By name: tap-web
metadata:
author: vaayne/tap
version: "v0.4.10"
description: >
Access websites, search the web, and extract clean content using the tap CLI.
Supports structured site scripts, readable page extraction, and browser automation
for tabs, screenshots, forms, cookies, JavaScript evaluation, and network capture.
Use for web lookup, page reading, content extraction, browser interaction,
authenticated sessions, request interception, or CDP-connected desktop apps.
tap-web
Pick the right tool
| Tier | Tool | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | tap site |
Structured data from known sites |
| 2 | tap fetch |
Clean readable content from a URL |
| 3 | tap browser |
Interaction, auth, screenshots, network capture |
Escalate only when the cheaper tier fails: search site scripts, run a matching script, fetch readable content, then use browser for interaction/auth/network. For X/Twitter, prefer twitter/fxembed-* site scripts before browser/fetch.
Recipes
Structured data:
tap site search github
tap site info github/repo
tap site run github/repo repo=vaayne/tap
Readable content:
tap fetch https://example.com/article
tap fetch -b https://example.com/js-rendered-article
Snapshot-driven interaction:
tap browser snapshot --interactive -f json
tap browser click @e3
tap browser fill @e1 "me@example.com" @e2 "secret" --submit @e4
Auth with your real browser; never use tap login:
tap attach chrome
tap browser open https://example.com/login --show
tap fetch -b https://example.com/account
Network capture:
tap browser open https://example.com/dashboard
tap browser network wait --url-pattern "*/api/*" --body
--show opens a visible browser for manual auth; --lp is the fast Lightpanda path when Chrome auth/profile state is irrelevant.
Hard rules
- Check
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/tap/site-notes/{domain}.mdbefore accessing a site; default is~/.config/tap/site-notes/. Update it after learning. See references/site-notes.md. - Efficiency order: site script >
tap fetch>tap browser network wait --body>tap browser snapshot>tap browser text> targetedtap browser evaluate> screenshot. - Never dump full HTML unless no cheaper path can answer the question.
- Snapshot refs (
@eN) are invalidated by navigation, reload, or major DOM changes; re-snapshot before reuse. - Stale attached context fails explicitly. Repair it with
tap attach chrome; do not silently switch account/browser.
Full references
Full command syntax lives in tap browser --help, tap docs, and: browser.md, network.md, script-development.md, site-notes.md.
Install fallback
If tap is missing:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vaayne/tap/main/scripts/install.sh | sh
tap skill install