows cert store) in addition to webpki-roots.
• HTTP/2 fingerprinting: SETTINGS frame ordering and pseudo-header ordering match real browsers.
• Per-browser header ordering: HTTP headers sent in browser-specific wire order.
• Bandwidth tracking: atomic byte counters shared across cloned clients.

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[0.2.2] — 2026-03-27

Fixed

• cargo install broken with primp 1.2.0: added missing reqwest patch to [patch.crates-io]. primp moved to reqwest 0.13 which requires a patched fork.
• Weekly dependency check: CI now runs every Monday to catch primp patch drift before users hit it.

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[0.2.1] — 2026-03-27

Added

• Docker image on GHCR: docker run ghcr.io/0xmassi/webclaw — auto-built on every release
• QuickJS data island extraction: inline <script> execution catches window.__PRELOADED_STATE__, Next.js hydration data, and other JS-embedded content

Fixed

• Docker CI now runs as part of the release workflow (was missing, image was never published)

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[0.2.0] — 2026-03-26

Added

• DOCX extraction: auto-detected by Content-Type or URL extension, outputs markdown with headings
• XLSX/XLS extraction: spreadsheets converted to markdown tables, multi-sheet support via calamine
• CSV extraction: parsed with quoted field handling, output as markdown table
• HTML output format: -f html returns sanitized HTML from the extracted content
• Multi-URL watch: --watch now works with --urls-file to monitor multiple URLs in parallel
• Batch + LLM extraction: --extract-prompt and --extract-json now work with multiple URLs
• Scheduled batch watch: watch multiple URLs with aggregate change reports and per-URL diffs

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[0.1.7] — 2026-03-26

Fixed

• --only-main-content, --include, and --exclude now work in batch mode (#3)

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[0.1.6] — 2026-03-26

Added

• --watch: monitor a URL for changes at a configurable interval with diff output
• --watch-interval: seconds between checks (default: 300)
• --on-change: run a command when changes are detected (diff JSON piped to stdin)
• --webhook: POST JSON notifications on crawl/batch complete and watch changes. Auto-formats for Discord and Slack webhooks

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[0.1.5] — 2026-03-26

Added

• --output-dir: save each page to a separate file instead of stdout. Works with single URL, crawl, and batch modes
• CSV input with custom filenames: url,filename format in --urls-file
• Root URLs use hostname/index.ext to avoid collisions in batch mode
• Subdirectories created automatically from URL path structure

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[0.1.4] — 2026-03-26

Added

• QuickJS integration for extracting data from inline JavaScript (NYTimes +168%, Wired +580% more content)
• Executes inline <script> tags in a sandboxed runtime to capture window.__* data blobs
• Parses Next.js RSC flight data (self.__next_f) for App Router sites
• Smart text filtering rejects CSS, base64, file paths, and code — only keeps readable prose
• Feature-gated with quickjs feature flag (enabled by default, disable for WASM builds)

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[0.1.3] — 2026-03-25

Added

• Crawl streaming: real-time progress on stderr as pages complete ([2/50] OK https://... (234ms, 1523 words))
• Crawl resume/cancel: --crawl-state <path> saves progress on Ctrl+C and resumes from where it left off
• MCP server proxy support via WEBCLAW_PROXY and WEBCLAW_PROXY_FILE env vars

Changed

• Crawl results now expose visited set and remaining frontier for accurate state persistence

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[0.1.2] — 2026-03-25

Changed

• Default TLS profile switched from Chrome145/Win to Safari26/Mac (highest pass rate across CF-protected sites)
• Plain client fallback: when impersonated TLS gets connection error or 403, automatically retries without impersonation (fixes ycombinator.com, producthunt.com, and similar sites)

Fixed

• Reddit scraping: use plain HTTP client for .json endpoint (TLS fingerprinting was getting blocked)

Added

• YouTube transcript extraction infrastructure in webclaw-core (caption track parsing, timed text XML parser) — wired up when cloud API launches

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[0.1.1] — 2026-03-24

Fixed

• MCP server now identifies as webclaw-mcp instead of rmcp in the MCP handshake
• Research tool polling caps at 200 iterations (~10 min) instead of looping forever
• CLI returns non-zero exit codes on errors (invalid format, fetch failures, missing LLM)
• Text format output strips markdown table syntax (| --- | pipes)
• All MCP tools validate URLs before network calls with clear error messages
• Cloud API HTTP client has 60s timeout instead of no timeout
• Local fetch calls timeout after 30s to prevent hanging on slow servers
• Diff cloud fallback computes actual diff instead of returning raw scrape JSON
• FetchClient startup failure logs and exits gracefully instead of panicking

Added

• Upper bounds: batch capped at 100 URLs, crawl capped at 500 pages

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[0.1.0] — 2026-03-18

First public release. Full-featured web content extraction toolkit for LLMs.

Core Extraction

• Readability-style content scoring with text density, semantic tags, and link density penalties
• Exact CSS class token noise filtering with body-force fallback for SPAs
• HTML → markdown conversion with URL resolution, image alt text, srcset optimization
• 9-step LLM text optimization pipeline (67% token reduction vs raw HTML)
• JSON data island extraction (React, Next.js, Contentful CMS)
• YouTube transcript extraction (title, channel, views, duration, description)
• Lazy-loaded image detection (data-src, data-lazy-src, data-original)
• Brand identity extraction (name, colors, fonts, logos, OG image)
• Content change tracking / diff engine
• CSS selector filtering (include/exclude)

Fetching & Crawling

• TLS fingerprint impersonation via Impit (Chrome 142, Firefox 144, random mode)
• BFS same-origin crawler with configurable depth, concurrency, and delay
• Sitemap.xml and robots.txt discovery
• Batch multi-URL concurrent extraction
• Per-request proxy rotation from pool file
• Reddit JSON API and LinkedIn post extractors

LLM Integration

• Provider chain: Ollama (local-first) → OpenAI → Anthropic
• JSON schema extraction (structured data from pages)
• Natural language prompt extraction
• Page summarization with configurable sentence count

PDF

• PDF text extraction via pdf-extract
• Auto-detection by Content-Type header

MCP Server

• 8 tools: scrape, crawl, map, batch, extract, summarize, diff, brand
• stdio transport for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, and any MCP client
• Smart Fetch: local extraction first, cloud API fallback

CLI

• 4 output formats: markdown, JSON, plain text, LLM-optimized
• CSS selector filtering, crawling, sitemap discovery
• Brand extraction, content diffing, LLM features
• Browser profile selection, proxy support, stdin/file input

Infrastructure

• Docker multi-stage build with Ollama sidecar
• Deploy script for Hetzner VPS