BuiltWith CLI 🔍

Non-interactive, scriptable CLI for the BuiltWith API — designed for automation, CI/CD pipelines, and AI agent consumption.

bw domain lookup shopify.com --format table
bw domain lookup shopify.com --nopii | jq '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name'
bw live feed --duration 60 > events.ndjson
bw mcp   # start MCP server for Claude Desktop, VS Code, etc.

🤔 Why this exists

The BuiltWith TUI is great for interactive exploration. This CLI is intentionally different:

• stdout = data only (JSON/table/CSV) — safe to pipe anywhere
• stderr = human output (spinners, errors, debug info)
• Structured exit codes — scripts can distinguish auth failures from rate limits from network errors
• Multiple auth paths — works in CI with env vars, locally with rc files, or inline with --key

📦 Installation

npm install -g builtwith-official-cli

Or run directly without installing:

npx builtwith-official-cli domain lookup example.com --key YOUR_KEY

Registers as both bw (short) and builtwith (discoverable).

🔑 Authentication

API key is resolved in priority order:

| Priority | Method | |---|---| | 1 | --key <value> CLI flag | | 2 | BUILTWITH_API_KEY environment variable | | 3 | .builtwithrc in current directory | | 4 | .builtwithrc in home directory |

.env files in the current directory are loaded automatically, so BUILTWITH_API_KEY=xxx in .env works too.

.builtwithrc format:

{"key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}

Copy .builtwithrc.example to get started:

cp .builtwithrc.example ~/.builtwithrc
# then edit with your key

💻 Commands

🌐 Domain

bw domain lookup <domain> [flags]

| Flag | Description | |---|---| | --nopii | Exclude PII data | | --nometa | Exclude meta data | | --noattr | Exclude attribution data | | --liveonly | Only currently-live technologies | | --fdrange <YYYYMMDD-YYYYMMDD> | First-detected date range | | --ldrange <YYYYMMDD-YYYYMMDD> | Last-detected date range |

bw domain lookup shopify.com
bw domain lookup shopify.com --format table
bw domain lookup shopify.com --nopii --liveonly | jq '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name'
bw domain lookup shopify.com --fdrange 20240101-20241231

📋 Lists

bw lists tech <tech> [--offset <n>] [--limit <n>]

bw lists tech WordPress
bw lists tech Shopify --limit 50 --offset 100

🔗 Relationships

bw relationships lookup <domain>

🆓 Free

bw free lookup <domain>

🏢 Company

bw company find <name>

bw company find "Shopify"

🏷️ Tags

bw tags lookup <lookup>

💡 Recommendations

bw recommendations lookup <domain>

↪️ Redirects

bw redirects lookup <domain>

🔤 Keywords

bw keywords lookup <domain>

📈 Trends

bw trends tech <tech>

bw trends tech React

🛍️ Products

bw products search <query> [--page <n>] [--limit <n>]

bw products search "coffee maker"
bw products search "running shoes" --page 2 --limit 50

🛡️ Trust

bw trust lookup <domain>

👤 Account

bw account whoami
bw account usage

📡 Live Feed

Stream live technology detection events as NDJSON, one event per line.

bw live feed [--duration <seconds>]

# Stream indefinitely (Ctrl+C to stop)
bw live feed

# Capture 60 seconds of events
bw live feed --duration 60 > events.ndjson

# Pipe to jq in real time
bw live feed | jq --unbuffered '.domain'

🚩 Global Flags

Available on every command:

| Flag | Description | |---|---| | --key <apikey> | API key (highest priority) | | --format <fmt> | json (default) | table | csv | | --no-color | Disable color on stderr | | --dry-run | Print request URL (key masked) and exit | | --debug | Print HTTP metadata to stderr | | --quiet | Suppress spinner/info stderr output |

🖨️ Output Formats

JSON (default)

bw domain lookup example.com | jq '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name'

