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Connect OpenAI models to Firecrawl by adding the hosted MCP server as a remote mcp tool in the Responses API. OpenAI lists the Firecrawl tools, and the model calls them to search the web and read pages.
OpenAI’s documentation says Agent Builder is scheduled to shut down on November 30, 2026. The remote MCP tool on this page does not depend on Agent Builder.

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Requirements

  • An OpenAI API key in OPENAI_API_KEY and the openai Python package.
  • A Firecrawl API key in FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.

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Quick setup

Add the Firecrawl server to the tools list. The authorization field carries your Firecrawl API key, and allowed_tools limits what the model can call:
OpenAI does not store the authorization value, so send it on every request. Set require_approval to "always" if you want to review each tool call before data is sent to the server. See Configure an API key for more on key-based connections. This setup makes no direct Firecrawl API calls from your code, because OpenAI connects to the MCP server for you.

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Try it

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What you can do

Search

Find current information and read the content of relevant results.

Scrape

Turn URLs into clean markdown or structured data.

Interact

Navigate, click, and fill forms to reach the data you need.

Alexandria

Discover structured data tools, inspect inputs and pricing, then run them through Firecrawl.

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Troubleshooting

  • The request fails while listing tools: confirm server_url is exactly https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp and that FIRECRAWL_API_KEY is set in the environment that runs the script.
  • The server returns 401: replace the key and send the request again, since OpenAI does not keep the authorization value between requests.
  • A tool is missing: add its name to allowed_tools, or remove allowed_tools to import every tool the server exposes.
  • The model answers without using Firecrawl: name the tool in your prompt, for example “Use firecrawl_search to find…”.