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Try instantly

This is Firecrawl’s keyless mode: connect with no account and no API key. Use it for a quick trial, and use an API key when the connection must run reliably without a person present. If you want to sign in through a browser instead — including from ChatGPT or Claude.ai — use OAuth. Keyless MCP exposes exactly Search, Scrape, and Parse. It has daily request and credit limits shared by users on the same public IP address. Another person or process on the same network can use part of that allowance. Use keyless access to evaluate the connection, not as an identity or a production credential. For the current allowance, see Keyless rate limits.

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Add an API key

Use an API key for CI, backend services, and other unattended connections. Create a Firecrawl API key, then make it available to the MCP client as FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.
The human or system operator must configure the key outside the agent conversation. Never paste the key into agent chat, put it in the MCP URL, or commit its value to a project file. An environment variable reference in a config file is safe; the secret value is not.

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Codex

Export the key in the environment that starts Codex:
Add this to ~/.codex/config.toml:

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Claude Code

Export the key before starting Claude Code:
Add an environment-variable reference to .mcp.json. Do not replace ${FIRECRAWL_API_KEY} with the key itself.

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Other clients

Point the client at:
Configure this header through the client’s environment or secret storage:
Start a new client session after saving the configuration. Open the MCP status or tool list and confirm that firecrawl is connected.

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Verify the connection

Try:
A keyless connection shows firecrawl_search, firecrawl_scrape, and firecrawl_parse. An API-key connection can expose the full tool surface, subject to plan, deployment, and team policy. If the tools do not match the mode you configured, remove any duplicate Firecrawl entries, restart the client, and check the active server URL and credential source.

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Run in CI or a backend

Store FIRECRAWL_API_KEY in the platform’s secret manager and inject it into the process environment. Keep only the environment-variable reference in MCP configuration:
Do not put the value in source control, build logs, prompts, or generated configuration. Start a new process after changing the secret, verify the firecrawl tool list, and rotate the key if it may have been exposed.

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Legacy API-key URL support

The key-in-URL form exists only for existing configurations and clients that cannot send an authorization header. Do not use it for a new connection.
Existing configurations may use https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/<FIRECRAWL_API_KEY>/v2/mcp. The full URL is a credential: never paste it into chat, screenshots, issues, logs, or shared configuration. Migrate to an environment-backed Authorization: Bearer header when possible, and rotate the key if the URL was exposed. This compatibility route applies only to the full /v2/mcp surface. It does not work for the OAuth-only search resource.

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More resources

Compare connection options

Return to the MCP setup chooser.

Run locally

Start the open-source server over stdio or Streamable HTTP.