Summarize — Point at Any URL and Get the Gist via CLI

Introduction

Summarize is a developer-focused CLI that extracts content from any URL, video, podcast, or file and produces a concise summary. It handles the complexity of content extraction across different media types so you can quickly understand any resource without reading or watching it in full.

What Summarize Does

• Extracts readable content from web pages, stripping ads and navigation
• Transcribes YouTube videos and podcast episodes for text-based summarization
• Processes local files including PDFs, markdown, and plain text
• Produces structured summaries with key points and takeaways
• Works as both a CLI tool and a Chrome browser extension

Architecture Overview

The tool uses a content extraction pipeline that selects the appropriate parser based on input type. Web pages go through a readability algorithm, videos use transcript APIs, and files are parsed by format-specific readers. Extracted text is then passed to an LLM for summarization with configurable detail levels.

Setup & Configuration

• Run directly via npx or install globally with npm install -g summarize
• Configure your preferred AI provider API key in environment variables
• Set default summary length and format via config file or CLI flags
• Install the Chrome extension for one-click summarization in the browser
• Supports multiple output formats including markdown, plain text, and JSON

Key Features

• Automatic content type detection for URLs, files, and media
• YouTube and podcast transcript extraction without manual setup
• Configurable summary depth from one-liner to detailed outline
• Chrome extension with keyboard shortcut for instant page summaries
• Pipe-friendly output for integration with other CLI tools

Comparison with Similar Tools

• tldr-pages — community-written command summaries; Summarize handles arbitrary web content with AI
• Reader by Jina — focused on converting URLs to markdown; Summarize adds AI summarization on top
• Kagi Universal Summarizer — web service; Summarize runs locally with your own API keys
• yt-dlp — downloads video/audio; Summarize extracts and summarizes the transcript directly

FAQ

Q: Which AI providers are supported? A: It supports OpenAI, Anthropic, and local models via compatible APIs.

Q: Does it work with paywalled content? A: It can only summarize content accessible to your browser session or provided as a local file.

Q: How long can the input content be? A: The tool chunks long content automatically to fit within model context limits.

Q: Can I customize the summary prompt? A: Yes. Custom system prompts can be provided via CLI flags or configuration.

Sources

• https://github.com/steipete/summarize