🔥 Firecrawl CLI

Command-line interface for Firecrawl. Search, scrape, and interact with the web directly from your terminal.

Installation

npm install -g firecrawl-cli

Or set up everything in one command (install CLI globally, authenticate, and add skills across all detected coding editors):

npx -y [email protected] init -y --browser

• -y runs setup non-interactively
• --browser opens the browser for Firecrawl authentication automatically
• skills install globally to every detected AI coding agent by default

Setup Skills and MCP

If you are using an AI coding agent like Claude Code, you can also install the skill individually with:

firecrawl setup skills

This installs skills globally across all detected coding editors by default. Use --agent <agent> to scope it to one editor.

Agent skills

The init command installs both sets of Firecrawl agent skills into AI coding agents (Cursor, Claude Code, Windsurf, etc.):

• CLI skills — teach agents how to use the Firecrawl CLI for live web work (search, scrape, interact, map, crawl)
• Build skills — teach agents how to integrate Firecrawl into application code (choose endpoints, wire SDKs, set up API keys)

To reinstall skills manually:

firecrawl setup skills

To install the Firecrawl MCP server into your editors (Cursor, Claude Code, VS Code, etc.):

firecrawl setup mcp

Quick Start

Just run a command - the CLI will prompt you to authenticate if needed:

firecrawl https://example.com

Authentication

On first run, you'll be prompted to authenticate:

  🔥 firecrawl cli
  Search, scrape, and interact with the web

Welcome! To get started, authenticate with your Firecrawl account.

  1. Login with browser (recommended)
  2. Enter API key manually

Tip: You can also set FIRECRAWL_API_KEY environment variable

Enter choice [1/2]:

Authentication Methods

# Interactive (prompts automatically when needed)
firecrawl

# Browser login
firecrawl login

# Direct API key
firecrawl login --api-key fc-your-api-key

# Environment variable
export FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-your-api-key

# Per-command API key
firecrawl scrape https://example.com --api-key fc-your-api-key

Self-hosted / Local Development

For self-hosted Firecrawl instances or local development, use the --api-url option:

# Use a local Firecrawl instance (no API key required)
firecrawl --api-url http://localhost:3002 scrape https://example.com

# Or set via environment variable
export FIRECRAWL_API_URL=http://localhost:3002
firecrawl scrape https://example.com

# Self-hosted with API key
firecrawl --api-url https://firecrawl.mycompany.com --api-key fc-xxx scrape https://example.com

When using a custom API URL (anything other than https://api.firecrawl.dev), authentication is automatically skipped, allowing you to use local instances without an API key.

Commands

scrape - Scrape URLs

Extract content from any webpage. Pass multiple URLs to scrape them concurrently -- each result is saved to .firecrawl/ automatically.

# Basic usage (outputs markdown)
firecrawl https://example.com
firecrawl scrape https://example.com

# Get raw HTML
firecrawl https://example.com --html
firecrawl https://example.com -H

# Multiple formats (outputs JSON)
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown,links,images

# Save to file
firecrawl https://example.com -o output.md
firecrawl https://example.com --format json -o data.json --pretty

# Multiple URLs (scraped concurrently, each saved to .firecrawl/)
firecrawl scrape https://firecrawl.dev https://firecrawl.dev/blog https://docs.firecrawl.dev

Scrape Options

| Option | Description | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | -f, --format <formats> | Output format(s), comma-separated | | -H, --html | Shortcut for --format html | | -S, --summary | Shortcut for --format summary | | --only-main-content | Extract only main content (removes navs, footers, etc.) | | --wait-for <ms> | Wait time before scraping (for JS-rendered content) | | --screenshot | Take a screenshot | | --full-page-screenshot | Take a full page screenshot | | --include-tags <tags> | Only include specific HTML tags | | --exclude-tags <tags> | Exclude specific HTML tags | | --max-age <milliseconds> | Maximum age of cached content in milliseconds | | --lockdown | Enable lockdown mode for the scrape | | --schema <json> | JSON schema for structured extraction | | --schema-file <path> | Path to JSON schema file for structured extraction | | --actions <json> | JSON actions array to run during scrape | | --actions-file <path> | Path to JSON actions file | | --proxy <proxy> | Proxy mode for scraping (for example, auto, basic) | | -o, --output <path> | Save output to file | | --json | Output as JSON format | | --pretty | Pretty print JSON output | | --timing | Show request timing info |

Available Formats

| Format | Description | | ---------------- | ---------------------------- | | markdown | Clean markdown (default) | | html | Cleaned HTML | | rawHtml | Original HTML | | links | All links on the page | | images | All images on the page | | screenshot | Screenshot as base64 | | summary | AI-generated summary | | json | Structured JSON extraction | | changeTracking | Track changes on the page | | attributes | Page attributes and metadata | | branding | Brand identity extraction |

Examples

# Extract only main content as markdown
firecrawl https://blog.example.com --only-main-content

# Wait for JS to render, then scrape
firecrawl https://spa-app.com --wait-for 3000

# Get all links from a page
firecrawl https://example.com --format links

# Screenshot + markdown
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown --screenshot

# Extract specific elements only
firecrawl https://example.com --include-tags article,main

# Exclude navigation and ads
firecrawl https://example.com --exclude-tags nav,aside,.ad

search - Search the web

Search the web and optionally scrape content from search results.

