lynx - SKILL.md Agent Skill

name: lynx description: Text-based browser for quick searches and readable dumps of web pages straight from the terminal.

Lynx Web Browser

lynx is a terminal-only browser. It renders HTML as text, does not execute JavaScript, and is ideal for quickly searching the web or dumping readable page content without leaving the shell.

Requirements

lynx installed and available in $PATH (check with lynx -version).
Network access. HTTPS works out of the box; use -accept_all_cookies if you want to bypass cookie prompts.

Quick Start (Interactive Mode)

lynx https://example.com

Key bindings (shown in the on-screen help bar):

Arrow keys: Up/Down to move, Right to follow a link, Left to go back.
g: open the "Go to URL" prompt.
/: search within the current page.
q: quit (confirm with y).

Because Lynx cannot run JavaScript, modern sites may show "browser unsupported" banners. Prefer static or "lite" endpoints when possible.

Searching the Web

Google’s default interface often blocks Lynx. Use lightweight search endpoints instead:

QUERY="hacker+news"
lynx "https://duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=${QUERY}"

Tips:

duckduckgo.com/html or /lite/ render well in Lynx and support arrow-key navigation between results.
From within Lynx, press g, enter https://duckduckgo.com/lite/?q=SEARCH+TERMS, and hit Enter.
Accept cookies when prompted (press y or A to always accept for the domain) to avoid repeated dialogs.

Dumping Pages to Text

For a quick, non-interactive snapshot, use -dump together with -nolist:

lynx -dump -nolist https://news.ycombinator.com/ > /tmp/hn.txt

-dump prints the rendered text to stdout.
-nolist hides the numbered link list appended by default, keeping output concise.
Combine with rg, sed, or editors to extract the info you need.

Handling Cookies & Certificates

Accept all cookies automatically: lynx -accept_all_cookies URL.
Ignore certificate warnings (only if you trust the site): lynx -validate=0 URL.
For repetitive workflows, export LYNX_COOKIE_FILE to reuse cookie storage between runs.

Debug / Logging

Press = inside Lynx to view document info (URL, content type, headers).
Use lynx -trace to write request/response traces to Lynx.trace (helpful when sites misbehave).

Learned Lessons

Any agent who uses this skill and uncovers new workflows, edge cases, or best practices should document them here for future reference.