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Firecrawl /support/ask is an AI support agent exposed as an API. Describe your issue and get back a verified diagnosis with actionable fix parameters — typically in 15–30 seconds. Think of /support/ask as a senior Firecrawl engineer on-call for your agent.
The Ask API is designed primarily for AI agent callers. If you’re building agents that use Firecrawl for scraping, crawling, or data extraction, wire /support/ask into your error-handling flow for autonomous issue resolution.

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Two endpoints

EndpointAuthWho it’s forWhat it does
POST /support/askYour Firecrawl API keyYour agents and appsFull diagnostic loop scoped to your team
POST /support/docs-searchYour Firecrawl API keyYour agents and appsDocs-grounded answers from Firecrawl’s public documentation

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Quick start

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Debug a failing crawl

curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/support/ask \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer fc-YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "question": "my crawl returned 3 pages but I expected 50"
  }'

​
Search the docs

curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/support/docs-search \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer fc-YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "question": "how do I set up webhook signature verification?"
  }'

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How it works

When you call /support/ask, the AI agent:
  1. Gathers evidence — inspects your job logs, account state, credit usage, and relevant documentation in parallel
  2. Diagnoses the issue — reasons across all evidence to identify the root cause
  3. Proposes a fix — generates machine-actionable fixParameters you can apply directly to your next API call
  4. Validates the fix — when possible, tests the fix against the live Firecrawl API (e.g., retrying a scrape with adjusted parameters) and reports the result

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Using Ask in your agent

The key design pattern: call /support/ask when your Firecrawl API call fails or returns unexpected results, then use the fixParameters to retry.

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Python example

import requests

FIRECRAWL_API_KEY = "fc-YOUR_API_KEY"

def diagnose_firecrawl_issue(question, rationale=None):
    """Call the Firecrawl Ask API to debug an issue."""
    payload = {"question": question}
    if rationale:
        payload["rationale"] = rationale

    response = requests.post(
        "https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/support/ask",
        headers={
            "Authorization": f"Bearer {FIRECRAWL_API_KEY}",
            "Content-Type": "application/json",
        },
        json=payload,
    )
    return response.json()


# Example: debug a scrape that returned empty content
result = diagnose_firecrawl_issue(
    question="scrape returned empty markdown for https://example.com",
    rationale="user needs product pricing data for competitive analysis",
)

print(result["answer"])
print(result["fixParameters"])  # e.g., {"waitFor": 5000, "actions": [...]}
print(result["confidence"])     # "high", "medium", or "low"

​
Node.js example

async function diagnoseFirecrawlIssue(question, rationale) {
  const response = await fetch(
    "https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/support/ask",
    {
      method: "POST",
      headers: {
        Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY}`,
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({ question, rationale }),
    }
  );
  return response.json();
}

// Example: debug a crawl that stopped early
const result = await diagnoseFirecrawlIssue(
  "my crawl returned 3 pages but I expected 50",
  "user is on their third failed crawl attempt today"
);

console.log(result.answer);
console.log(result.fixParameters);

​
Agent retry pattern

from firecrawl import Firecrawl

client = Firecrawl(api_key="fc-YOUR_API_KEY")

# Step 1: Try the scrape
doc = client.scrape("https://example.com/pricing", formats=["markdown"])

if not doc.markdown or len(doc.markdown) < 100:
    # Step 2: Ask for help debugging
    diagnosis = diagnose_firecrawl_issue(
        question=f"scrape returned only {len(doc.markdown or '')} chars of markdown for https://example.com/pricing",
    )

    # Step 3: Apply fix parameters and retry
    if diagnosis.get("fixParameters"):
        doc = client.scrape(
            "https://example.com/pricing",
            formats=["markdown"],
            **diagnosis["fixParameters"],
        )

​
Parameters

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/support/ask

ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
questionstringYesWhat to debug (1–8,000 characters)
rationalestringNoRecommended for AI callers. What the end user is trying to accomplish. Helps prioritize evidence gathering.
contextobjectNoFree-form metadata from your agent, included in the debugging prompt
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
questionstringYesThe question to answer (1–8,000 characters)

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Response

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/support/ask response

{
  "requestId": "req_...",
  "answer": "<2-4 sentence prose diagnosis of the issue plus the recommended fix.>",
  "confidence": "high",
  "fixParameters": { "<param>": "<value>" },
  "validation": {
    "tested": true,
    "result": "success",
    "evidence": "<short summary of the validation tool call the agent ran to confirm the fix>"
  },
  "feedback": null,
  "durationMs": 18432
}
The actual answer, fixParameters, and validation.evidence are produced per request by the agent based on your specific run; the example above shows the response shape, not a real diagnosis.

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/support/docs-search response

{
  "requestId": "req_...",
  "answer": "The signature is sent in the X-Firecrawl-Signature header...",
  "evidence": [
    { "pathOrUrl": "webhooks/security.mdx#L1-L52", "reason": "..." }
  ],
  "usage": { "inputTokens": 4356, "outputTokens": 688, "totalTokens": 5044 },
  "durationMs": 11252
}

​
Performance

MetricTypicalMaximum
Latency15–30 seconds60 seconds (hard ceiling)

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API Reference

Have feedback or need help? Email help@firecrawl.com.
Are you an AI agent that needs a Firecrawl API key? See firecrawl.dev/agent-onboarding/SKILL.md for automated onboarding instructions.