# Basic search
firecrawl search "firecrawl"

# Limit results
firecrawl search "AI news" --limit 10

# Search news sources
firecrawl search "tech startups" --sources news

# Search images
firecrawl search "landscape photography" --sources images

# Multiple sources
firecrawl search "machine learning" --sources web,news,images

# Filter by category (GitHub, research papers, PDFs)
firecrawl search "web data python" --categories github
firecrawl search "transformer architecture" --categories research
firecrawl search "machine learning" --categories github,research

# Time-based search
firecrawl search "AI announcements" --tbs qdr:d   # Past day
firecrawl search "tech news" --tbs qdr:w          # Past week

# Location-based search
firecrawl search "restaurants" --location "San Francisco,California,United States"
firecrawl search "local news" --country DE

# Search and scrape results
firecrawl search "firecrawl tutorials" --scrape
firecrawl search "API documentation" --scrape --scrape-formats markdown,links

# Output as pretty JSON
firecrawl search "AI data tools"

Search Options

| Option | Description | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | --limit <n> | Maximum results (default: 5, max: 100) | | --sources <sources> | Comma-separated: web, images, news (default: web) | | --categories <categories> | Comma-separated: github, research, pdf | | --tbs <value> | Time filter: qdr:h (hour), qdr:d (day), qdr:w (week), qdr:m (month), qdr:y (year) | | --location <location> | Geo-targeting (e.g., "Germany", "San Francisco,California,United States") | | --country <code> | ISO country code (default: US) | | --timeout <ms> | Timeout in milliseconds (default: 60000) | | --ignore-invalid-urls | Exclude URLs invalid for other Firecrawl endpoints | | --scrape | Enable scraping of search results | | --scrape-formats <formats> | Scrape formats when --scrape enabled (default: markdown) | | --only-main-content | Include only main content when scraping (default: true) | | -o, --output <path> | Save to file | | --json | Output as compact JSON |

Examples

# Research a topic with recent results
firecrawl search "React Server Components" --tbs qdr:m --limit 10

# Find GitHub repositories
firecrawl search "web data library" --categories github --limit 20

# Search and get full content
firecrawl search "firecrawl documentation" --scrape --scrape-formats markdown --json -o results.json

# Find research papers
firecrawl search "large language models" --categories research --json

# Search with location targeting
firecrawl search "best coffee shops" --location "Berlin,Germany" --country DE

# Get news from the past week
firecrawl search "AI startups funding" --sources news --tbs qdr:w --limit 15

map - Discover all URLs on a website

Quickly discover all URLs on a website without scraping content.

# List all URLs (one per line)
firecrawl map https://example.com

# Output as JSON
firecrawl map https://example.com --json

# Search for specific URLs
firecrawl map https://example.com --search "blog"

# Limit results
firecrawl map https://example.com --limit 500

Map Options

| Option | Description | | --------------------------- | --------------------------------- | | --limit <n> | Maximum URLs to discover | | --search <query> | Filter URLs by search query | | --sitemap <mode> | include, skip, or only | | --include-subdomains | Include subdomains | | --ignore-query-parameters | Dedupe URLs with different params | | --timeout <seconds> | Request timeout | | --json | Output as JSON | | -o, --output <path> | Save to file |

Examples

# Find all product pages
firecrawl map https://shop.example.com --search "product"

# Get sitemap URLs only
firecrawl map https://example.com --sitemap only

# Save URL list to file
firecrawl map https://example.com -o urls.txt

# Include subdomains
firecrawl map https://example.com --include-subdomains --limit 1000

crawl - Crawl an entire website

Crawl multiple pages from a website.

