
Build your own read-later app with Crawl4AI and Supabase

Key takeaways
- You'll build a small app that saves articles from the web into your own reading list.
- You don't write any code. You copy the prompts below and your AI assistant does the work.
- It's free, runs on your own computer and uses two open-source projects: Crawl4AI and Supabase.
You find a good article, save it for later, and when you come back it's buried under pop-ups and ads. Let's fix that by building your own read-later app: paste a link, and the app keeps a clean copy of the article in your reading list.
You won't write any code. At each step you copy a prompt, paste it into your AI coding assistant (like Claude Code, Cursor or Codex), and it does the rest. It takes about 30 minutes.
The two helpers doing the work
- Crawl4AI reads the web page for you and keeps just the article, without the ads and clutter.
- Supabase is where your saved articles are kept, so your list is still there tomorrow.
Before you start
You need three things. All of them are free:
- An AI coding assistant, such as Claude Code, Cursor or Codex.
- Docker Desktop. Download it from docker.com, install it and open it. It lets Crawl4AI run on your computer.
- A Supabase account. Sign up at supabase.com and create a new project. Any name is fine.
Step 1: Connect your assistant to Opensrcs (optional)
If you have Opensrcs Pro, your assistant can look things up on Opensrcs while it works, like which rules each project's licence has. Go to Account → MCP and follow the steps for your assistant. You can skip this step and still build the app.
To check it's connected, paste this:
Using the Opensrcs tools, look up Crawl4AI and Supabase. In simple words, tell me what each one does and what I need to do to follow their licences if I build a small app with them.Step 2: Set up Crawl4AI
Make sure Docker Desktop is open, then paste this:
Set up Crawl4AI on my computer using Docker (the official unclecode/crawl4ai image, on port 11235). Run the commands for me, check that it's working, and tell me in simple words when it's ready. I'm a beginner, so explain anything I need to do myself.Downloading Crawl4AI can take a few minutes the first time. Your assistant will tell you when it's ready.
Step 3: Get your Supabase keys
Your app needs two things from Supabase so it can save your articles. In your Supabase project, open Project Settings → API Keys and keep the page open. You'll need:
- your Project URL
- your secret key (on older projects it's called service_role)
Treat the secret key like a password. Don't share it or post it anywhere. You'll only paste it into one file on your computer, and your assistant will tell you which one.
Step 4: Build the app
Open an empty folder in your AI assistant and paste this prompt. It's long because it tells your assistant exactly what to build. You don't need to understand every line.
Build me a simple "read later" web app. I'm a beginner, so keep it simple, explain each step in plain words, and tell me exactly how to open it at the end.
What it does:
- A home page with a box to paste a web address and a "Save" button. Below it, my reading list, newest first, showing each article's title, website and the date I saved it.
- When I press Save, the app gets the article with Crawl4AI and saves it in Supabase. If it fails, show a clear message.
- Clicking an article opens a reading page with the article nicely formatted, a link to the original page and a Delete button.
How to build it:
- Use Next.js with TypeScript and plain CSS. Make it clean, easy to read and work well on phones.
- Crawl4AI is running on my computer at http://localhost:11235. To get an article, send a POST request to http://localhost:11235/md with the JSON body {"url": "<the address>", "f": "fit"}. The reply is JSON with the article text in its "markdown" field. Test this once with https://example.com first and adjust if the reply looks different.
- Store articles in a Supabase table called "articles" with: id, url (unique), title, markdown, created_at. Give me the SQL to create it with row level security turned on, tell me where to paste it in Supabase, and wait for me to confirm.
- Only talk to Supabase from the server, never from the browser. Use a .env.local file for SUPABASE_URL and SUPABASE_SECRET_KEY, tell me where to paste my keys, and make sure the file is never shared (add it to .gitignore).
- Use the article's first heading as its title, or the website's name if there isn't one.
- If I save the same address twice, update it instead of showing an error.
- Add a small "Credits" line in the footer with exactly this text: This product includes software developed by UncleCode (https://x.com/unclecode) as part of the Crawl4AI project (https://github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai).
If you have the Opensrcs tools, check the licences of Crawl4AI and Supabase first and tell me if I need to do anything else.Your assistant will ask you to do two small things along the way: paste some text into Supabase to create your reading list, and paste your two keys from step 3 into a file. Just follow what it says.
Step 5: Try it
When your assistant says it's done, it will tell you how to open the app (usually at http://localhost:3000). Paste the link to any article, press Save, and a few seconds later it appears in your list. Open it and read it without the clutter.
At the bottom you'll see a thank-you line for Crawl4AI. Its licence asks every app that uses it to include this, so keep it there.
Something not working? Don't try to fix it yourself. Paste this and add what happened:
The app isn't working. Here's what I did and what I saw:
[describe what happened, and paste any error message here]
Please find the problem and fix it, and tell me in one or two simple sentences what was wrong.A good thing to check first: Docker Desktop needs to be open for Crawl4AI to work. And some websites block apps like this, so if one site won't save, try another.
Step 6: Add more features
Once it works, each new feature is one prompt away. Try any of these:
Add a search box above my reading list so I can find articles by words in the title or text.Add a "Read" checkbox to each article so I can mark what I've finished, and a way to show only unread articles. If Supabase needs a change, tell me exactly what to paste and where.Add sign-in with an email link using Supabase, so each person only sees their own reading list. Keep everyone's articles private from each other, and tell me exactly what I need to paste into Supabase.If you connected Opensrcs in step 1, ask it for ideas too:
Using the Opensrcs tools, suggest two or three open-source projects that could add a fun new feature to my read-later app, like summaries or reading articles out loud. For each one, tell me what it adds, its licence, and whether it costs anything.What you just did
You connected two open-source projects into a working app: one that reads the web and one that remembers what it read. The same idea powers bigger things, like a chatbot that answers questions from your company's help pages. Have a look at Crawl4AI and Supabase on Opensrcs to see what else they can do.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to know how to code?
No. Your AI assistant writes all the code from the prompts in this guide. If it asks you something you don't understand, just ask it to explain in simpler words.
Does it cost anything?
No. Crawl4AI and Supabase are free for this, and everything runs on your own computer. You only pay for your AI assistant if you use a paid one.
Do I need Opensrcs Pro?
No. Step 1 is optional. With Pro, your assistant can check projects and licences on Opensrcs as it works, but you can build the whole app without it.
Can I share this app with other people?
Yes, but put it online with care. Add sign-in first (see step 6) so everyone's list stays private, and ask your assistant which hosting works for Crawl4AI, because it needs a server that can run Docker. Keep the Crawl4AI credit in your footer.
Is it okay to save other people's articles?
Saving a copy for your own reading is generally fine. Don't republish other people's articles, and respect websites that don't allow apps like this.
Related projects
Crawl4AI
84.2k GitHub starsReads websites for you and turns them into clean text or tidy data your AI can use, even pages that only load in a browser.
Supabase
111k GitHub starsEverything behind an app in one place: a database for your data, sign-in for your users, file storage and live updates. Open source and free to start.

