medium-paywall-bypass
Skill9 starsChanged 4 months agoMITView on GitHub
Read paywalled Medium articles in full, including Medium-hosted publications (towardsdatascience.com, betterprogramming.pub, etc.).
In this repository33 other files it gives its agents.
- AGENTS.mdAGENTS.md
- agentic-scaffoldingSkill
- annas-archive-ebooksSkill
- ansi-artSkill
- clarifySkill
- conjecture-cascadeSkill
- crystallizeSkill
- dianalokadaSkill
- duris-game-knowledgeSkill
- duris-group-combatSkill
- ebook-extractorSkill
- failure-modesSkill
- gpt-pro-loopSkill
- graph-researcherSkill
- improve-codebaseSkill
- jevSkill
- julian-writingSkill
- kalshi-prediction-marketSkill
- lemmaSkill
- ml-learning-methodsSkill
- name-reviewSkill
- no-process-pornSkill
- pm-deep-analysisSkill
- pm-market-analysisSkill
- pm-research-methodologiesSkill
- pm-situation-framingSkill
- prediction-drillSkill
- probe-driven-designSkill
- refine-testsSkill
- remove-ai-sinsSkill
- show-usageSkill
- writing-claude-skillsSkill
- x-undocumented-apiSkill
The file
Files
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 contentExample 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 contentcurl 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='')}"Does it work?
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Your trail
Files you open will collect here, so you can find them again.
Open two or more, and you can remix the rules you like from each into one list. Kept in this browser only.
Now do this for your own.
Bring your CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md or skills. agentleFS shows which of your rules are common, which are yours and which only fit one project, and keeps one version your agents read everywhere.