# Start a crawl (returns job ID)
firecrawl crawl https://example.com

# Wait for crawl to complete
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait

# With progress indicator
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait --progress

# Check crawl status
firecrawl crawl <job-id>

# Limit pages
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --limit 100 --max-depth 3

Crawl Options

| Option | Description | | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | | --wait | Wait for crawl to complete | | --progress | Show progress while waiting | | --limit <n> | Maximum pages to crawl | | --max-depth <n> | Maximum crawl depth | | --include-paths <paths> | Only crawl matching paths | | --exclude-paths <paths> | Skip matching paths | | --sitemap <mode> | include, skip, or only | | --allow-subdomains | Include subdomains | | --allow-external-links | Follow external links | | --crawl-entire-domain | Crawl entire domain | | --ignore-query-parameters | Treat URLs with different params as same | | --delay <ms> | Delay between requests | | --max-concurrency <n> | Max concurrent requests | | --scrape-options <json> | JSON scrape options passed to each page | | --scrape-options-file <path> | Path to scrape options JSON file | | --webhook <url-or-json> | Webhook URL or configuration | | --cancel | Cancel an active crawl job by job ID | | --timeout <seconds> | Timeout when waiting | | --poll-interval <seconds> | Status check interval |

Examples

# Crawl blog section only
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --include-paths /blog,/posts

# Exclude admin pages
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --exclude-paths /admin,/login

# Crawl with rate limiting
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --delay 1000 --max-concurrency 2

# Deep crawl with high limit
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --limit 1000 --max-depth 10 --wait --progress

# Save results
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait -o crawl-results.json --pretty

credit-usage - Check your credits

# Show credit usage
firecrawl credit-usage

# Output as JSON
firecrawl credit-usage --json --pretty

agent - AI-powered web data extraction

Run an AI agent that autonomously browses and extracts structured data from the web based on natural language prompts.

Note: Agent tasks typically take 2 to 5 minutes to complete, and sometimes longer for complex extractions. Use sparingly and consider --max-credits to limit costs.

# Basic usage (returns job ID immediately)
firecrawl agent "Find the pricing plans for Firecrawl"

# Wait for completion
firecrawl agent "Extract all product names and prices from this store" --wait

# Focus on specific URLs
firecrawl agent "Get the main features listed" --urls https://example.com/features

# Use structured output with JSON schema
firecrawl agent "Extract company info" --schema '{"type":"object","properties":{"name":{"type":"string"},"employees":{"type":"number"}}}'

# Load schema from file
firecrawl agent "Extract product data" --schema-file ./product-schema.json --wait

# Check status of an existing job
firecrawl agent <job-id>
firecrawl agent <job-id> --wait

Agent Options

| Option | Description | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | --urls <urls> | Comma-separated URLs to focus extraction on | | --model <model> | spark-1-mini (default, cheaper) or spark-1-pro (accurate) | | --schema <json> | JSON schema for structured output (inline JSON string) | | --schema-file <path> | Path to JSON schema file for structured output | | --max-credits <number> | Maximum credits to spend (job fails if exceeded) | | --webhook <url-or-json> | Webhook URL or configuration | | --status | Check status of existing agent job | | --cancel | Cancel an active agent job by job ID | | --wait | Wait for agent to complete before returning results | | --poll-interval <seconds> | Polling interval in seconds when waiting (default: 5) | | --timeout <seconds> | Timeout in seconds when waiting (default: no timeout) | | -o, --output <path> | Save output to file | | --json | Output as JSON format | | --pretty | Pretty print JSON output |

Examples

# Research task with timeout
firecrawl agent "Find the top 5 competitors of Notion and their pricing" --wait --timeout 300

# Extract data with cost limit
firecrawl agent "Get all blog post titles and dates" --urls https://blog.example.com --max-credits 100 --wait

# Use higher accuracy model for complex extraction
firecrawl agent "Extract detailed technical specifications" --model spark-1-pro --wait --pretty

# Save structured results to file
firecrawl agent "Extract contact information" --schema-file ./contact-schema.json --wait -o contacts.json --pretty

# Check job status without waiting
firecrawl agent abc123-def456-... --json

# Poll a running job until completion
firecrawl agent abc123-def456-... --wait --poll-interval 10

interact - Interact with scraped pages

Scrape a page, then interact with it in a live browser session using natural language or code. No manual session management required.

# 1. Scrape a page first
firecrawl scrape https://example.com

# 2. Interact with it
firecrawl interact "Click the pricing tab"
firecrawl interact "Fill in the email field with [email protected]"
firecrawl interact "Extract the pricing table"

# 3. Code execution (Playwright)
firecrawl interact -c "await page.title()"
firecrawl interact -c "print(await page.title())" --python

# 4. Stop the session
firecrawl interact stop

Interact Options

| Option | Description | | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------- | | -p, --prompt <text> | AI prompt (alternative to positional argument) | | -c, --code <code> | Code to execute in the browser sandbox | | -s, --scrape-id <id> | Scrape job ID (default: last scrape) | | --python | Execute code as Python/Playwright | | --node | Execute code as Node.js/Playwright (default) | | --bash | Execute code as Bash | | --timeout <seconds> | Timeout in seconds (1-300, default: 30) | | -o, --output <path> | Save output to file | | --json | Output as JSON format |

