Point at any URL/YouTube/Podcast or file. Get the gist. CLI and Chrome Extension.

Fast summaries from URLs, files, and media. Works in the terminal, a Chrome Side Panel and Firefox Sidebar.

0.11.0 preview (unreleased): this README reflects the upcoming release.

• Chrome Side Panel chat (streaming agent + history) inside the sidebar.
• YouTube slides: screenshots + OCR + transcript cards, timestamped seek, OCR/Transcript toggle.
• Media-aware summaries: auto‑detect video/audio vs page content.
• Streaming Markdown + metrics + cache‑aware status.
• CLI supports URLs, files, podcasts, YouTube, audio/video, PDFs.

• URLs, files, and media: web pages, PDFs, images, audio/video, YouTube, podcasts, RSS.
• Slide extraction for video sources (YouTube/direct media) with OCR + timestamped cards.
• Transcript-first media flow: published transcripts when available, Whisper fallback when not.
• Streaming output with Markdown rendering, metrics, and cache-aware status.
• Local, paid, and free models: OpenAI‑compatible local endpoints, paid providers, plus an OpenRouter free preset.
• Output modes: Markdown/text, JSON diagnostics, extract-only, metrics, timing, and cost estimates.
• Smart default: if content is shorter than the requested length, we return it as-is (use --force-summary to override).

One‑click summarizer for the current tab. Chrome Side Panel + Firefox Sidebar + local daemon for streaming Markdown.

Chrome Web Store: Summarize Side Panel

YouTube slide screenshots (from the browser):

1. Install the CLI (choose one):
   • npm (cross‑platform): npm i -g @steipete/summarize
   • Homebrew (macOS arm64): brew install steipete/tap/summarize
2. Install the extension (Chrome Web Store link above) and open the Side Panel.
3. The panel shows a token + install command. Run it in Terminal:
   • summarize daemon install --token <TOKEN>

Why a daemon/service?

• The extension can’t run heavy extraction inside the browser. It talks to a local background service on 127.0.0.1 for fast streaming and media tools (yt‑dlp, ffmpeg, OCR, transcription).
• The service autostarts (launchd/systemd/Scheduled Task) so the Side Panel is always ready.

If you only want the CLI, you can skip the daemon install entirely.

Notes:

• Summarization only runs when the Side Panel is open.
• Auto mode summarizes on navigation (incl. SPAs); otherwise use the button.
• Daemon is localhost-only and requires a shared token.
• Autostart: macOS (launchd), Linux (systemd user), Windows (Scheduled Task).
• Tip: configure free via summarize refresh-free (needs OPENROUTER_API_KEY). Add --set-default to set model=free.

More:

• Step-by-step install: apps/chrome-extension/README.md
• Architecture + troubleshooting: docs/chrome-extension.md
• Firefox compatibility notes: apps/chrome-extension/docs/firefox.md

• Select Video + Slides in the Summarize picker.
• Slides render at the top; expand to full‑width cards with timestamps.
• Click a slide to seek the video; toggle Transcript/OCR when OCR is significant.
• Requirements: yt-dlp + ffmpeg for extraction; tesseract for OCR. Missing tools show an in‑panel notice.

1. Build + load the extension (unpacked):
   • Chrome: pnpm -C apps/chrome-extension build
     • chrome://extensions → Developer mode → Load unpacked
     • Pick: apps/chrome-extension/.output/chrome-mv3
   • Firefox: pnpm -C apps/chrome-extension build:firefox
     • about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox → Load Temporary Add-on
     • Pick: apps/chrome-extension/.output/firefox-mv3/manifest.json
2. Open Side Panel/Sidebar → copy token.
3. Install daemon in dev mode:
   • pnpm summarize daemon install --token <TOKEN> --dev

Requires Node 22+.

• npx (no install):

npx -y @steipete/summarize "https://example.com"

• npm (global):

npm i -g @steipete/summarize

• npm (library / minimal deps):

npm i @steipete/summarize-core

import { createLinkPreviewClient } from "@steipete/summarize-core/content";

• Homebrew (custom tap):

brew install steipete/tap/summarize

Apple Silicon only (arm64).

