| name | firecrawl-cli |
| description | Scrape, crawl, search, and extract structured data from any website using Firecrawl's cloud browser. Use this skill when browser_navigate fails due to bot protection, when you need clean markdown/JSON without DOM interaction, or when running an AI extraction agent. Commands: firecrawl_scrape, firecrawl_search, firecrawl_browser, firecrawl_crawl, firecrawl_agent. |
| license | MIT |
| compatibility | Requires firecrawl-cli installed globally (npm install -g firecrawl-cli) and FIRECRAWL_API_KEY set, or a self-hosted instance via FIRECRAWL_API_URL. |
| metadata | {"author":"firecrawl","version":"1.0","source":"https://github.com/firecrawl/cli"} |
| orcbot | {"requiredPackages":["firecrawl-cli"],"permissions":["network"],"triggerPatterns":["firecrawl","scrape.*bot.protect","extract.*structured.*web","cloud.*browser","firecrawl browser"]} |
Firecrawl CLI Skill
Overview
Firecrawl provides a cloud browser and AI extraction layer on top of any website. Unlike OrcBot's local Playwright browser, Firecrawl runs browser sessions on remote infrastructure, handles bot-protection (Cloudflare, reCAPTCHA, etc.), and can return pre-formatted markdown or structured JSON without you parsing HTML.
Browser Decision Guide
Always choose the right browser for the job:
| Situation | Use |
|---|
| Simple page, just need to read content | browser_navigate (Playwright, free, fast) |
| Need to click buttons, fill forms, interact | browser_navigate + browser_click + browser_type |
| Page is bot-protected, Cloudflare, requires JS | firecrawl_scrape |
| Need clean markdown without any DOM work | firecrawl_scrape |
| Need bulk content from many pages | firecrawl_crawl |
| Need structured JSON from web data | firecrawl_agent |
| Need to drive a session step by step in cloud | firecrawl_browser |
Do NOT replace working browser_navigate calls with firecrawl_scrape just because firecrawl is installed. Use firecrawl when local Playwright fails or when the task specifically benefits from cloud execution.
Setup
npm install -g firecrawl-cli
firecrawl login
firecrawl login --api-key fc-YOUR-KEY
firecrawl --status
For a self-hosted Firecrawl instance (no API key needed):
export FIRECRAWL_API_URL=http://localhost:3002
Skills Available
After this skill is activated OrcBot has access to these callable tools:
firecrawl_scrape(url, format?, options?)
Extract content from a URL via cloud browser. Default format is markdown.
# Get clean markdown
firecrawl_scrape("https://example.com")
# Get all links from a page
firecrawl_scrape("https://example.com", "links")
# Extract main content only, skip navs and footers
firecrawl_scrape("https://example.com", "markdown", {only_main_content: true})
# Wait 3s for JS to render, then scrape
firecrawl_scrape("https://spa.example.com", "markdown", {wait_for: 3000})
firecrawl_search(query, limit?, sources?, scrape?, tbs?)
Web search with optional result scraping.
# Basic search
firecrawl_search("React Server Components tutorial")
# Recent news, scrape content
firecrawl_search("AI funding news", 10, "news", true, "qdr:w")
# Find GitHub repos
firecrawl_search("web scraping python", 20, "web", false)
firecrawl_browser(command, session_id?)
Control a cloud browser session using natural-language agent-browser commands.
Important: This is a CLOUD browser managed by Firecrawl infrastructure. It is completely separate from OrcBot's local Playwright browser. Sessions persist by ID until closed or TTL expires.
# Step 1 — Launch a session (do this once per task)
run_command("firecrawl browser launch --stream")
# → Returns a session ID like "abc123..."
# Step 2 — Execute commands
firecrawl_browser("open https://uspto.gov")
firecrawl_browser("snapshot") # get page state
firecrawl_browser("click @e5") # click by agentbrowser ref
firecrawl_browser("fill @e3 patent number here")
firecrawl_browser("scrape") # extract current page content
# Step 3 — Target session explicitly (if multiple sessions exist)
firecrawl_browser("open https://example.com", "abc123")
firecrawl_crawl(url, limit?, max_depth?, wait?, output?)
Crawl an entire website. Returns a job ID immediately unless wait=true.
# Start a crawl
firecrawl_crawl("https://docs.example.com", 200, 3)
# Wait for completion and save results
firecrawl_crawl("https://docs.example.com", 100, 2, true, "docs.json")
firecrawl_agent(prompt, urls?, schema?, wait?)
AI-powered structured extraction. The agent autonomously browses to fulfill the prompt.
# Research task
firecrawl_agent("Find the top 5 competitors of Notion with their pricing plans")
# Structured JSON extraction
firecrawl_agent("Extract all product names, prices, and SKUs",
"https://shop.example.com",
{type: "object", properties: {products: {type: "array"}}})
Error Recovery
If a firecrawl_* skill returns an error:
- Not installed → run
install_npm_dependency("firecrawl-cli") then authenticate
- Auth error → run
run_command("firecrawl login") and complete the flow
- Rate limited / credits → check
run_command("firecrawl credit-usage")
- Session expired → sessions auto-expire; launch a new one with
run_command("firecrawl browser launch")
- Self-hosted → set
FIRECRAWL_API_URL env var, auth is auto-skipped
Installing the OrcBot Plugin
The firecrawl.ts plugin registers these skills as native OrcBot tool calls. Install it:
# From within OrcBot agent session:
install_skill("firecrawl/cli")
# Or manually copy src/skills/firecrawl.ts to ~/.orcbot/plugins/
References
