Installation
Install the Firecrawl CLI globally using npm:
# Install globally with npm
npm install -g firecrawl-cli
npx skills add firecrawl/cli
After installing the skill, restart Claude Code for it to discover the new skill.
Authentication
Before using the CLI, you need to authenticate with your Firecrawl API key.
Login
# Interactive login (opens browser or prompts for API key)
firecrawl login
# Login with browser authentication (recommended for agents)
firecrawl login --browser
# Login with API key directly
firecrawl login --api-key fc-YOUR-API-KEY
# Or set via environment variable
export FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-YOUR-API-KEY
View Configuration
# View current configuration
firecrawl config
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
# Configure and persist the custom API URL
firecrawl config --api-url http://localhost:3002
https://api.firecrawl.dev), API key authentication is automatically skipped, allowing you to use local instances without an API key.
Check Status
Verify installation, authentication, and view rate limits:
Output when ready:
🔥 firecrawl cli v1.1.1
● Authenticated via FIRECRAWL_API_KEY
Concurrency: 0/100 jobs (parallel scrape limit)
Credits: 500,000 remaining
- Concurrency: Maximum parallel jobs. Run parallel operations close to this limit but not above.
- Credits: Remaining API credits. Each scrape/crawl consumes credits.
Commands
Scrape
Scrape a single URL and extract its content in various formats.
Use --only-main-content to get clean output without navigation, footers, and ads. This is recommended for most use cases where you want just the article or main page content.
# Scrape a URL (default: markdown output)
firecrawl https://example.com
# Or use the explicit scrape command
firecrawl scrape https://example.com
# Recommended: use --only-main-content for clean output without nav/footer
firecrawl https://example.com --only-main-content
# Get HTML output
firecrawl https://example.com --html
# Multiple formats (returns JSON)
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown,links
# Available formats: markdown, html, rawHtml, links, screenshot, json
Scrape Options
# Extract only main content (removes navs, footers)
firecrawl https://example.com --only-main-content
# Wait for JavaScript rendering
firecrawl https://example.com --wait-for 3000
# Take a screenshot
firecrawl https://example.com --screenshot
# Include/exclude specific HTML tags
firecrawl https://example.com --include-tags article,main
firecrawl https://example.com --exclude-tags nav,footer
# Save output to file
firecrawl https://example.com -o output.md
# Pretty print JSON output
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown,links --pretty
| Option | Short | Description |
|---|
--url <url> | -u | URL to scrape (alternative to positional argument) |
--format <formats> | -f | Output formats (comma-separated): markdown, html, rawHtml, links, screenshot, json |
--html | -H | Shortcut for --format html |
--only-main-content | | Extract only main content |
--wait-for <ms> | | Wait time in milliseconds for JS rendering |
--screenshot | | Take a screenshot |
--include-tags <tags> | | HTML tags to include (comma-separated) |
--exclude-tags <tags> | | HTML tags to exclude (comma-separated) |
--output <path> | -o | Save output to file |
--pretty | | Pretty print JSON output |
Search
Search the web and optionally scrape the results.
# Search the web
firecrawl search "web scraping tutorials"
# Limit results
firecrawl search "AI news" --limit 10
# Pretty print results
firecrawl search "machine learning" --pretty
Search Options
# Search specific sources
firecrawl search "AI" --sources web,news,images
# Search with category filters
firecrawl search "react hooks" --categories github
firecrawl search "machine learning" --categories research,pdf
# Time-based filtering
firecrawl search "tech news" --tbs qdr:h # Last hour
firecrawl search "tech news" --tbs qdr:d # Last day
firecrawl search "tech news" --tbs qdr:w # Last week
firecrawl search "tech news" --tbs qdr:m # Last month
firecrawl search "tech news" --tbs qdr:y # Last year
# Location-based search
firecrawl search "restaurants" --location "Berlin,Germany" --country DE
# Search and scrape results
firecrawl search "documentation" --scrape --scrape-formats markdown
# Save to file
firecrawl search "firecrawl" --pretty -o results.json
| Option | Description |
|---|
--limit <number> | Maximum results (default: 5, max: 100) |
--sources <sources> | Sources to search: web, images, news (comma-separated) |
--categories <categories> | Filter by category: github, research, pdf (comma-separated) |
--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., “Berlin,Germany”) |
--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 | Scrape search results |
--scrape-formats <formats> | Formats for scraped content (default: markdown) |
--only-main-content | Include only main content when scraping (default: true) |
--json | Output as JSON |
--output <path> | Save output to file |
--pretty | Pretty print JSON output |
Map
Discover all URLs on a website quickly.
