A specialized data extraction tool for browsing 4chan boards and converting thread discussions into structured text files.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install 4chan-reader
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install 4chan-reader using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is 4chan Reader?
The 4chan Reader is a high-utility component of Openclaw Skills designed to streamline the gathering of data from imageboards. It provides a structured interface to interact with boards like /a/, /v/, and /vg/, allowing users to view current catalogs or extract specific thread contents without manual navigation. This skill is particularly valuable for developers and researchers who need to transform unstructured imageboard text into clean, machine-readable formats for archival or AI-driven analysis.
By leveraging the underlying extraction script, users can maintain a local history of ephemeral discussions and metadata. This ensures that valuable community insights or niche technical discussions are captured before they are pruned from server history, making it a robust solution for community-focused data engineering and monitoring.
4chan Reader Use Cases
- Archiving ephemeral imageboard discussions for long-term research and sentiment analysis.
- Generating structured text datasets from niche communities for linguistic study or AI training.
- Automated monitoring of board catalogs for trending topics or specific keywords using Openclaw Skills.
- Ingesting community-driven technical discussions into localized knowledge bases.
How 4chan Reader Works
- The user initiates a catalog request for a specific board to view active thread IDs, reply counts, and teasers.
- The system fetches the board metadata to help the user identify relevant content or active discussions.
- The user selects a specific thread ID for deep content extraction.
- The script parses the thread, extracting post text and file metadata while respecting optional word limits for text density.
- The processed content is saved to a timestamped directory for organized retrieval and programmatic access.
4chan Reader Setup
To use this skill within your environment, ensure you have Python 3 installed.
View a board catalog:
python3 scripts/chan_extractor.py catalog <board>
Extract thread content to a specific directory:
python3 scripts/chan_extractor.py thread <board> <thread_id> [output_root_dir] [word_limit]
4chan Reader Data Schema & Taxonomy
| Component | Format | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog View | `ThreadID | PostCount |
| Thread Storage | .txt |
Structured text file containing extracted post content. |
| Directory Structure | /<board>_<timestamp>/<thread_id>.txt |
Hierarchical organization for archived threads. |
| Metadata | Text & File Refs | Captures post text along with associated file attachment metadata. |
4chan Reader Advanced Features
- Granular word limits per line to optimize extracted text for LLM context windows.
- Automatic timestamped directory management to prevent data collisions and maintain archive history.
- Broad compatibility across all public 4chan boards for versatile data gathering.
- Seamless integration capabilities for larger Openclaw Skills automation pipelines and data ingestion tasks.
SKILL.md
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