Firecrawl Hello World
Overview
Four minimal examples covering Firecrawl's core endpoints: scrape (single page), crawl (multi-page), map (URL discovery), and extract (LLM structured data). Each is a standalone snippet you can run immediately.
Prerequisites
@mendable/firecrawl-js installed (npm install @mendable/firecrawl-js)FIRECRAWL_API_KEY environment variable set
Instructions
Step 1: Single-Page Scrape
import FirecrawlApp from "@mendable/firecrawl-js";
const firecrawl = new FirecrawlApp({
apiKey: process.env.FIRECRAWL_API_KEY!,
});
const result = await firecrawl.scrapeUrl("https://docs.firecrawl.dev", {
formats: ["markdown"],
});
console.log("Title:", result.metadata?.title);
console.log("Markdown:", result.markdown?.substring(0, 500));
Step 2: Multi-Page Crawl
const crawlResult = await firecrawl.crawlUrl("https://docs.firecrawl.dev", {
limit: 10,
scrapeOptions: {
formats: ["markdown"],
},
});
console.log(`Crawled ${crawlResult.data?.length} pages`);
for (const page of crawlResult.data || []) {
console.log(` ${page.metadata?.title} — ${page.metadata?.sourceURL}`);
}
Step 3: Map a Site (URL Discovery)
const mapResult = await firecrawl.mapUrl("https://docs.firecrawl.dev");
console.log(`Found ${mapResult.links?.length} URLs`);
mapResult.links?.slice(0, 10).forEach(url => console.log(` ${url}`));
Step 4: LLM Extract (Structured Data)
const extracted = await firecrawl.scrapeUrl("https://firecrawl.dev/pricing", {
formats: ["extract"],
extract: {
schema: {
type: "object",
properties: {
plans: {
type: "array",
items: {
type: "object",
properties: {
name: { type: "string" },
price: { type: "string" },
credits: { type: "number" },
},
},
},
},
},
},
});
console.log("Pricing plans:", JSON.stringify(extracted.extract, null, 2));
Output
- Single-page markdown scraped from a live URL
- Multi-page crawl results with titles and source URLs
- Site map with all discovered URLs
- Structured JSON extracted by LLM from page content
Error Handling
| Error | Cause | Solution |
|---|
Cannot find module | SDK not installed | npm install @mendable/firecrawl-js |
401 Unauthorized | Missing or invalid API key | Check FIRECRAWL_API_KEY env var |
429 Too Many Requests | Rate limit exceeded | Wait and retry with backoff |
Empty markdown | JS-heavy page not rendered | Add waitFor: 5000 to scrape options |
402 Payment Required | Credits exhausted | Check balance at firecrawl.dev/app |
Examples
Python Hello World
from firecrawl import FirecrawlApp
firecrawl = FirecrawlApp(api_key="fc-YOUR_API_KEY")
result = firecrawl.scrape_url("https://example.com", params={
"formats": ["markdown"]
})
print(result["markdown"][:500])
urls = firecrawl.map_url("https://example.com")
print(f"Found {len(urls.get('links', []))} URLs")
Batch Scrape Multiple URLs
const batchResult = await firecrawl.batchScrapeUrls(
[
"https://docs.firecrawl.dev/features/scrape",
"https://docs.firecrawl.dev/features/crawl",
"https://docs.firecrawl.dev/features/extract",
],
{ formats: ["markdown"] }
);
for (const page of batchResult.data || []) {
console.log(`${page.metadata?.title}: ${page.markdown?.length} chars`);
}
Resources
Next Steps
Proceed to firecrawl-local-dev-loop for development workflow setup.