• CLI only: just install via npm/Homebrew and run summarize ... (no daemon needed).
• Chrome/Firefox extension: install the CLI and run summarize daemon install --token <TOKEN> so the Side Panel can stream results and use local tools.

summarize "https://example.com"

URLs or local paths:

summarize "/path/to/file.pdf" --model google/gemini-3-flash-preview
summarize "https://example.com/report.pdf" --model google/gemini-3-flash-preview
summarize "/path/to/audio.mp3"
summarize "/path/to/video.mp4"

Stdin (pipe content using -):

echo "content" | summarize -
pbpaste | summarize -
# binary stdin also works (PDF/image/audio/video bytes)
cat /path/to/file.pdf | summarize -

Notes:

• Stdin has a 50MB size limit
• The - argument tells summarize to read from standard input
• Text stdin is treated as UTF-8 text (whitespace-only input is rejected as empty)
• Binary stdin is preserved as raw bytes and file type is auto-detected when possible
• Useful for piping clipboard content or command output

YouTube (supports youtube.com and youtu.be):

summarize "https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ" --youtube auto

Podcast RSS (transcribes latest enclosure):

summarize "https://feeds.npr.org/500005/podcast.xml"

Apple Podcasts episode page:

summarize "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2424-jelly-roll/id360084272?i=1000740717432"

Spotify episode page (best-effort; may fail for exclusives):

summarize "https://open.spotify.com/episode/5auotqWAXhhKyb9ymCuBJY"

--length controls how much output we ask for (guideline), not a hard cap.

summarize "https://example.com" --length long
summarize "https://example.com" --length 20k

• Presets: short|medium|long|xl|xxl
• Character targets: 1500, 20k, 20000
• Optional hard cap: --max-output-tokens <count> (e.g. 2000, 2k)
  • Provider/model APIs still enforce their own maximum output limits.
  • If omitted, no max token parameter is sent (provider default).
  • Prefer --length unless you need a hard cap.
• Short content: when extracted content is shorter than the requested length, the CLI returns the content as-is.
  • Override with --force-summary to always run the LLM.
• Minimums: --length numeric values must be >= 50 chars; --max-output-tokens must be >= 16.
• Preset targets (source of truth: packages/core/src/prompts/summary-lengths.ts):
  • short: target ~900 chars (range 600-1,200)
  • medium: target ~1,800 chars (range 1,200-2,500)
  • long: target ~4,200 chars (range 2,500-6,000)
  • xl: target ~9,000 chars (range 6,000-14,000)
  • xxl: target ~17,000 chars (range 14,000-22,000)

Best effort and provider-dependent. These usually work well:

• text/* and common structured text (.txt, .md, .json, .yaml, .xml, ...)
  • Text-like files are inlined into the prompt for better provider compatibility.
• PDFs: application/pdf (provider support varies; Google is the most reliable here)
• Images: image/jpeg, image/png, image/webp, image/gif
• Audio/Video: audio/*, video/* (local audio/video files MP3/WAV/M4A/OGG/FLAC/MP4/MOV/WEBM automatically transcribed, when supported by the model)

Notes:

• If a provider rejects a media type, the CLI fails fast with a friendly message.
• xAI models do not support attaching generic files (like PDFs) via the AI SDK; use Google/OpenAI/Anthropic for those.

Use gateway-style ids: <provider>/<model>.

Examples:

• openai/gpt-5-mini
• anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-5
• xai/grok-4-fast-non-reasoning
• google/gemini-3-flash-preview
• zai/glm-4.7
• openrouter/openai/gpt-5-mini (force OpenRouter)

Note: some models/providers do not support streaming or certain file media types. When that happens, the CLI prints a friendly error (or auto-disables streaming for that model when supported by the provider).

