Self-hosting

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Contributor?

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Self-hosting Firecrawl

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Why?

• Enhanced Security and Compliance: By self-hosting, you ensure that all data handling and processing complies with internal and external regulations, keeping sensitive information within your secure infrastructure. Note that Firecrawl is a Mendable product and relies on SOC2 Type2 certification, which means that the platform adheres to high industry standards for managing data security.
• Customizable Services: Self-hosting allows you to tailor the services, such as the Playwright service, to meet specific needs or handle particular use cases that may not be supported by the standard cloud offering.
• Learning and Community Contribution: By setting up and maintaining your own instance, you gain a deeper understanding of how Firecrawl works, which can also lead to more meaningful contributions to the project.

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Considerations

1. Limited Access to Fire-engine: Currently, self-hosted instances of Firecrawl do not have access to Fire-engine, which includes advanced features for handling IP blocks, robot detection mechanisms, and more. This means that while you can manage basic scraping tasks, more complex scenarios might require additional configuration or might not be supported.
2. Manual Configuration Required: If you need to use scraping methods beyond the basic fetch and Playwright options, you will need to manually configure these in the .env file. This requires a deeper understanding of the technologies and might involve more setup time.

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Steps

1. First, start by installing the dependencies

• Docker instructions

2. Set environment variables

# .env

# ===== Required ENVS ======
PORT=3002
HOST=0.0.0.0

# Note: PORT is used by both the main API server and worker liveness check endpoint

# To turn on DB authentication, you need to set up Supabase.
USE_DB_AUTHENTICATION=false

# ===== Optional ENVS ======

## === AI features (JSON format on scrape, /extract API) ===
# Provide your OpenAI API key here to enable AI features
# OPENAI_API_KEY=

# Experimental: Use Ollama
# OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434/api
# MODEL_NAME=deepseek-r1:7b
# MODEL_EMBEDDING_NAME=nomic-embed-text

# Experimental: Use any OpenAI-compatible API
# OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://example.com/v1
# OPENAI_API_KEY=

## === Proxy ===
# PROXY_SERVER can be a full URL (e.g. http://0.1.2.3:1234) or just an IP and port combo (e.g. 0.1.2.3:1234)
# Do not uncomment PROXY_USERNAME and PROXY_PASSWORD if your proxy is unauthenticated
# PROXY_SERVER=
# PROXY_USERNAME=
# PROXY_PASSWORD=

## === /search API ===
# By default, the /search API will use Google search.

# You can specify a SearXNG server with the JSON format enabled, if you'd like to use that instead of direct Google.
# You can also customize the engines and categories parameters, but the defaults should also work just fine.
# SEARXNG_ENDPOINT=http://your.searxng.server
# SEARXNG_ENGINES=
# SEARXNG_CATEGORIES=

## === Other ===

# Supabase Setup (used to support DB authentication, advanced logging, etc.)
# SUPABASE_ANON_TOKEN=
# SUPABASE_URL=
# SUPABASE_SERVICE_TOKEN=

# Use if you've set up authentication and want to test with a real API key
# TEST_API_KEY=

# This key lets you access the queue admin panel. Change this if your deployment is publicly accessible.
BULL_AUTH_KEY=CHANGEME

# This is now autoconfigured by the docker-compose.yaml. You shouldn't need to set it.
# PLAYWRIGHT_MICROSERVICE_URL=http://playwright-service:3000/scrape
# REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379
# REDIS_RATE_LIMIT_URL=redis://redis:6379

# Set if you have a llamaparse key you'd like to use to parse pdfs
# LLAMAPARSE_API_KEY=

# Set if you'd like to send server health status messages to Slack
# SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL=

# Set if you'd like to send posthog events like job logs
# POSTHOG_API_KEY=
# POSTHOG_HOST=

## === System Resource Configuration ===
# Maximum CPU usage threshold (0.0-1.0). Worker will reject new jobs when CPU usage exceeds this value.
# Default: 0.8 (80%)
# MAX_CPU=0.8

# Maximum RAM usage threshold (0.0-1.0). Worker will reject new jobs when memory usage exceeds this value.
# Default: 0.8 (80%)
# MAX_RAM=0.8

# Set if you'd like to allow local webhooks to be sent to your self-hosted instance
# ALLOW_LOCAL_WEBHOOKS=true

3. (Optional) Running with TypeScript Playwright Service
   • Update the docker-compose.yml file to change the Playwright service:
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         build: apps/playwright-service
     

     TO
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         build: apps/playwright-service-ts
     

   • Set the PLAYWRIGHT_MICROSERVICE_URL in your .env file:
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     PLAYWRIGHT_MICROSERVICE_URL=http://localhost:3000/scrape
     

   • Don’t forget to set the proxy server in your .env file as needed.
4. Build and run the Docker containers:
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   docker compose build
   docker compose up
   

5. (Optional) Test the API

curl -X POST http://localhost:3002/v2/crawl \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -d '{
      "url": "https://docs.firecrawl.dev"
    }'

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Troubleshooting

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Supabase client is not configured

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSz]ERROR - Attempted to access Supabase client when it's not configured.
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSz]ERROR - Error inserting scrape event: Error: Supabase client is not configured.

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You’re bypassing authentication

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS.SSSz]WARN - You're bypassing authentication

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Docker containers fail to start

docker logs [container_name]

• Ensure all required environment variables are set correctly in the .env file.
• Verify that all Docker services defined in docker-compose.yml are correctly configured and the necessary images are available.

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Connection issues with Redis

• Ensure that the Redis service is up and running in your Docker environment.
• Verify that the REDIS_URL and REDIS_RATE_LIMIT_URL in your .env file point to the correct Redis instance.
• Check network settings and firewall rules that may block the connection to the Redis port.

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API endpoint does not respond

• Ensure that the Firecrawl service is running by checking the Docker container status.
• Verify that the PORT and HOST settings in your .env file are correct and that no other service is using the same port.
• Check the network configuration to ensure that the host is accessible from the client making the API request.

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Install Firecrawl on a Kubernetes Cluster (Simple Version)