Firecrawl Scraper

Professional web scraping powered by Firecrawl API. Converts websites to clean, AI-ready markdown or structured JSON.

When to Use

• Extract content from web pages for analysis
• Scrape documentation sites or knowledge bases
• Crawl entire websites systematically
• Search the web and get scraped content
• Parse JavaScript-heavy or dynamic sites
• Convert HTML to clean markdown for LLM processing
• Competitive research or content aggregation

Quick Start

Scrape a single page:

python3 scripts/scrape.py https://example.com

Crawl a website:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl https://docs.example.com --depth 2 --limit 10

Search and scrape:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --search "AI agent frameworks" --limit 5

Check crawl status:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl-status abc123

Commands

Scrape (Single Page)

Extract content from a single URL:

python3 scripts/scrape.py <url> [options]

Options:

• --formats markdown,html,screenshot — Output formats (default: markdown)
• --full — Include full page (no main content extraction)
• --json — Output raw JSON response

Examples:

# Basic scrape
python3 scripts/scrape.py https://docs.example.com

# Get HTML and markdown
python3 scripts/scrape.py https://site.com --formats markdown,html

# Full page (no content filtering)
python3 scripts/scrape.py https://site.com --full

# JSON output
python3 scripts/scrape.py https://site.com --json

Crawl (Entire Website)

Systematically crawl and scrape multiple pages:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl <url> [options]

Options:

• --depth N — Maximum crawl depth (default: 2)
• --limit N — Maximum pages to crawl (default: 10)
• --json — Output raw JSON response

Examples:

# Basic crawl
python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl https://docs.site.com

# Deep crawl with limit
python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl https://blog.com --depth 3 --limit 50

# Shallow crawl
python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl https://site.com --depth 1 --limit 5

Note: Crawl returns a job ID. Use --crawl-status to check progress and retrieve results.

Search (Web Search + Scrape)

Search the web and get scraped content from results:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --search <query> [options]

Options:

• --limit N — Number of results (default: 5)
• --json — Output raw JSON response

Examples:

# Search and scrape
python3 scripts/scrape.py --search "WordPress security best practices"

# More results
python3 scripts/scrape.py --search "AI agents 2026" --limit 10

# JSON output
python3 scripts/scrape.py --search "casino bonuses" --json

Crawl Status

Check status of a crawl job:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl-status <job-id>

Returns JSON with:

• Status: scraping, completed, failed
• Progress: Pages scraped
• Data: Scraped content (when completed)
• Credits used

Output Formats

Markdown (default): Clean, LLM-ready text with preserved structure

• Headings, links, lists, code blocks maintained
• No HTML noise or styling artifacts
• Perfect for RAG, summarization, analysis

HTML: Full HTML source (useful for parsing specific elements)

Screenshot: Base64-encoded PNG of rendered page

JSON: Structured data extraction (custom schemas supported)

Features

Smart Content Extraction:

• Automatically identifies main content
• Removes navigation, ads, footers
• Preserves document structure

JavaScript Support:

• Handles SPAs (React, Vue, Angular)
• Waits for dynamic content to load
• 96% web coverage

Anti-Bot Handling:

• Proxy management built-in
• Rate limiting handled automatically
• CAPTCHA avoidance

Caching:

• Smart caching reduces credits
• Configurable cache behavior

API Key Setup

The script looks for the Firecrawl API key in:

1. workspace/secrets/firecrawl_api_key (OpenClaw workspace)
2. secrets/firecrawl_api_key (relative to current directory)
3. FIRECRAWL_API_KEY environment variable

Current key is stored at: workspace/secrets/firecrawl_api_key

Credits & Pricing

• Scrape: 1 credit per page
• Crawl: 1 credit per page crawled
• Search: 1 credit per result scraped
• Screenshot: +1 credit
• Advanced features: May use additional credits

Free tier: 500 credits
Paid plans: Starting at $16/month (3,000 credits)

Use Cases

Documentation Extraction:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl https://docs.framework.com --depth 2 --limit 50

Competitive Research:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --search "top casino affiliate sites" --limit 10

Content Migration:

python3 scripts/scrape.py https://old-site.com/page1 --formats markdown

News Monitoring:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --search "WordPress security updates" --limit 5

Blog Scraping:

python3 scripts/scrape.py --crawl https://blog.site.com --depth 1 --limit 20

Tips

• Start with low --limit values to test
• Use --depth 1 for blog homepages (gets all posts)
• --depth 2-3 for documentation sites
• --search is faster than manual crawling for research
• Check --crawl-status regularly for long crawls
• Use --json for programmatic processing
• Markdown format is best for LLM consumption

Comparison to Other Tools

vs web_fetch tool:

• Firecrawl: Better JS support, cleaner output, handles complex sites
• web_fetch: Faster, simpler, no API credits needed
• Use Firecrawl for: Modern sites, heavy JS, need high-quality markdown
• Use web_fetch for: Simple pages, quick checks, no credit usage

vs browser tool:

• Firecrawl: Optimized for scraping, structured output, no browser management
• browser: Full control, visual interaction, debugging
• Use Firecrawl for: Content extraction at scale
• Use browser for: Interactive tasks, testing, visual verification