• Text inputs over 10 MB are rejected before tokenization.
• Text prompts are preflighted against the model input limit (LiteLLM catalog), using a GPT tokenizer.

summarize <input> [flags]

Use summarize --help or summarize help for the full help text.

• --model <provider/model>: which model to use (defaults to auto)
• --model auto: automatic model selection + fallback (default)
• --model <name>: use a config-defined model (see Configuration)
• --timeout <duration>: 30s, 2m, 5000ms (default 2m)
• --retries <count>: LLM retry attempts on timeout (default 1)
• --length short|medium|long|xl|xxl|s|m|l|<chars>
• --language, --lang <language>: output language (auto = match source)
• --max-output-tokens <count>: hard cap for LLM output tokens
• --cli [provider]: use a CLI provider (--model cli/<provider>). Supports claude, gemini, codex, agent. If omitted, uses auto selection with CLI enabled.
• --stream auto|on|off: stream LLM output (auto = TTY only; disabled in --json mode)
• --plain: keep raw output (no ANSI/OSC Markdown rendering)
• --no-color: disable ANSI colors
• --theme <name>: CLI theme (aurora, ember, moss, mono)
• --format md|text: website/file content format (default text)
• --markdown-mode off|auto|llm|readability: HTML -> Markdown mode (default readability)
• --preprocess off|auto|always: controls uvx markitdown usage (default auto)
  • Install uvx: brew install uv (or https://astral.sh/uv/)
• --extract: print extracted content and exit (URLs only; stdin - is not supported)
  • Deprecated alias: --extract-only
• --slides: extract slides for YouTube/direct video URLs and render them inline in the summary narrative (auto-renders inline in supported terminals)
• --slides-ocr: run OCR on extracted slides (requires tesseract)
• --slides-dir <dir>: base output dir for slide images (default ./slides)
• --slides-scene-threshold <value>: scene detection threshold (0.1-1.0)
• --slides-max <count>: maximum slides to extract (default 6)
• --slides-min-duration <seconds>: minimum seconds between slides
• --json: machine-readable output with diagnostics, prompt, metrics, and optional summary
• --verbose: debug/diagnostics on stderr
• --metrics off|on|detailed: metrics output (default on)

Summarize can use common coding CLIs as local model backends:

• codex -> --cli codex / --model cli/codex/<model>
• claude -> --cli claude / --model cli/claude/<model>
• gemini -> --cli gemini / --model cli/gemini/<model>
• agent (Cursor Agent CLI) -> --cli agent / --model cli/agent/<model>

Requirements:

• Binary installed and on PATH (or set CODEX_PATH, CLAUDE_PATH, GEMINI_PATH, AGENT_PATH)
• Provider authenticated (codex login, claude auth, gemini login flow, agent login or CURSOR_API_KEY)

Quick smoke test:

printf "Summarize CLI smoke input.\nOne short paragraph. Reply can be brief.\n" >/tmp/summarize-cli-smoke.txt

summarize --cli codex --plain --timeout 2m /tmp/summarize-cli-smoke.txt
summarize --cli claude --plain --timeout 2m /tmp/summarize-cli-smoke.txt
summarize --cli gemini --plain --timeout 2m /tmp/summarize-cli-smoke.txt
summarize --cli agent --plain --timeout 2m /tmp/summarize-cli-smoke.txt

Set explicit CLI allowlist/order:

{
  "cli": { "enabled": ["codex", "claude", "gemini", "agent"] }
}

Configure implicit auto CLI fallback:

{
  "cli": {
    "autoFallback": {
      "enabled": true,
      "onlyWhenNoApiKeys": true,
      "order": ["claude", "gemini", "codex", "agent"]
    }
  }
}

More details: docs/cli.md

--model auto builds candidate attempts from built-in rules (or your model.rules overrides). CLI attempts are prepended when:

• cli.enabled is set (explicit allowlist/order), or
• implicit auto selection is active and cli.autoFallback is enabled.

Default fallback behavior: only when no API keys are configured, order claude, gemini, codex, agent, and remember/prioritize last successful provider (~/.summarize/cli-state.json).