Profiles

Use --profile on the scrape to persist browser state across scrapes:

# Login and save state
firecrawl scrape "https://app.example.com/login" --profile my-app
firecrawl interact "Fill in email and click login"

# Come back authenticated later
firecrawl scrape "https://app.example.com/dashboard" --profile my-app
firecrawl interact "Extract the dashboard data"

config - Configure settings

# Configure with custom API URL
firecrawl config --api-url https://firecrawl.mycompany.com
firecrawl config --api-url http://localhost:3002 --api-key fc-xxx

view-config - View current configuration

# View current configuration and authentication status
firecrawl view-config

Shows authentication status and stored credentials location.

login / logout

# Login
firecrawl login
firecrawl login --method browser
firecrawl login --method manual
firecrawl login --api-key fc-xxx

# Login to self-hosted instance
firecrawl login --api-url https://firecrawl.mycompany.com
firecrawl login --api-url http://localhost:3002 --api-key fc-xxx

# Logout
firecrawl logout

Global Options

These options work with any command:

| Option | Description | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | --status | Show version, auth, concurrency, and credits | | -k, --api-key <key> | Use specific API key | | --api-url <url> | Use custom API URL (for self-hosted/local development) | | -V, --version | Show version | | -h, --help | Show help |

Check Status

firecrawl --status

  🔥 firecrawl cli v1.16.2

  ● Authenticated via stored credentials
  Concurrency: 0/100 jobs (parallel scrape limit)
  Credits: 500,000 / 1,000,000 (50% left this cycle)

Output Handling

Stdout vs File

# Output to stdout (default)
firecrawl https://example.com

# Pipe to another command
firecrawl https://example.com | head -50

# Save to file
firecrawl https://example.com -o output.md

# JSON output
firecrawl https://example.com --format links --pretty

Format Behavior

• Single format: Outputs raw content (markdown text, HTML, etc.)
• Multiple formats: Outputs JSON with all requested data

# Raw markdown output
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown

# JSON output with multiple formats
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown,links,images

Tips & Tricks

Scrape multiple URLs

# Just pass multiple URLs -- results are saved to .firecrawl/
firecrawl scrape https://firecrawl.dev https://firecrawl.dev/blog https://docs.firecrawl.dev

Combine with other tools

# Extract links and process with jq
firecrawl https://example.com --format links | jq '.links[].url'

# Convert to PDF (with pandoc)
firecrawl https://example.com | pandoc -o document.pdf

# Search within scraped content
firecrawl https://example.com | grep -i "keyword"

CI/CD Usage

# Set API key via environment
export FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=${{ secrets.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY }}
firecrawl crawl https://docs.example.com --wait -o docs.json

# Use self-hosted instance
export FIRECRAWL_API_URL=${{ secrets.FIRECRAWL_API_URL }}
firecrawl scrape https://example.com -o output.md

Telemetry

The CLI collects anonymous usage data during authentication to help improve the product:

• CLI version, OS, and Node.js version
• Detect development tools (e.g., Cursor, VS Code, Claude Code)

No command data, URLs, or file contents are collected via the CLI.

To disable telemetry, set the environment variable:

export FIRECRAWL_NO_TELEMETRY=1

Experimental

Experimental commands live under firecrawl experimental (alias: firecrawl x).

download - Bulk Site Download

Combines map + scrape to save a site as local files under .firecrawl/.

firecrawl x download https://docs.firecrawl.dev
firecrawl x download https://docs.firecrawl.dev --screenshot --limit 20 -y
firecrawl x download https://docs.firecrawl.dev --include-paths "/features,/sdks" -y

AI Workflows

Launch pre-built AI workflows that combine Firecrawl with your coding agent. One command spins up an interactive session with the right system prompt, tools, and instructions.

# Claude Code (available now)
firecrawl x claude competitor-analysis https://firecrawl.dev
firecrawl x claude deep-research "RAG pipeline data ingestion tools"
firecrawl x claude lead-research "Vercel"
firecrawl x claude seo-audit https://example.com
firecrawl x claude qa https://myapp.com
firecrawl x claude demo https://resend.com
firecrawl x claude shop "best mechanical keyboard for developers"

# Natural language (no workflow name)
firecrawl x claude "scrape the firecrawl docs and summarize"

# Codex and OpenCode -- coming soon
firecrawl x codex competitor-analysis https://crawlee.dev
firecrawl x opencode deep-research "browser automation frameworks"

Add -y to auto-approve tool permissions.

See the full documentation: Experimental Workflows ->

Prerequisites

Each backend requires its CLI to be installed separately:

| Backend | Install | | -------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | Claude | npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code | | Codex | npm install -g @openai/codex | | OpenCode | opencode.ai/docs/cli |

Documentation

For more details, visit the Firecrawl Documentation.