Publisher Medium Instant

Convert blog posts to Medium-ready HTML format with proper structure, image handling, and one-click copy buttons, then open the Medium editor for instant publishing.

When to Use This Command

Run this command when you need to publish an existing blog post or article to Medium with proper formatting.

• You have a markdown blog post and want to publish it on Medium
• You need to convert markdown to clean HTML that Medium's editor accepts
• You want image upload markers showing which files to add to your Medium article
• You need to quickly preview how your article will look before pasting into Medium

Use it also when:

• You want to generate Medium-ready content from a URL or PDF
• You need both English and Japanese versions of a Medium article

Quick Start

Copy
# .claude/commands/publisher-medium-instant.md
name: publisher-medium-instant
description: Convert content to Medium-ready format
arguments:
  input: Blog slug, file path, or URL

Copy
# Convert a blog post to Medium format
claude publisher-medium-instant "my-post-slug"

Expected output:
Medium article generated:
  Title: "Building Scalable APIs with Next.js"
  Sections: 6 headers, 3 code blocks, 2 images
  File: medium-article-en.html

Image upload markers:
  [IMAGE 1] /images/architecture-diagram.png
  [IMAGE 2] /images/performance-chart.png

Opening Medium editor and preview...

Core Concepts

Concept	Description
HTML Preview	A browser-viewable file with Medium-style formatting
Copy Button	One-click button to copy formatted HTML to clipboard
Image Markers	Placeholders indicating where to upload images in Medium
Universal Input	Accepts markdown files, URLs, or blog slugs as source
Clean HTML	HTML output optimized for Medium's paste-from-clipboard behavior

Conversion Pipeline:
  Source ──> Detect Format ──> Parse Content ──> Convert to HTML
                                                      │
       Medium Editor <── Open Browser <── Save Preview File
       (paste content)                    (with copy button)

Configuration

Parameter	Default	Description
input	required	Blog slug, file path, or URL
language	en	Target language: en or ja
output	medium-article-{lang}.html	Output file name
open-browser	true	Auto-open preview and Medium editor
preserve-code	true	Maintain code block formatting

Best Practices

1. Use the copy button, not Ctrl+C -- The built-in copy button in the preview file formats content correctly for Medium's paste handler. Manual copy may lose formatting.

2. Upload images manually in order -- Medium does not support image URLs from external sources in pasted content. Follow the image markers to upload each file in sequence.

3. Review code blocks after pasting -- Medium sometimes reformats code blocks. Verify that indentation and syntax highlighting are correct in the Medium editor.

4. Set canonical URL to your original post -- In Medium's settings, add your blog's URL as the canonical link to avoid SEO duplication issues.

5. No external dependencies required -- This command uses only Read, Write, and Bash tools, making it portable across any project type and environment.

Common Issues

1. Source file not found -- Verify the slug matches a file in your content directory. Use a full file path or URL if slug detection fails.

2. Formatting lost after paste -- Medium's editor can strip some HTML. If headers, lists, or code blocks are missing, try pasting into a fresh Medium draft.

3. Images not rendering in preview -- The preview file uses relative image paths. If images do not display, check that the paths are correct relative to the preview file location.