Set explicit CLI attempts:

{
  "cli": { "enabled": ["gemini"] }
}

Disable implicit auto CLI fallback:

{
  "cli": { "autoFallback": { "enabled": false } }
}

Note: explicit --model auto does not trigger implicit auto CLI fallback unless cli.enabled is set.

Non-YouTube URLs go through a fetch -> extract pipeline. When direct fetch/extraction is blocked or too thin, --firecrawl auto can fall back to Firecrawl (if configured).

• --firecrawl off|auto|always (default auto)
• --extract --format md|text (default text; if --format is omitted, --extract defaults to md for non-YouTube URLs)
• --markdown-mode off|auto|llm|readability (default readability)
  • auto: use an LLM converter when configured; may fall back to uvx markitdown
  • llm: force LLM conversion (requires a configured model key)
  • off: disable LLM conversion (still may return Firecrawl Markdown when configured)
• Plain-text mode: use --format text.

--youtube auto tries best-effort web transcript endpoints first. When captions are not available, it falls back to:

1. Apify (if APIFY_API_TOKEN is set): uses a scraping actor (faVsWy9VTSNVIhWpR)
2. yt-dlp + Whisper (if yt-dlp is available): downloads audio, then transcribes with local whisper.cpp when installed (preferred), otherwise falls back to OpenAI (OPENAI_API_KEY) or FAL (FAL_KEY)

Environment variables for yt-dlp mode:

• YT_DLP_PATH - optional path to yt-dlp binary (otherwise yt-dlp is resolved via PATH)
• SUMMARIZE_WHISPER_CPP_MODEL_PATH - optional override for the local whisper.cpp model file
• SUMMARIZE_WHISPER_CPP_BINARY - optional override for the local binary (default: whisper-cli)
• SUMMARIZE_DISABLE_LOCAL_WHISPER_CPP=1 - disable local whisper.cpp (force remote)
• OPENAI_API_KEY - OpenAI Whisper transcription
• OPENAI_WHISPER_BASE_URL - optional OpenAI-compatible Whisper endpoint override
• FAL_KEY - FAL AI Whisper fallback

Apify costs money but tends to be more reliable when captions exist.

Extract slide screenshots (scene detection via ffmpeg) and optional OCR:

summarize "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." --slides
summarize "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." --slides --slides-ocr

Outputs are written under ./slides/<sourceId>/ (or --slides-dir). OCR results are included in JSON output (--json) and stored in slides.json inside the slide directory. When scene detection is too sparse, the extractor also samples at a fixed interval to improve coverage. When using --slides, supported terminals (kitty/iTerm/Konsole) render inline thumbnails automatically inside the summary narrative (the model inserts [slide:N] markers). Timestamp links are clickable when the terminal supports OSC-8 (YouTube/Vimeo/Loom/Dropbox). If inline images are unsupported, Summarize prints a note with the on-disk slide directory.

Use --slides --extract to print the full timed transcript and insert slide images inline at matching timestamps.

Format the extracted transcript as Markdown (headings + paragraphs) via an LLM:

summarize "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=..." --extract --format md --markdown-mode llm

Local audio/video files are transcribed first, then summarized. --video-mode transcript forces direct media URLs (and embedded media) through Whisper first. Prefers local whisper.cpp when available; otherwise requires OPENAI_API_KEY or FAL_KEY.

Summarize can use NVIDIA Parakeet/Canary ONNX models via a local CLI you provide. Auto selection (default) prefers ONNX when configured.

• Setup helper: summarize transcriber setup
• Install sherpa-onnx from upstream binaries/build (Homebrew may not have a formula)
• Auto selection: set SUMMARIZE_ONNX_PARAKEET_CMD or SUMMARIZE_ONNX_CANARY_CMD (no flag needed)
• Force a model: --transcriber parakeet|canary|whisper|auto
• Docs: docs/nvidia-onnx-transcription.md

Run: summarize <url>

• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify
• Amazon Music / Audible podcast pages
• Podbean
• Podchaser
• RSS feeds (Podcasting 2.0 transcripts when available)
• Embedded YouTube podcast pages (e.g. JREPodcast)

Transcription: prefers local whisper.cpp when installed; otherwise uses OpenAI Whisper or FAL when keys are set.

