adapt

Adapt — Build a New Platform Adapter

Guide the process of adding extraction support for a new platform. The result is a working adapter that plugs into the existing extraction pipeline.

Before You Start

1. Check if the platform is already supported. Read src/adapters/ — if an adapter exists, this skill isn't needed.
2. Ask the user for a live site URL on the target platform. You need a real site to reverse-engineer against.

Phase 1: Reconnaissance

Understand how the target platform works before writing any code.

1a. Platform Detection

Figure out how to identify sites on this platform. Check:

1. URL patterns — does the domain contain platform-specific strings? (e.g. .squarespace.com, .webflow.io, .wixsite.com)
2. HTTP headers — fetch the site and look for platform-specific response headers (e.g. X-Squarespace-Version, X-Wix-Request-Id)
3. HTML markers — look for platform-specific tags, classes, scripts, or meta tags in the page source
4. DNS — check CNAME records that point to platform infrastructure

Add detection signals to src/lib/extraction/detect-platform.ts:

• URL patterns go in URL_PATTERNS
• HTTP/HTML signals go in detectFromHttp()

1b. Content Discovery

Figure out how to find all pages on the site:

1. Sitemap — try sitemap.xml, sitemap_index.xml. Most platforms generate these.
2. Navigation crawl — the shared extractNavLinks() in src/adapters/shared.ts handles this generically.
3. Platform API — some platforms have public APIs that list pages/posts (like Squarespace's ?format=json or Shopify's /products.json).
4. Structured data — check JSON-LD, Open Graph, and meta tags for content type hints.

1c. Content Extraction

Figure out how to get the actual content from each page:

1. API-first — does the platform expose content via API/JSON? This is always preferred.
2. HTML parsing — if no API, parse the server-rendered HTML. Look for semantic containers (.post-body, article, .content, main).
3. Browser rendering — if content is JavaScript-rendered, use Playwright via launchBrowser() from src/adapters/shared.ts.

1d. API Mapping (recommended for complex platforms)

If the platform has an admin dashboard or uses client-side API calls, use liberate_map_apis to automatically discover all API endpoints:

1. Ask the user to launch Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=9222 and log in to their account on the target platform
2. Call liberate_map_apis with the CDP port, the site URL, and optionally a list of admin dashboard URLs to crawl
3. The tool navigates each URL, captures all JSON API traffic via CDP, and produces:
   • A categorized endpoint catalog (Content, Site Config, Auth, Commerce, Analytics, Media)
   • Sample request headers and response previews for each endpoint
   • Auth header patterns (X-*, Authorization, cookies) used by the platform
   • Query parameters observed on each endpoint

This is the fastest way to reverse-engineer a platform's API surface. The output tells you exactly which endpoints return content data, what auth is needed, and what the response shapes look like — everything you need to write the adapter's extractPage function.

You can also call liberate_probe to inspect window globals, localStorage, cookies, and platform identity fields on any page — useful for understanding what data the platform exposes client-side.

Document everything you find. This is research — take notes on endpoints, selectors, quirks.

Phase 2: Build the Adapter

2a. Scaffold

An adapter is a directory src/adapters/<platform>/, never a single file. index.ts is a thin assembler; each concern lives in its own sibling. Read src/adapters/webflow/ (the smallest — a 3-file split) and src/adapters/shopify/ (a fuller split) as references.

index.ts — thin assembler + public API. It defines detect inline, imports discover/extract (and optional capture/blocks) from siblings, exports the <platform>Adapter object, and re-exports the inventory/opts types (plus any helpers other modules need) so external code only ever imports <platform>/index.js. Keep all real logic in siblings.

// src/adapters/webflow/index.ts — the whole assembler
import type { PlatformAdapter } from '../../types.js';
import { discoverWebflow } from './discover.js';
import { extractWebflow } from './extract.js';

export type { WebflowInventory, WebflowAdapterOpts } from './discover.js';

function detect(url: string): boolean {
  return /webflow\.io|webflow\.com/i.test(url);
}

export const webflowAdapter: PlatformAdapter = {
  id: 'webflow',
  detect,
  discover: discoverWebflow,
  extract: extractWebflow,
};

Sibling files — add only what the platform needs (webflow uses 3; richer platforms split further):

Both seams are typed in src/adapters/page-actions.ts; examples are shopify/capture.ts and squarespace/blocks.ts. Add any platform-specific helpers as further siblings (wix has runtime.ts/gallery.ts/page.ts; hubspot has url.ts/metadata.ts). The tiny webflow adapter has no types.ts — it inlines its opts/inventory in discover.ts and re-exports from there; use a dedicated types.ts for anything non-trivial.

