briefly

A CLI that summarizes anything using Claude. Pass it a URL, a file, or pipe text via stdin.

Install

npm install -g briefly-cli

Or run directly:

npx briefly-cli https://example.com/article

Usage

# Summarize a URL
briefly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer_(deep_learning_architecture)

# Summarize a file
briefly paper.pdf

# Pipe from stdin
cat README.md | briefly

# Clipboard (macOS)
pbpaste | briefly

Options

-d, --detail <level>   Detail level: short, medium, long (default: medium)
-f, --format <type>    Output format: prose, bullets, technical (default: prose)
-m, --model <model>    Claude model (default: claude-sonnet-4-20250514)
--no-stream            Disable streaming output
-h, --help             Show help

Examples

# Quick bullet summary of an article
briefly -d short -f bullets https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.00001

# Technical deep-dive of source code
briefly -d long -f technical src/summarize.ts

# Summarize git diff
git diff | briefly -f bullets

Setup

Requires an Anthropic API key:

export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

How It Works

1. Detects input type (URL, file path, or stdin)
2. For URLs, fetches and strips HTML to plain text
3. Sends content to Claude with format and detail instructions
4. Streams the summary to your terminal

Built with TypeScript, the Anthropic SDK, and Commander.js.

License

MIT