--language/--lang controls the output language of the summary (and other LLM-generated text). Default is auto.

When the input is audio/video, the CLI needs a transcript first. The transcript comes from one of these paths:

1. Existing transcript (preferred)
   • YouTube: uses youtubei / captionTracks when available.
   • Podcasts: uses Podcasting 2.0 RSS <podcast:transcript> (JSON/VTT) when the feed publishes it.
2. Whisper transcription (fallback)
   • YouTube: falls back to yt-dlp (audio download) + Whisper transcription when configured; Apify is a last resort.
   • Prefers local whisper.cpp when installed + model available.
   • Otherwise uses cloud Whisper (OpenAI OPENAI_API_KEY) or FAL (FAL_KEY).

For direct media URLs, use --video-mode transcript to force transcribe -> summarize:

summarize https://example.com/file.mp4 --video-mode transcript --lang en

Single config location:

• ~/.summarize/config.json

Supported keys today:

{
  "model": { "id": "openai/gpt-5-mini" },
  "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-..." },
  "ui": { "theme": "ember" }
}

Shorthand (equivalent):

{
  "model": "openai/gpt-5-mini"
}

Also supported:

• model: { "mode": "auto" } (automatic model selection + fallback; see docs/model-auto.md)
• model.rules (customize candidates / ordering)
• models (define presets selectable via --model <preset>)
• env (generic env var defaults; process env still wins)
• apiKeys (legacy shortcut, mapped to env names; prefer env for new configs)
• cache.media (media download cache: TTL 7 days, 2048 MB cap by default; --no-media-cache disables)
• media.videoMode: "auto"|"transcript"|"understand"
• slides.enabled / slides.max / slides.ocr / slides.dir (defaults for --slides)
• ui.theme: "aurora"|"ember"|"moss"|"mono"
• openai.useChatCompletions: true (force OpenAI-compatible chat completions)

Note: the config is parsed leniently (JSON5), but comments are not allowed. Unknown keys are ignored.

Media cache defaults:

{
  "cache": {
    "media": { "enabled": true, "ttlDays": 7, "maxMb": 2048, "verify": "size" }
  }
}

Note: --no-cache bypasses summary caching only (LLM output). Extract/transcript caches still apply. Use --no-media-cache to skip media files.

Precedence:

1. --model
2. SUMMARIZE_MODEL
3. ~/.summarize/config.json
4. default (auto)

Theme precedence:

1. --theme
2. SUMMARIZE_THEME
3. ~/.summarize/config.json (ui.theme)
4. default (aurora)

Environment variable precedence:

1. process env
2. ~/.summarize/config.json (env)
3. ~/.summarize/config.json (apiKeys, legacy)

Set the key matching your chosen --model:

• Optional fallback defaults can be stored in config:

  • ~/.summarize/config.json -> "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-..." }
  • process env always takes precedence
  • legacy "apiKeys" still works (mapped to env names)

• OPENAI_API_KEY (for openai/...)

• NVIDIA_API_KEY (for nvidia/...)

• ANTHROPIC_API_KEY (for anthropic/...)

• XAI_API_KEY (for xai/...)

• Z_AI_API_KEY (for zai/...; supports ZAI_API_KEY alias)

• GEMINI_API_KEY (for google/...)