Table

bw domain lookup example.com --format table

CSV

bw domain lookup example.com --format csv > results.csv

🚦 Exit Codes

Scripts can use exit codes to handle different failure modes:

| Code | Meaning | |---|---| | 0 | ✅ Success | | 1 | 💥 Unexpected error | | 2 | 🔐 Auth failure (missing key, 401, 403) | | 3 | 🔍 Not found (404) | | 4 | ⏱️ Rate limit (429) | | 5 | ⚠️ Other API error | | 6 | 🌐 Network failure | | 7 | ❌ Invalid input | | 8 | 🛑 Interrupted (SIGINT) |

bw domain lookup example.com
case $? in
  0) echo "success" ;;
  2) echo "check your API key" ;;
  4) echo "rate limited — slow down" ;;
  6) echo "network error" ;;
esac

🔧 Pipeline Examples

# Get all live tech names for a domain
bw domain lookup shopify.com --liveonly | \
  jq -r '.Results[0].Technologies[].Name' | sort

# Check if a domain uses WordPress
bw domain lookup example.com --quiet --liveonly | \
  jq -e '.Results[0].Technologies[] | select(.Name == "WordPress")' > /dev/null \
  && echo "uses WordPress"

# Export tech stack to CSV
bw domain lookup shopify.com --format csv > shopify-tech.csv

# Capture 5 minutes of live events
bw live feed --duration 300 --quiet > feed.ndjson

# Find all sites using a technology (paginated)
for offset in 0 20 40 60 80; do
  bw domain lists tech React --offset $offset --limit 20 --quiet
done | jq -s 'add'

# CI/CD: fail build if domain check fails
bw domain lookup mysite.com --key "$BUILTWITH_API_KEY" --quiet || exit 1

🐛 Dry Run & Debugging

# Preview the URL that would be called (key is masked)
bw domain lookup example.com --key MYKEY --dry-run
# → https://api.builtwith.com/v22/api.json?KEY=REDACTED&LOOKUP=example.com

# See HTTP response metadata
bw domain lookup example.com --debug

🤖 MCP Server

bw mcp starts a Model Context Protocol server over stdio, exposing all BuiltWith API endpoints as structured tools that any MCP-compatible client can call — Claude Desktop, VS Code, Cursor, Zed, and more.

bw mcp
bw mcp --key YOUR_API_KEY   # pass key inline instead of env/rc file
bw mcp --debug              # log JSON-RPC traffic to stderr

⚙️ Client configuration

Add to your MCP client config (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "builtwith": {
      "command": "bw",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If your API key isn't in an env var or .builtwithrc, pass it inline:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "builtwith": {
      "command": "bw",
      "args": ["mcp", "--key", "YOUR_API_KEY"]
    }
  }
}

🧰 Available tools

| Tool | Description | |---|---| | domain_lookup | 🌐 Technology stack for a domain (supports nopii, liveonly, date ranges) | | lists_tech | 📋 Domains currently using a technology | | relationships_lookup | 🔗 Related domains (shared infra, ownership) | | free_lookup | 🆓 Free-tier category counts for a domain | | company_find | 🏢 Domains associated with a company name | | tags_lookup | 🏷️ Domains related to an IP or tag attribute | | recommendations_lookup | 💡 Technology recommendations for a domain | | redirects_lookup | ↪️ Live and historical redirect chains | | keywords_lookup | 🔤 Keyword data for a domain | | trends_tech | 📈 Historical adoption trend for a technology | | products_search | 🛍️ Search ecommerce products across indexed stores | | trust_lookup | 🛡️ Trust/quality score for a domain | | account_whoami | 👤 Authenticated account identity | | account_usage | 📊 API usage statistics |

🔬 Implementation note

The MCP server is implemented as a pure JSON-RPC 2.0 stdio server with no additional dependencies — auth, HTTP calls, and error handling all use the same code paths as the regular CLI commands.

🛠️ Development

git clone https://github.com/builtwith/builtwith-cli
cd builtwith-cli
npm install
npm test        # 24 tests, node:test built-in (no extra framework)

# Run without installing globally
node bin/bw.js domain lookup example.com --key YOUR_KEY

🔗 Related

• BuiltWith TUI — interactive terminal UI for the BuiltWith API
• BuiltWith API Docs — full API reference

📄 License

MIT