ratacat/medium-paywall-bypass
skills/medium-paywall-bypass/SKILL.md
Use when user shares a Medium article URL behind a paywall and wants to read the full content. Also use for articles on Medium-hosted publications like towardsdatascience.com, betterprogramming.pub, levelup.gitconnected.com, etc.
$ install --global
skillsauthnpx skillsauth add ratacat/claude-skills medium-paywall-bypassInstall this skill globally with one command. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf.
Security Scan Results
3 of 9 scanners reported clean
Some scanners were skipped, did not run, or reported a non-clean status. Review each row below.
3
Scanners Passed
9
Scanners in report
Clean
TrivyContainer and dependency vulnerability scanner
95%
Clean
SemgrepStatic code analysis for vulnerabilities
95%
Clean
mcp-scan (Snyk)Model Context Protocol security validation
95%
Skipped
Snyk (dep)Open source security scanning
50%
Skipped
Socket.devSupply chain security analysis
50%
Skipped
VirusTotalMulti-engine malware detection
50%
Skipped
CrowdStrikeAdvanced threat intelligence
50%
Skipped
OSV-ScannerOpen Source Vulnerability database check
50%
Skipped
OWASP Dep-Check
50%
Last scanned: Apr 11, 2026, 8:37 PM87.0s1 file scanned
SKILL.md
- name:
- medium-paywall-bypass
- description:
- Use when user shares a Medium article URL behind a paywall and wants to read the full content. Also use for articles on Medium-hosted publications like towardsdatascience.com, betterprogramming.pub, levelup.gitconnected.com, etc.
Medium Paywall Bypass
Overview
Fetch paywalled Medium articles using free mirror services. Try services in order until one works.
Service Priority
| Service | URL Pattern | WebFetch | curl | Notes |
|---------|-------------|----------|------|-------|
| Freedium | https://freedium.cfd/{encoded_url} | Yes | Yes | Best option, returns content directly |
| Archive.today | https://archive.today/latest/{raw_url} | No | Maybe | Often requires captcha |
| RemovePaywalls | https://removepaywalls.com/{raw_url} | No | No | Redirect page only, needs browser |
| ReadMedium | https://readmedium.com/en/{encoded_url} | No | No | Returns 403 programmatically |
{encoded_url}= URL-encoded (slashes become %2F, @ becomes %40, etc.){raw_url}= Original URL as-is
For Claude Code: Use Freedium via WebFetch. Other services require browser interaction.
Workflow
1. User provides Medium URL
2. Try Freedium first via WebFetch
3. If blocked/empty, try next service
4. Extract and present article content
Example Usage
Given: https://medium.com/@user/some-article-abc123
WebFetch (recommended):
URL: https://freedium.cfd/https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40user%2Fsome-article-abc123
Prompt: Extract the full article content
curl fallback:
curl -sL "https://freedium.cfd/https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2F%40user%2Fsome-article-abc123"
Medium-Hosted Domains
These domains use Medium's paywall system:
medium.com,*.medium.comtowardsdatascience.combetterprogramming.publevelup.gitconnected.comjavascript.plainenglish.iouxdesign.cchackernoon.comcodeburst.ioitnext.ioproandroiddev.cominfosecwriteups.com
Common Issues
| Problem | Solution |
|---------|----------|
| Freedium down | Try alternative mirror: freedium-mirror.cfd |
| Article not found | Article may be too new to be cached |
| Garbled HTML | Use WebFetch with prompt: "Extract the article text and format as markdown" |
| 403/blocked | Try curl with dangerouslyDisableSandbox: true |
Quick Reference
# URL encoding in Python
from urllib.parse import quote
encoded = quote(url, safe='')
# For WebFetch tool
freedium_url = f"https://freedium.cfd/{quote(medium_url, safe='')}"
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