  • also accepts GOOGLE_GENERATIVE_AI_API_KEY and GOOGLE_API_KEY as aliases

OpenAI-compatible chat completions toggle:

• OPENAI_USE_CHAT_COMPLETIONS=1 (or set openai.useChatCompletions in config)

UI theme:

• SUMMARIZE_THEME=aurora|ember|moss|mono
• SUMMARIZE_TRUECOLOR=1 (force 24-bit ANSI)
• SUMMARIZE_NO_TRUECOLOR=1 (disable 24-bit ANSI)

OpenRouter (OpenAI-compatible):

• Set OPENROUTER_API_KEY=...
• Prefer forcing OpenRouter per model id: --model openrouter/<author>/<slug>
• Built-in preset: --model free (uses a default set of OpenRouter :free models)

Quick start: make free the default (keep auto available)

summarize refresh-free --set-default
summarize "https://example.com"
summarize "https://example.com" --model auto

Regenerates the free preset (models.free in ~/.summarize/config.json) by:

• Fetching OpenRouter /models, filtering :free
• Skipping models that look very small (<27B by default) based on the model id/name
• Testing which ones return non-empty text (concurrency 4, timeout 10s)
• Picking a mix of smart-ish (bigger context_length / output cap) and fast models
• Refining timings and writing the sorted list back

If --model free stops working, run:

summarize refresh-free

Flags:

• --runs 2 (default): extra timing runs per selected model (total runs = 1 + runs)
• --smart 3 (default): how many smart-first picks (rest filled by fastest)
• --min-params 27b (default): ignore models with inferred size smaller than N billion parameters
• --max-age-days 180 (default): ignore models older than N days (set 0 to disable)
• --set-default: also sets "model": "free" in ~/.summarize/config.json

Example:

OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-... summarize "https://example.com" --model openrouter/meta-llama/llama-3.1-8b-instruct:free
OPENROUTER_API_KEY=sk-or-... summarize "https://example.com" --model openrouter/minimax/minimax-m2.5

If your OpenRouter account enforces an allowed-provider list, make sure at least one provider is allowed for the selected model. When routing fails, summarize prints the exact providers to allow.

Legacy: OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1 (and either OPENAI_API_KEY or OPENROUTER_API_KEY) also works.

NVIDIA API Catalog (OpenAI-compatible; free credits):

• Set NVIDIA_API_KEY=...
• Optional: NVIDIA_BASE_URL=https://integrate.api.nvidia.com/v1
• Credits: API Catalog trial starts with 1000 free API credits on signup (up to 5000 total via “Request More” in the API Catalog profile)
• Pick a model id from /v1/models (examples: fast stepfun-ai/step-3.5-flash, strong but slower z-ai/glm5)

export NVIDIA_API_KEY="nvapi-..."
summarize "https://example.com" --model nvidia/stepfun-ai/step-3.5-flash

Z.AI (OpenAI-compatible):

• Z_AI_API_KEY=... (or ZAI_API_KEY=...)
• Optional base URL override: Z_AI_BASE_URL=...

Optional services:

• FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (website extraction fallback)
• YT_DLP_PATH (path to yt-dlp binary for audio extraction)
• FAL_KEY (FAL AI API key for audio transcription via Whisper)
• APIFY_API_TOKEN (YouTube transcript fallback)

The CLI uses the LiteLLM model catalog for model limits (like max output tokens):

• Downloaded from: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BerriAI/litellm/main/model_prices_and_context_window.json
• Cached at: ~/.summarize/cache/

Recommended (minimal deps):

• @steipete/summarize-core/content
• @steipete/summarize-core/prompts

Compatibility (pulls in CLI deps):

• @steipete/summarize/content
• @steipete/summarize/prompts

pnpm install
pnpm check

• Docs index: docs/README.md
• CLI providers and config: docs/cli.md
• Auto model rules: docs/model-auto.md
• Website extraction: docs/website.md
• YouTube handling: docs/youtube.md
• Media pipeline: docs/media.md
• Config schema and precedence: docs/config.md

• "Receiving end does not exist": Chrome did not inject the content script yet.
  • Extension details -> Site access -> On all sites (or allow this domain)
  • Reload the tab once.
• "Failed to fetch" / daemon unreachable:
  • summarize daemon status
  • Logs: ~/.summarize/logs/daemon.err.log

License: MIT