Firecrawl Web Scraper Skill

Status: Production Ready ✅ Last Updated: 2025-11-21 Official Docs: https://docs.firecrawl.dev API Version: v2.5

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What is Firecrawl?

Firecrawl is a Web Data API for AI that turns entire websites into LLM-ready markdown or structured data. It handles:

• JavaScript rendering - Executes client-side JavaScript to capture dynamic content
• Anti-bot bypass - Gets past CAPTCHA and bot detection systems
• Format conversion - Outputs as markdown, JSON, or structured data
• Screenshot capture - Saves visual representations of pages
• Browser automation - Full headless browser capabilities

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API Endpoints

1. /v2/scrape - Single Page Scraping

Scrapes a single webpage and returns clean, structured content.

Use Cases:

• Extract article content
• Get product details
• Scrape specific pages
• Convert HTML to markdown

Key Options:

• formats: ["markdown", "html", "screenshot"]
• onlyMainContent: true/false (removes nav, footer, ads)
• waitFor: milliseconds to wait before scraping
• actions: browser automation actions (click, scroll, etc.)

2. /v2/crawl - Full Site Crawling

Crawls all accessible pages from a starting URL.

Use Cases:

• Index entire documentation sites
• Archive website content
• Build knowledge bases
• Scrape multi-page content

Key Options:

• limit: max pages to crawl
• maxDepth: how many links deep to follow
• allowedDomains: restrict to specific domains
• excludePaths: skip certain URL patterns

3. /v2/map - URL Discovery

Maps all URLs on a website without scraping content.

Use Cases:

• Find sitemap
• Discover all pages
• Plan crawling strategy
• Audit website structure

4. /v2/extract - Structured Data Extraction

Uses AI to extract specific data fields from pages.

Use Cases:

• Extract product prices and names
• Parse contact information
• Build structured datasets
• Custom data schemas

Key Options:

• schema: Zod or JSON schema defining desired structure
• systemPrompt: guide AI extraction behavior

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Authentication

Firecrawl requires an API key for all requests.

Get API Key

1. Sign up at https://www.firecrawl.dev
2. Go to dashboard → API Keys
3. Copy your API key (starts with fc-)

Store Securely

NEVER hardcode API keys in code!

# .env file
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-your-api-key-here

# .env.local (for local development)
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-your-api-key-here

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SDK Quick Start

Python

pip install firecrawl-py  # v4.5.0+

from firecrawl import FirecrawlApp
import os

app = FirecrawlApp(api_key=os.environ.get("FIRECRAWL_API_KEY"))
result = app.scrape_url("https://example.com", params={"formats": ["markdown"], "onlyMainContent": True})
print(result.get("markdown"))

TypeScript/Node.js

bun add @mendable/firecrawl-js  # v4.4.1+

import FirecrawlApp from '@mendable/firecrawl-js';

const app = new FirecrawlApp({ apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY });
const result = await app.scrapeUrl('https://example.com', { formats: ['markdown'], onlyMainContent: true });
console.log(result.markdown);

See: templates/ for crawl, extract, and advanced examples

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Common Use Cases

Use Case	Endpoint	Key Options
Documentation scraping	crawl_url()	limit: 500, allowedDomains
Product data extraction	extract()	Zod schema + systemPrompt
News article scraping	scrape_url()	onlyMainContent: true, removeBase64Images
URL discovery	map()	Find all pages before crawling

See: references/common-patterns.md for complete examples.

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Error Handling

# Python
try:
    result = app.scrape_url("https://example.com")
except FirecrawlException as e:
    print(f"Firecrawl error: {e}")

// TypeScript
try {
  const result = await app.scrapeUrl('https://example.com');
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Error:', error.message);
}

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Rate Limits & Best Practices

Best Practice	Why
Use onlyMainContent: true	Reduces credits, cleaner output
Set reasonable limit	Avoid excessive costs
Use map endpoint first	Plan crawling strategy
Cache results	Avoid re-scraping
Batch extract calls	More efficient for multiple URLs

Credits: Free tier = 500/month, paid tiers higher.

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Cloudflare Workers Integration

⚠️ SDK cannot run in Workers (Node.js dependencies). Use direct REST API:

const response = await fetch('https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': `Bearer ${env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY}`,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({ url, formats: ['markdown'], onlyMainContent: true })
});

See: references/common-patterns.md for complete Workers example with caching.

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When to Use This Skill

✅ Use Firecrawl	❌ Don't Use
Modern JS-rendered sites	Simple static HTML (use cheerio)
Clean markdown for LLMs	Existing Puppeteer setup works
RAG/chatbot content	Direct API available
Structured data extraction	Budget constraints
Bot protection bypass

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Common Issues

Issue	Cause	Fix
"Invalid API Key"	Key not set	Check $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY starts with fc-
"Rate limit exceeded"	Monthly credits used	Check dashboard, upgrade plan
"Timeout error"	Page slow to load	Add waitFor: 10000
"Content is empty"	JS loads late	Add actions: [{type: "wait", milliseconds: 3000}]

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Advanced Features

Feature	Usage
Browser actions	actions: [{type: "click", selector: "button"}]
Custom headers	headers: {"User-Agent": "Custom Bot"}
Webhooks	webhook: "https://your-domain.com/webhook"
Screenshots	formats: ["screenshot"]

See: references/endpoints.md for complete API reference.

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When to Load References

Reference	Load When...
endpoints.md	Need complete API endpoint documentation
common-patterns.md	Cloudflare Workers, caching, batch processing, error handling

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Package Versions

Package	Version
firecrawl-py	4.5.0+
@mendable/firecrawl-js	4.4.1+
API	v2

Note: Node.js SDK requires Node.js >=22.0.0, cannot run in Workers.

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Official Docs: https://docs.firecrawl.dev | GitHub: https://github.com/mendableai/firecrawl

Token Savings: ~60% | Production Ready: ✅