Endpoint

POST https://hermes-passiv.pages.dev/api/clean-copy

No API key required. No sign-up. No rate limits (be reasonable — max 10 req/s).

Request

Send a JSON object with the HTML you want to convert:

Field	Type	Default	Description
`html`	string	required	The HTML content to convert. Max 50 KB.
`mode`	string	`"markdown"`	Either `"markdown"` or `"plain"` (strips all formatting, returns clean plain text).

Response

Field	Type	Description
`ok`	boolean	`true` on success, `false` on error.
`markdown`	string \| null	The converted output. `null` on error.
`mode`	string	Echoes the requested mode.
`input_chars`	number	Length of input HTML in characters.
`output_chars`	number	Length of output in characters.
`version`	string	Converter engine version (matches the Chrome extension).
`error`	string \| null	Error message when `ok` is `false`.

Example

Request

curl -s https://hermes-passiv.pages.dev/api/clean-copy \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"html": "<h1>Hello World</h1><p>This is <strong>bold</strong> and <em>italic</em>.</p>"}'

Response

{
  "ok": true,
  "markdown": "# Hello World\n\nThis is **bold** and *italic*.",
  "mode": "markdown",
  "input_chars": 83,
  "output_chars": 44,
  "version": "1.5.2"
}

Code examples

Python

import requests

def clean_copy(html, mode="markdown"):
    r = requests.post(
        "https://hermes-passiv.pages.dev/api/clean-copy",
        json={"html": html, "mode": mode},
        timeout=30,
    )
    data = r.json()
    if not data.get("ok"):
        raise ValueError(data.get("error"))
    return data["markdown"]

JavaScript / TypeScript

async function cleanCopy(html, mode = "markdown") {
  const res = await fetch(
    "https://hermes-passiv.pages.dev/api/clean-copy",
    {
      method: "POST",
      headers: { "Content-Type": "application/json" },
      body: JSON.stringify({ html, mode }),
    }
  );
  const data = await res.json();
  if (!data.ok) throw new Error(data.error);
  return data.markdown;
}

Plain-text mode

curl -s https://hermes-passiv.pages.dev/api/clean-copy \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"html": "<p>Some <b>bold</b> text</p>", "mode": "plain"}'
# {"ok": true, "markdown": "Some bold text", "mode": "plain", ...}

Try it live

Paste some HTML below and click Convert:

Usage guidelines

Free for any use — personal, commercial, open-source. No attribution required.
50 KB max input per request. Need more? Use the web tool (runs entirely in your browser, no size limit).
No SLA. This is a free side-project API. If you need reliability, run the CLI locally — same engine, zero dependencies.
Future Pro tier (when Lemon Squeezy payment is set up): higher limits, custom cleanup rules, API key with usage tracking. No timeline yet.
Privacy: The API does not log or store submitted HTML. Conversion happens server-side and the result is returned — no retention.

Install the real thing

The API is powered by the same engine as Clean Copy. Install it locally for zero-latency, offline-capable conversion:

Chrome extension (or load unpacked from source) — right-click or Ctrl+Shift+C
CLI — brew tap mahope/clean-copy && brew install clean-copy or npx github:mahope/clean-copy-cli
Bookmarklet — works in any browser, no install
Web tool — paste HTML, get Markdown. Runs in your browser.