Wget URL Reader

VerifiedCaution

Fetches content from URLs using wget. Handles file downloads, web page reading, and API responses with configurable flags like custom headers, timeouts, and retries.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevelopmentBeginner
606/2/2026
Claude CodeCursorWindsurfCopilotCodex
#url-fetching#wget#file-download#api-client

Recommended for

Our review

Fetches content from URLs using wget, supporting file downloads and API responses.

Strengths

  • Simple and reliable fetching
  • Supports HTTP headers and authentication
  • Handles timeouts and retries
  • Works for both display and file saving

Limitations

  • Requires wget to be installed
  • Not suitable for interactive web scraping (e.g., JavaScript rendering)
  • May be blocked by some sites
When to use it

Use when you need to quickly fetch a URL's content or download a file in a scripted environment.

When not to use it

Do not use for sites requiring browser-like interaction, complex sessions, or when you need to bypass dynamic content.

Security analysis

Caution
Quality score85/100

The skill uses wget to fetch content from user-provided URLs without safeguards, enabling actions like SSRF, downloading potentially malicious content, or exfiltrating data when combined with other skills. While the tool itself is legitimate, the lack of URL restrictions and the ability to output to files or stdout introduces moderate risk.

Findings
  • No URL validation or sanitization; allows fetching arbitrary URLs (potential SSRF, data exfiltration, or access to internal services).
  • Permits disabling SSL certificate validation via --no-check-certificate.
  • Allows credential provision directly on command line (--user/--password) or in headers, risking exposure in logs or command history.
  • Can write downloaded content to arbitrary filenames, potentially overwriting important files if combined with path traversal.

Examples

Read webpage
Read the content from https://example.com
Download file
Download the file from https://example.com/data.json
Fetch JSON API
Fetch JSON from https://api.example.com/data

name: wget-reader description: Fetch data from URLs. Use when asked to download content, fetch remote files, or read web data. version: 1.0.0

Wget URL Reader

Overview

Fetches content from URLs using wget command-line tool. Supports downloading files, reading web pages, and retrieving API responses.

Instructions

  1. When user provides a URL to read or fetch:

    • Validate the URL format
    • Use wget with appropriate flags based on content type
  2. For reading content to stdout (display):

    wget -qO- "<URL>"
    
  3. For downloading files:

    wget -O "<filename>" "<URL>"
    
  4. For JSON API responses:

    wget -qO- --header="Accept: application/json" "<URL>"
    
  5. Common wget flags:

    • -q: Quiet mode (no progress output)
    • -O-: Output to stdout
    • -O <file>: Output to specific file
    • --header: Add custom HTTP header
    • --timeout=<seconds>: Set timeout
    • --tries=<n>: Number of retries
    • --user-agent=<agent>: Set user agent

Examples

Example: Read webpage content

Input: "Read the content from https://example.com" Command:

wget -qO- "https://example.com"

Example: Download a file

Input: "Download the file from https://example.com/data.json" Command:

wget -O "data.json" "https://example.com/data.json"

Example: Fetch API with headers

Input: "Fetch JSON from https://api.example.com/data" Command:

wget -qO- --header="Accept: application/json" "https://api.example.com/data"

Example: Download with timeout and retries

Input: "Download with 30 second timeout" Command:

wget --timeout=30 --tries=3 -O "output.txt" "<URL>"

Guidelines

  • Always quote URLs to handle special characters
  • Use -q flag to suppress progress bars in scripts
  • For large files, consider adding --show-progress for user feedback
  • Respect robots.txt and rate limits when fetching multiple URLs
  • Use --no-check-certificate only when necessary (self-signed certs)
  • For authentication, use --user and --password or --header="Authorization: Bearer <token>"
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