skool-lesson-scrape/README.md

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# skool-lesson-scrape
Download lessons from any Skool community classroom to local Markdown files.
- Works on Mac, Windows, and Linux
- Skips lessons already saved — safe to re-run when new content is added
- Saves one `.md` file per lesson: `Course Name -- Lesson Title.md`
- Respects your membership tier — only downloads content your account can access
- Works great with Obsidian, Notion, or any Markdown-based knowledge system
---
## Requirements
- Python 3.8 or later
- A paid Skool account with access to the community you want to scrape
---
## Setup
```bash
pip install -r requirements.txt
playwright install chromium
```
---
## Usage
```bash
python scrape.py <community>
```
A browser window will open. Log in to Skool normally (email/password or Google). The script takes over automatically once you land on the community.
**With a custom output folder:**
```bash
python scrape.py <community> --output ~/Documents/my-lessons
```
**Re-run anytime** — already-saved lessons are skipped automatically.
**Debug mode** — inspect page structure without saving anything:
```bash
python scrape.py <community> --discover
```
### Finding your community slug
Your community slug is the part of the URL after `skool.com/`:
```
https://www.skool.com/my-community -> my-community
```
### Examples
```bash
python scrape.py navaigate
python scrape.py my-community --output ~/Documents/Lessons
python scrape.py my-community --discover
```
### Default output folder
If you omit `--output`, lessons are saved to `~/skool-lessons`.
**Obsidian users** — point `--output` at a folder inside your vault:
```bash
python scrape.py my-community --output ~/Documents/MyVault/Lessons
```
**Windows users** — use quotes around paths with spaces:
```bash
python scrape.py my-community --output "C:/Users/YourName/Documents/skool-lessons"
```
---
## How it works
Skool embeds course and lesson structure as JSON in the page source (`__NEXT_DATA__`). The script reads that directly to get course and lesson IDs, then navigates to each lesson and extracts the body text from Skool's TipTap editor (`.ProseMirror` selector). No fragile DOM scraping — the JSON structure is stable.
---
## Notes
- Content is gated by your own Skool membership — you can only download lessons your account has access to
- This tool is for personal offline backup, not redistribution of community content
- Re-running after new lessons are posted will only download what's new
---
## Troubleshooting
**"No courses found"** — a diagnostic HTML file is saved to your system temp folder. The page structure may have changed; open an issue with the HTML attached.
**Browser closes immediately** — make sure you completed the Playwright browser install: `playwright install chromium`
**Lessons saving as navigation boilerplate** — run `--discover` and open an issue with the output.
---
Built by [Kisa Fenn](https://github.com/kisasttil-gif) — STTIL Solutions