Typed tools beat generic scrapers: A write-up on agent data extraction
RightExamination3406 · reddit · 2026-08-21
The author shares an architectural improvement for reliable structured data extraction by agents.
- Problems with Generic Scrapers: The agent re-derives structure every call (slow, expensive, unstable). Site changes lead to silent garbage output, and debugging is miserable.
- The Solution:
- Invert the Logic: Derive the extraction schema once with an LLM, cache it, and expose each site as its own typed tool to the agent.
- Benefits: Agent calls become deterministic and cheap, removing the model from the hot path. Schema re-derives on site changes instead of the agent hallucinating.
- Crucial Step: Ground every extracted field against the source HTML and explicitly flag values not present in it.
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