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From chans-research
Research imageboards and forums (4chan, 5ch, leftypol, kohlchan, endchan, zzzchan, 2ch.hk, DCInside, Arca.live, Machi BBS, Shitaraba + FoolFuuka archives). Use when the user wants to (1) browse boards and catalogs across sites, (2) search threads by keyword with FTS5, (3) export threads to markdown with optional local image download, (4) search historical archives, or (5) research community sentiment and discussion on any topic mentioned on imageboards. Trigger on mentions of 4chan, /biz/, /g/, /pol/, imageboard, anonymous forum, or "what are people saying about X". No auth required.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/chans-research:chans-researchThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Browse, search, and export threads across 20 imageboard and forum sites.
Browse, search, and export threads across 20 imageboard and forum sites.
requests installed (pip install requests)No authentication needed — all supported APIs are public and read-only.
| Site | Engine | Notes |
|---|---|---|
4chan.org | vichan | Boards API, CDN images |
leftypol.org | vichan | Politics |
wizchan.org | vichan | Male-only community |
smuglo.li | vichan | Anime/manga community |
uboachan.net | vichan | Yume Nikki/RPGMaker community |
kissu.moe | vichan | Otaku culture |
sushigirl.us | vichan | Comfy-posting community |
8kun.top | vichan | Boards API (328 boards) |
kohlchan.net | lynxchan | German-language imageboard |
endchan.net | lynxchan | Free-speech focused |
zzzchan.xyz | jschan | Misc boards |
trashchan.xyz | jschan | Comfy/retro boards |
2ch.hk | makaba | Largest Russian imageboard |
desuarchive.org | foolfuuka | 4chan archive (search API) |
archive.4plebs.org | foolfuuka | 4chan archive (search API) |
| Site | Engine | Notes |
|---|---|---|
5ch.net | dat | Largest Japanese BBS. cp932 encoding. May return HTTP 451 from non-JP IPs |
jbbs.shitaraba.net | shitaraba | Hosted boards. Board format: category/id (e.g., computer/43680). EUC-JP |
machi.to | machibbs | Regional Japanese boards. JSON API, UTF-8 |
| Site | Engine | Notes |
|---|---|---|
dcinside.com | dcinside | Korean imageboard (283M monthly visits). Web scraping. Auto-detects gallery type (major/minor/mini) |
arca.live | arcalive | Korean community platform (145M monthly visits). Mobile JSON API |
CHANS="python ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/chans-research/scripts/chans.py"
# List all supported sites
$CHANS sites
# List boards on a site
$CHANS boards --site 4chan.org
$CHANS boards --site 5ch.net
# Browse a board catalog
$CHANS catalog --site 4chan.org -b g
$CHANS catalog --site 5ch.net -b news4vip
$CHANS catalog --site machi.to -b tokyo
$CHANS catalog --site dcinside.com -b programming
# Export a thread to markdown
$CHANS thread --site 4chan.org -b biz -t 12345678
$CHANS thread --site machi.to -b tokyo -t 12345 --stdout
# Export with local images (downloads full + thumb to assets/)
$CHANS thread --site 4chan.org -b biz -t 12345678 -D -o ./export
# Download images for a thread already in the DB
$CHANS download --site 4chan.org -b biz -t 12345678 -o ./export
# Shitaraba uses category/id board format
$CHANS catalog --site jbbs.shitaraba.net -b computer/43680
# Bulk ingest boards into local SQLite
$CHANS ingest --site 4chan.org -B g,biz,sci
$CHANS ingest --site 5ch.net -B news4vip,poverty
# Search across all ingested data (FTS5) — works with CJK text
$CHANS search -q "artificial intelligence"
$CHANS search -q "テスト"
$CHANS search -q "bitcoin" --site 4chan.org --board biz
# Search FoolFuuka archives (live API, no ingest needed)
$CHANS search -q "bitcoin" --site desuarchive.org --board g
# Export search results to markdown
$CHANS export -q "machine learning" -o ./exports
# Show DB statistics
$CHANS stats
$CHANS sites # all 20 supported sites
$CHANS boards --site 4chan.org # all boards on 4chan
$CHANS boards --site 5ch.net # all boards on 5ch (from bbsmenu)
$CHANS ingest --site 4chan.org -B g,biz,sci
$CHANS ingest --site 5ch.net -B news4vip,poverty
Ingestion fetches the full catalog for each board and stores all OP posts in a local SQLite database (~/.claude/cache/chans.db) with FTS5 indexing.
$CHANS search -q "home server"
$CHANS search -q "rust programming" --site 4chan.org --board g
$CHANS search -q "テスト" # CJK search works with FTS5
For archive sites (desuarchive, 4plebs), search hits the live FoolFuuka API and also ingests results locally.
$CHANS thread --site 4chan.org -b g -t 12345678 --stdout
$CHANS thread --site machi.to -b tokyo -t 12345 --stdout
The -D / --download-images flag on the thread command downloads all full-size and thumbnail images into an assets/ subdirectory and rewrites the markdown export to use local assets/ paths instead of CDN URLs. Files are named {post_id}_full.{ext} and {post_id}_thumb.{ext}.
# Export thread with images saved locally
$CHANS thread --site 4chan.org -b biz -t 12345678 -D -o ./research
# Standalone: download images for a thread already in the DB
$CHANS download --site 4chan.org -b biz -t 12345678 -o ./research
Image-capable engines: vichan (4chan, leftypol, etc.), lynxchan (kohlchan, endchan), makaba (2ch.hk), foolfuuka (desuarchive, 4plebs). Japanese and Korean engines do not extract image URLs.
Always use -D when exporting threads for presentations or visual research. Imageboard CDN URLs are ephemeral — threads get pruned and images disappear. Local downloads ensure images survive for use with /frontend-slides or any other downstream tool. The exported markdown with local assets/ paths can be read directly as image source material.
scripts/
├── chans.py # CLI entrypoint (argparse + commands)
├── adapters.py # Site registry + 10 engine adapters
├── fetch.py # HTTP: rate limits, If-Modified-Since, retries
├── db.py # SQLite + FTS5 storage
├── html_strip.py # HTML → plaintext (vichan, lynxchan, dat, dcinside)
└── dat_parse.py # 2ch/5ch dat format parser (subject.txt + thread.dat)
10 engine adapter families normalize all sites to a canonical post schema:
Western sites default to 1 req/s. Japanese sites use 1.5-2.0s. Korean sites use 1.5s. The fetch layer enforces per-domain rate limiting automatically. Repeat requests to the same URL use If-Modified-Since to avoid re-downloading unchanged data.
~/.claude/cache/chans.db (SQLite with WAL mode)category/id format (e.g., computer/43680)-D when exporting threads that will feed into presentations or visual worknpx claudepluginhub akegaviar/tabtabtabtabtab --plugin chans-researchBypasses WAF/bot protection, 402/403 errors, and blocked websites using yt-dlp, Jina Reader, public APIs, and a WAF-profile-driven fetch chain with Playwright fallback.
Scans HN, Lobsters, Reddit, and tech blogs for community opinions and experience reports on technologies or approaches. Use for gathering perspectives.
Reads public Reddit data via UnifAPI: subreddit profiles, thread comment trees, user activity, feeds, and trending searches. Read-only, seed-driven discovery.