/web-fallback — Resilient Web Content Retrieval

When you need information from a URL but WebFetch might fail (auth walls, rate limits, blocked hosts), use this fallback chain.

Usage

User provides: /web-fallback <url> <what to find>

Fallback Chain

Step 1: Try WebFetch

WebFetch(url=<url>, prompt=<what to find>)

If successful → return results.

Step 2: Try WebSearch

If WebFetch fails (redirect, auth wall, timeout):

WebSearch(query="<domain> <what to find>")

Extract relevant results and summarize.

Step 3: Try Cached/Alternative Sources

If WebSearch also fails:

• Check if a cached version exists: WebFetch(url="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:<url>")
• Try archive.org: WebFetch(url="https://web.archive.org/web/<url>")
• Search for the same content on alternative domains

Step 4: Report Failure

If all steps fail, report:

• Which steps were tried
• Error messages from each
• Suggest the user try manually or provide the content via clipboard

Notes

• Always report which fallback level succeeded
• For GitHub URLs, prefer gh CLI instead of WebFetch
• For npm package docs, prefer context7 MCP instead
• Rate limit: don't retry the same URL more than twice