/web-scraper

name: web-scraper
description: "Extract structured data from websites. Use when: collecting competitor pricing; scraping product listings; extracting contact information; gathering research data; monitoring website changes"
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: ClawFu
  version: 1.0.0
  mcp-server: "@clawfu/mcp-skills"

Web Scraper

> Extract structured data from websites using BeautifulSoup and requests - turn any webpage into usable data.

When to Use This Skill

• **Competitor research** - Scrape pricing, features, positioning
• **Lead generation** - Extract contact info from directories
• **Content audit** - Pull headings, links, meta data
• **Price monitoring** - Track competitor pricing changes
• **Data collection** - Gather research data from multiple sources

What Claude Does vs What You Decide

| Claude Does | You Decide | |-------------|------------| | Structures analysis frameworks | Strategic priorities | | Synthesizes market data | Competitive positioning | | Identifies opportunities | Resource allocation | | Creates strategic options | Final strategy selection | | Suggests implementation approaches | Execution decisions |

Dependencies

pip install beautifulsoup4 requests pandas click lxml

Commands

Scrape Elements

python scripts/main.py scrape https://example.com --selector "h1,h2,p"
python scripts/main.py scrape https://example.com --selector ".product-price"

Extract Links

python scripts/main.py links https://example.com
python scripts/main.py links https://example.com --internal-only

Extract Emails

python scripts/main.py emails https://example.com
python scripts/main.py emails https://example.com --depth 2

Extract Structured Data

python scripts/main.py structured https://example.com/article --schema article
python scripts/main.py structured https://example.com/product --schema product

Examples

Example 1: Scrape Competitor Pricing

python scripts/main.py scrape https://competitor.com/pricing --selector ".price,.plan-name"

# Output:
# Extracted 6 elements
# 1. Starter - $29/mo
# 2. Pro - $99/mo
# 3. Enterprise - Contact us

Example 2: Extract Article Content

python scripts/main.py structured https://blog.example.com/post --schema article

# Output: article_data.json
# {
#   "title": "How to Scale Your Startup",
#   "author": "Jane Doe",
#   "date": "2024-01-15",
#   "content": "...",
#   "word_count": 1523
# }

CSS Selector Reference

| Selector | Description | Example | |----------|-------------|---------| | `tag` | Element type | `h1`, `p`, `div` | | `.class` | Class name | `.price`, `.title` | | `#id` | Element ID | `#main-content` | | `tag.class` | Tag with class | `div.product` | | `tag[attr]` | Has attribute | `a[href]` | | `parent > child` | Direct child | `ul > li` | | `tag1, tag2` | Multiple | `h1, h2, h3` |

Ethical Scraping Guidelines

1. **Check robots.txt** - Respect site's scraping policy 2. **Rate limit** - Don't overload servers (1-2 req/sec) 3. **Identify yourself** - Use descriptive User-Agent 4. **Cache requests** - Don't re-scrape unchanged pages 5. **Terms of Service** - Check if scraping is allowed

Skill Boundaries

What This Skill Does Well

• Structuring strategic analysis
• Identifying market opportunities
• Creating strategic frameworks
• Synthesizing competitive data

What This Skill Cannot Do

• Replace market research
• Guarantee strategic success
• Know proprietary competitor info
• Make executive decisions

Related Skills

• [competitor-monitor](../competitor-monitor/) - Monitor competitor changes
• [pdf-extractor](../pdf-extractor/) - Extract from PDFs

Skill Metadata

• **Mode**: centaur

category: automation
subcategory: data-extraction
dependencies: [beautifulsoup4, requests, pandas]
difficulty: intermediate
time_saved: 5+ hours/week