Notes from the build
Comparisons, technical write-ups, and the occasional opinion on where the Markdown web-clipper space is going. Written by the people building one of them — disclosed where it matters.
The built-in options give you JSON in an email, a PDF, or a link on someone else's server. Here's how to get one Markdown file with every turn, code language, table and formula intact — plus a measured comparison of five Chrome exporters against the same three conversations, including the two results where mine only ties.
Read the how-toGoogle Docs paints your document into a canvas, so there is no DOM for a clipper to read — which is why every Markdown clipper you have tried came back empty. Here is the reason, the three routes that do get Markdown out, the base64-image trap in Google's own export, and an honest note on where this clipper does not help.
Read the explainerPocket shut down in 2025. Here's the free, local-first replacement I actually use: clip any article as clean Markdown straight into an Obsidian vault, tag it readlater, and read it on the iPad — no account, no server, and the files are mine. Honest about what's missing, too.
Read the setupMarkDownload — the historical default — was removed from the Chrome Web Store in 2025. The official Obsidian Web Clipper took the throne. A wave of AI-handoff clippers showed up. Here's an honest side-by-side of the six tools an Obsidian or Logseq user might pick from in 2026, including the one I built.
Read the comparison