crawl4ai version
0.9.2
Expected Behavior
PruningContentFilter(preserve_tags=["aside"]) should keep <aside> content in fit_markdown.
#1900 added these options as an escape hatch for content the fit pipeline treats as boilerplate but the user knows is real content.
Same for preserve_classes=["related"] on an <aside class="related">.
Current Behavior
Both options are silently ignored for every tag in excluded_tags (content_filter_strategy.py:101-110): nav, footer, header, aside, script, style, form, iframe, noscript.
filter_content() removes those tags before pruning ever runs:
self._remove_unwanted_tags(soup) # content_filter_strategy.py:664, decomposes aside
body = soup.find("body")
self._prune_tree(body) # :668, the only place _is_preserved() is consulted_remove_unwanted_tags decomposes by tag name and never consults the whitelist:
def _remove_unwanted_tags(self, soup): # :685
"""Removes unwanted tags"""
for tag in self.excluded_tags:
for element in soup.find_all(tag):
element.decompose()By the time _is_preserved() (:691) is reached, the node is gone from the tree.
The filter raises nothing and logs nothing.
excluded_tags is hardcoded in RelevantContentFilter.__init__, not a constructor argument, so the only workaround is mutating the instance attribute (f.excluded_tags.discard("aside")).
Is this reproducible?
Yes
Inputs Causing the Bug
- URL(s): none needed, filter_content() takes an HTML string directly
- Settings used: PruningContentFilter(preserve_tags=["aside"])
- Input data: any HTML with an <aside> holding real content
Steps to Reproduce
1. Run the snippet below (no browser, no network).
2. All three cases print "aside kept: False".
3. Expected: True for the preserve_tags and preserve_classes cases.
Code snippets
from crawl4ai.content_filter_strategy import PruningContentFilter
html = (
"<html><body>"
"<article><p>" + "Main article body with plenty of words to pass the pruning threshold easily. " * 8 + "</p></article>"
'<aside class="related"><h2>Related reading</h2><p>'
+ "This sidebar note is real content the author wrote and wants kept. " * 8
+ "</p></aside>"
"</body></html>"
)
for kwargs in ({}, {"preserve_tags": ["aside"]}, {"preserve_classes": ["related"]}):
out = " ".join(PruningContentFilter(**kwargs).filter_content(html))
print(kwargs, "-> aside kept:", "Related reading" in out)
# 0.9.2 / develop @ 2d8f673:
# {} -> aside kept: False # correct, that's the default
# {'preserve_tags': ['aside']} -> aside kept: False # BUG
# {'preserve_classes': ['related']} -> aside kept: False # BUGOS
macOS
Python version
3.12
Browser
N/A
Browser version
No response
Error logs & Screenshots (if applicable)
No response
crawl4ai version
0.9.2
Expected Behavior
PruningContentFilter(preserve_tags=["aside"])should keep<aside>content infit_markdown.#1900 added these options as an escape hatch for content the fit pipeline treats as boilerplate but the user knows is real content.
Same for
preserve_classes=["related"]on an<aside class="related">.Current Behavior
Both options are silently ignored for every tag in
excluded_tags(content_filter_strategy.py:101-110):nav,footer,header,aside,script,style,form,iframe,noscript.filter_content()removes those tags before pruning ever runs:_remove_unwanted_tagsdecomposes by tag name and never consults the whitelist:By the time
_is_preserved()(:691) is reached, the node is gone from the tree.The filter raises nothing and logs nothing.
excluded_tagsis hardcoded inRelevantContentFilter.__init__, not a constructor argument, so the only workaround is mutating the instance attribute (f.excluded_tags.discard("aside")).Is this reproducible?
Yes
Inputs Causing the Bug
Steps to Reproduce
Code snippets
OS
macOS
Python version
3.12
Browser
N/A
Browser version
No response
Error logs & Screenshots (if applicable)
No response