diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index a40c7dd08..c5101c7a0 100644
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -19,6 +19,18 @@ export interface ParseOptions {
 	lang?: string;
 	userAgent?: string;
 	frontmatter?: boolean;
+	// Removal toggles — default to enabled (the existing pipeline). The
+	// `--no-*` flag form lets users disable each step individually so they
+	// can inspect what would otherwise be stripped. Useful for developing
+	// site-specific extractors against a known-clean baseline.
+	contentPatterns?: boolean;
+	lowScoring?: boolean;
+	exactSelectors?: boolean;
+	partialSelectors?: boolean;
+	hiddenElements?: boolean;
+	smallImages?: boolean;
+	// `removeImages` defaults to `false` in the API; expose as positive flag.
+	removeImages?: boolean;
 }
 
 interface ParseResult {
@@ -35,6 +47,13 @@ const ansi = {
 // Read version from package.json
 const version = require('../package.json').version;
 
+// Helper: emit a single-key object only when the value is defined. Used to
+// avoid passing `undefined` into the defuddle options spread, which would
+// override the library's default with `undefined`.
+function maybe<K extends string, V>(key: K, value: V | undefined): Partial<Record<K, V>> {
+	return value === undefined ? {} : ({ [key]: value } as Record<K, V>);
+}
+
 export async function readStdin(input: NodeJS.ReadStream = process.stdin): Promise<string> {
 	return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
 		const chunks: string[] = [];
@@ -53,11 +72,22 @@ export async function parseSource(source: string | undefined, options: ParseOpti
 		options.markdown = true;
 	}
 
+	// Build defuddle options. Removal toggles are only included when the
+	// caller actually specified a value — Defuddle's internal merge does
+	// `{ defaults, ...this.options }`, so an explicit `undefined` would
+	// shadow the default `true` and silently disable the removal pass.
 	const defuddleOpts = {
 		debug: options.debug,
 		markdown: options.markdown,
 		separateMarkdown: options.markdown || options.json,
 		language: options.lang,
+		...maybe('removeContentPatterns', options.contentPatterns),
+		...maybe('removeLowScoring', options.lowScoring),
+		...maybe('removeExactSelectors', options.exactSelectors),
+		...maybe('removePartialSelectors', options.partialSelectors),
+		...maybe('removeHiddenElements', options.hiddenElements),
+		...maybe('removeSmallImages', options.smallImages),
+		...maybe('removeImages', options.removeImages),
 	};
 
 	let html: string;
@@ -174,6 +204,16 @@ export function createProgram(): Command {
 		.option('--debug', 'Enable debug mode')
 		.option('-l, --lang <code>', 'Preferred language (BCP 47, e.g. en, fr, ja)')
 		.option('-u, --user-agent <string>', 'Custom User-Agent header for HTTP requests (helps with 403/FORBIDDEN responses)')
+		// Removal toggles. Each `--no-*` flag disables a single removal pass
+		// so users (especially extractor authors) can isolate which step is
+		// stripping a given element.
+		.option('--no-content-patterns', 'Keep boilerplate patterns (read time, breadcrumb, metadata lists, newsletter signups, etc.)')
+		.option('--no-low-scoring', 'Keep low-scoring elements (skip the content scoring pass)')
+		.option('--no-exact-selectors', 'Keep elements matched by the exact-selector denylist (ads, scripts, JW Player, etc.)')
+		.option('--no-partial-selectors', 'Keep elements matched by the partial-selector denylist (class/id containing "ad-", "sidebar", "comment", etc.)')
+		.option('--no-hidden-elements', 'Keep CSS-hidden elements (display:none, visibility:hidden, opacity:0)')
+		.option('--no-small-images', 'Keep small images (skip the <100px image filter)')
+		.option('--remove-images', 'Remove all images, picture, and figure elements')
 		.action(async (source: string | undefined, options: ParseOptions) => {
 			try {
 				const { output } = await parseSource(source, options);
diff --git a/tests/cli.test.ts b/tests/cli.test.ts
index 4522602c7..7a045c53d 100644
--- a/tests/cli.test.ts
+++ b/tests/cli.test.ts
@@ -105,4 +105,65 @@ describe('CLI parseSource', () => {
 		// commander camelCases --user-agent → options.userAgent, which parseSource reads.
 		expect(option?.attributeName()).toBe('userAgent');
 	});
+
+	test('registers each removal toggle flag', () => {
+		const parseCommand = createProgram().commands.find((c) => c.name() === 'parse');
+		const flags = [
+			'--no-content-patterns',
+			'--no-low-scoring',
+			'--no-exact-selectors',
+			'--no-partial-selectors',
+			'--no-hidden-elements',
+			'--no-small-images',
+			'--remove-images',
+		];
+		for (const long of flags) {
+			const option = parseCommand?.options.find((o) => o.long === long);
+			expect(option, `option ${long} is registered`).toBeDefined();
+		}
+	});
+
+	test('--no-content-patterns keeps content otherwise stripped by the metadata-list heuristic', async () => {
+		// The blog-metadata-list heuristic removes short trailing <ul> link
+		// lists introduced by a sentence not ending in ':'. Use a minimal
+		// fixture that triggers it: an article ending with such a list.
+		const html = `<!DOCTYPE html><html><body><main><article>
+			<h1>Test article</h1>
+			<p>The body has enough words to make the article extract well and clear the very-short content threshold so the rest of the pipeline runs as it would on a real article. We add a second sentence to make sure the scoring pass keeps this element.</p>
+			<p>The companion artifacts are available from the following sources.</p>
+			<ul>
+				<li><a href="https://example.com/a">Mirror A</a></li>
+				<li><a href="https://example.com/b">Mirror B</a></li>
+			</ul>
+		</article></main></body></html>`;
+
+		const defaultResult = await parseSource('-', {}, createMockStdin(html));
+		const keptResult = await parseSource(
+			'-',
+			{ contentPatterns: false },
+			createMockStdin(html),
+		);
+
+		// With the default pipeline, the trailing link list is the kind of
+		// element the metadata-list heuristic strips. Disabling content
+		// patterns must keep it.
+		expect(defaultResult.output).not.toContain('Mirror A');
+		expect(keptResult.output).toContain('Mirror A');
+		expect(keptResult.output).toContain('Mirror B');
+	});
+
+	test('--remove-images strips images from the output', async () => {
+		const html = `<!DOCTYPE html><html><body><main><article>
+			<h1>Test article</h1>
+			<p>Article body with enough text content to clear the scoring pass and the very-short threshold so the rest of the pipeline runs normally during extraction.</p>
+			<p><img src="https://example.com/cover.png" alt="cover" width="800" height="600"></p>
+			<p>More body content follows the image to keep it inline within the article scope.</p>
+		</article></main></body></html>`;
+
+		const withImages = await parseSource('-', {}, createMockStdin(html));
+		const withoutImages = await parseSource('-', { removeImages: true }, createMockStdin(html));
+
+		expect(withImages.output).toContain('cover.png');
+		expect(withoutImages.output).not.toContain('cover.png');
+	});
 });