The adapter contract — <platform>Adapter implements PlatformAdapter (src/types.ts):

• id — lowercase platform name (e.g. 'ghost')
• detect(url) — true if the URL belongs to this platform (defined inline in index.ts)
• discover(url, opts) — fetch sitemap + navigation, classify URLs, return inventory
• extract(inventory, wxr, opts, context) — call runExtractionLoop() from src/adapters/shared.ts with an extractPage function
• optional probe, capture, blocks

Define in types.ts:

• <Platform>AdapterOpts extending Record<string, unknown> with: delay?, resume?, dryRun?, verbose?, outputDir?
• <Platform>Inventory with: siteUrl, discoveredAt, siteMeta (title, tagline, language), navigation, counts, urls

2b. The extractPage Function

This is where platform-specific extraction lives. For each URL:

1. Fetch the page (via API or HTTP)
2. Extract: title, slug, content (HTML), excerpt, date, seoTitle, seoDescription, mediaUrls
3. Score quality using your own signals
4. Return an ExtractedPage object (defined in src/adapters/shared.ts)

Use the shared helpers from src/adapters/shared.ts:

• extractMeta(html, property) — read meta tags
• extractTitle(html) — read <title> tag
• extractHeading(html) — read <h1> with title fallback
• extractNavLinks(html, baseUrl) — parse nav links
• IMAGE_EXTENSIONS — regex for image file detection

2c. Product Support

Check during reconnaissance whether the platform has e-commerce (product pages, a store, a shop section).

Generic detection (automatic): The shared extraction loop in src/adapters/shared.ts automatically detects products via JSON-LD @type: Product on any page classified as product type. This works out of the box if:

• The platform emits JSON-LD Product schema
• The sitemap or URL classifier marks product URLs correctly

Platform-specific detection (optional but recommended): If the platform has a richer product API or non-standard product markup, provide a custom extractProduct function to runExtractionLoop():

const result = await runExtractionLoop({
  // ...other opts
  csvBuilder,
  extractProduct: (url: string, html: string) => {
    // Try platform-specific product extraction first
    // Return WooProduct or null
  },
});

The custom extractor is called before the generic JSON-LD fallback, so it takes priority.

What to extract for products (see WooProduct type in src/lib/import/woo-product-csv.ts):

• name (required), description, shortDescription
• regularPrice, salePrice
• sku
• images — array of image URLs
• categories, tags
• weight, length, width, height
• inStock, stock
• attributes — array of { name, values[], visible, global } for product options (size, color, etc.)
• type — 'simple', 'variable', 'grouped', 'external', or 'variation'
• parentSku — for variations, the parent product's SKU

Variable products: If the platform supports product variants (sizes, colors), generate one variable parent row plus variation child rows with parentSku linking them. See shopifyProductToWoo() in src/adapters/shopify/products.ts for the pattern.

CSV streaming: The adapter should create a WooProductCsvBuilder, call openStream(outputDir) before extraction, and closeStream() after. The shared loop calls csvBuilder.addProduct() automatically when it detects products. See the Shopify or Wix adapters for the wiring pattern.

Phase 3: Register

Always import the adapter from its barrel — ./adapters/<platform>/index.js — never a sibling directly.

1. src/mcp-server.ts (required) — add the import under the // Static adapter imports comment and add the adapter to the adapters: PlatformAdapter[] array. Both are kept alphabetical.
2. src/ui/discover.tsx (CLI/Ink discovery UI) — add the top-level import and append to its adapters array. The default data-liberation <url> flow resolves adapters here, so the CLI path needs it.
3. src/ui/inspect.tsx (optional) — liberate_inspect lazy-import()s a small allAdapters list inside the component; add yours there for inspect coverage. This list is partial today and isn't required for extraction.

Phase 4: Test

4a. Create Test Fixtures

Create fixture files in test/fixtures/ with sample HTML and/or JSON from the platform. Sanitize any PII.

4b. Write Tests

Create test/adapters/<platform>.test.ts. Test:

• Detection (URL patterns, HTML markers)
• Page extraction (fixture HTML → ExtractedPage)
• Media URL extraction
• Content quality scoring
• Product extraction (if the platform has e-commerce) — fixture product HTML → WooProduct with name, price, images, variants

4c. Manual Verification

Run extraction against the user's live site:

npx tsx src/cli.ts <site-url> --dry-run --verbose

Check the output for quality: are titles correct? Is content complete? Are media URLs captured?

Phase 5: Document

1. Add the platform to the supported platforms list in README.md
2. Add a discovery entry to DISCOVERIES.md documenting what you learned about the platform
3. Update AGENTS.md if any non-obvious details are worth noting

Tips

• Start with the simplest extraction path. Get basic pages working first, then add blog posts, then products, then edge cases.
• Check the existing adapters for patterns you can reuse. Don't reinvent what shared.ts already provides.
• Platform APIs change. Document the version/date of any API you reverse-engineer.
• Test with both small and large sites. A 5-page portfolio and a 500-page blog exercise different code paths.