# Discover all URLs on a website
firecrawl map https://example.com
# Output as JSON
firecrawl map https://example.com --json
# Limit number of URLs
firecrawl map https://example.com --limit 500
Map Options
# Filter URLs by search query
firecrawl map https://example.com --search "blog"
# Include subdomains
firecrawl map https://example.com --include-subdomains
# Control sitemap usage
firecrawl map https://example.com --sitemap include # Use sitemap
firecrawl map https://example.com --sitemap skip # Skip sitemap
firecrawl map https://example.com --sitemap only # Only use sitemap
# Ignore query parameters (dedupe URLs)
firecrawl map https://example.com --ignore-query-parameters
# Save to file
firecrawl map https://example.com -o urls.txt
firecrawl map https://example.com --json --pretty -o urls.json
| Option | Description |
|---|
--url <url> | URL to map (alternative to positional argument) |
--limit <number> | Maximum URLs to discover |
--search <query> | Filter URLs by search query |
--sitemap <mode> | Sitemap handling: include, skip, only |
--include-subdomains | Include subdomains |
--ignore-query-parameters | Treat URLs with different params as same |
--json | Output as JSON |
--output <path> | Save output to file |
--pretty | Pretty print JSON output |
Crawl
Crawl an entire website starting from a URL.
# Start a crawl (returns job ID immediately)
firecrawl crawl https://example.com
# Wait for crawl to complete
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait
# Wait with progress indicator
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait --progress
Check Crawl Status
# Check crawl status using job ID
firecrawl crawl <job-id>
# Example with a real job ID
firecrawl crawl 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
Crawl Options
# Limit crawl depth and pages
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --limit 100 --max-depth 3 --wait
# Include only specific paths
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --include-paths /blog,/docs --wait
# Exclude specific paths
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --exclude-paths /admin,/login --wait
# Include subdomains
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --allow-subdomains --wait
# Crawl entire domain
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --crawl-entire-domain --wait
# Rate limiting
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --delay 1000 --max-concurrency 2 --wait
# Custom polling interval and timeout
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait --poll-interval 10 --timeout 300
# Save results to file
firecrawl crawl https://example.com --wait --pretty -o results.json
| Option | Description |
|---|
--url <url> | URL to crawl (alternative to positional argument) |
--wait | Wait for crawl to complete |
--progress | Show progress indicator while waiting |
--poll-interval <seconds> | Polling interval (default: 5) |
--timeout <seconds> | Timeout when waiting |
--status | Check status of existing crawl job |
--limit <number> | Maximum pages to crawl |
--max-depth <number> | Maximum crawl depth |
--include-paths <paths> | Paths to include (comma-separated) |
--exclude-paths <paths> | Paths to exclude (comma-separated) |
--sitemap <mode> | Sitemap handling: include, skip, 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> | Maximum concurrent requests |
--output <path> | Save output to file |
--pretty | Pretty print JSON output |
Credit Usage
Check your team’s credit balance and usage.
# View credit usage
firecrawl credit-usage
# Output as JSON
firecrawl credit-usage --json --pretty
Version
Display the CLI version.
firecrawl version
# or
firecrawl --version
Global Options
These options are available for all commands:
| Option | Short | Description |
|---|
--status | | Show version, auth, concurrency, and credits |
--api-key <key> | -k | Override stored API key for this command |
--api-url <url> | | Use custom API URL (for self-hosted/local development) |
--help | -h | Show help for a command |
--version | -V | Show CLI version |
Output Handling
The CLI outputs to stdout by default, making it easy to pipe or redirect:
# Pipe markdown to another command
firecrawl https://example.com | head -50
# Redirect to a file
firecrawl https://example.com > output.md
# Save JSON with pretty formatting
firecrawl https://example.com --format markdown,links --pretty -o data.json
- 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
Examples
Quick Scrape
# Get markdown content from a URL (use --only-main-content for clean output)
firecrawl https://docs.firecrawl.dev --only-main-content
# Get HTML content
firecrawl https://example.com --html -o page.html
Full Site Crawl
# Crawl a docs site with limits
firecrawl crawl https://docs.example.com --limit 50 --max-depth 2 --wait --progress -o docs.json
Site Discovery
# Find all blog posts
firecrawl map https://example.com --search "blog" -o blog-urls.txt
Research Workflow
# Search and scrape results for research
firecrawl search "machine learning best practices 2024" --scrape --scrape-formats markdown --pretty
# Extract URLs from search results
jq -r '.data.web[].url' search-results.json
# Get titles from search results
jq -r '.data.web[] | "\(.title): \(.url)"' search-results.json
# Extract links and process with jq
firecrawl https://example.com --format links | jq '.links[].url'
# Count URLs from map
firecrawl map https://example.com | wc -l
Telemetry
The CLI collects anonymous usage data during authentication to help improve the product:
- CLI version, OS, and Node.js version
- Development tool detection (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
Open Source
The Firecrawl CLI and Skill are open source and available on GitHub: firecrawl/cli
