Moodle Mirror

Overview

Mirror Moodle course pages + attachments to a local directory (HTML/MD/TXT), with retry logic and manual/assisted SSO handling. This is built for Moodle sites that require login and occasionally redirect to external URLs.

Workflow Decision Tree

1. Default: prefer CDP to reuse a real Chrome session (best for anti-bot)
2. If CDP is unstable for downloads, use

   --persistent --channel chrome

3. If SSO appears, use

   --auto-login

   to auto-click saved account tiles (MFA may still require manual action)
4. For

   mod/url/view.php

   , mirror the Moodle wrapper page (

   forceview=1

   ) to avoid external 502s

Quick Start

1. Start or reuse a logged-in Chrome (CDP mode recommended).
2. Run the crawler with a bounded scope and output folder.
3. Check

   _status.md

   ; remediate any remaining errors with targeted runs.
4. Keep auth state in user profile (default), not inside the Obsidian vault.
5. Default behavior overwrites page files when a URL is (re-)saved. This is intentional to avoid duplicates when re-running to fix errors or fill gaps. If you want versioned snapshots, use a new output folder per run (e.g., append a date).

Speed + Incremental Updates

• The crawler now extracts links from the main content area when possible (avoids pulling in global header/footer links like notifications and unrelated courses).
• Use

  --resume

  to skip already-saved URLs.
• Use

  --update-on-change

  so that when a previously-saved page is revisited (typically the course homepage / start URLs), it is only re-saved if the local content changed.
• For faster runs on Moodle, set

  --networkidle-wait-ms 0

  (default) and keep

  --polite-delay-ms

  low (even

  0

  is often fine).

Prerequisites (Tooling)

• Python with Playwright installed
• Chrome (for CDP or persistent profile)
• Optional: a dedicated Chrome profile for Moodle to avoid impacting daily browsing

If Playwright or browsers are missing, install once:

pip install playwright
python -m playwright install

Start Chrome with CDP (if not already running):

chrome.exe --remote-debugging-port=9222 --user-data-dir=%USERPROFILE%\.codex\state\moodle_profile_cdp

Commands (Primary)

CDP mode (reuses an existing Chrome). Run from the skill folder or replace the script path with an absolute path:

python .\scripts\moodle_mirror.py `
  --cdp-url http://127.0.0.1:9222 `
  --start-url "https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=55684" `
  --out-dir "E:\path\to\Obsidian\Course Folder\Moodle Mirror" `
  --format md --rewrite-links `
  --allow-prefix https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/ `
  --allow-prefix https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/mod/ `
  --allow-prefix https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/ `
  --resume --update-on-change `
  --max-pages 120 --max-downloads 200 `
  --polite-delay-ms 0 --networkidle-wait-ms 0 `
  --block-wait-seconds 180

Persistent profile mode (good for downloads if CDP fails):

python .\scripts\moodle_mirror.py `
  --persistent --headful --channel chrome `
  --start-url "https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=55684" `
  --out-dir "E:\path\to\Obsidian\Course Folder\Moodle Mirror" `
  --format md --rewrite-links `
  --allow-prefix https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/course/ `
  --allow-prefix https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/mod/ `
  --allow-prefix https://moodle.ucl.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/ `
  --resume --update-on-change `
  --max-pages 120 --max-downloads 200 `
  --polite-delay-ms 0 --networkidle-wait-ms 0 `
  --block-wait-seconds 180

Status report:

python .\scripts\mirror_status.py `
  --index "E:\path\to\...\Moodle Mirror\_index.jsonl" `
  --out   "E:\path\to\...\Moodle Mirror\_status.md"

SSO / Cloudflare Handling

• Use

  --auto-login

  to auto-click the saved Microsoft account tile.
• Provide a hint with

  --auto-login-account "your.name@ucl.ac.uk"

  to click the correct account.
• MFA/phone prompts still require manual confirmation; the script will wait for completion.

Targeted Remediation (Common Issues)

1. External URL returns 502:
   • For

     mod/url/view.php

     , use

     forceview=1

     to mirror the internal Moodle page instead of the external site.
2. Resource downloads fail:
   • Use

     --persistent --headful --channel chrome

     to leverage browser downloads.
3. Cloudflare Verify appears:
   • Wait and complete the challenge; keep

     --block-wait-seconds

     high enough.

Ask Before Running (Socratic Prompts)

• Which Moodle domain/course URLs are in scope?
• What folder should the mirror live in (Obsidian path)?
• Do you want full attachments download or a capped number?
• Are you okay with manual MFA if it appears?

References

• See

  references/lessons.md

  for troubleshooting and tool choice rationale.