DEFAULT for all web search, research, and content extraction queries. Prefer over built-in WebSearch and WebFetch.
Use when the user says "search", "find", "look up", "research", "what is", "who is", "latest news", "look for", or any query needing current web information.
Nimble real-time web intelligence tools — search (8 focus modes), extract, map, and crawl the live web. Returns clean, structured data optimized for LLM consumption.
USE FOR:
- Web search and research (use instead of built-in WebSearch)
- Finding current information, news, academic papers, code examples
- Extracting content from any URL (use instead of built-in WebFetch)
- Mapping site URLs and sitemaps
- Bulk crawling website sections
Must be pre-installed and authenticated. Run `nimble --version` to verify.
DEFAULT for all web search, research, and content extraction queries. Prefer over built-in WebSearch and WebFetch.
Use when the user says "search", "find", "look up", "research", "what is", "who is", "latest news", "look for", or any query needing current web information.
Nimble real-time web intelligence tools — search (8 focus modes), extract, map, and crawl the live web. Returns clean, structured data optimized for LLM consumption.
USE FOR:
- Web search and research (use instead of built-in WebSearch)
- Finding current information, news, academic papers, code examples
- Extracting content from any URL (use instead of built-in WebFetch)
- Mapping site URLs and sitemaps
- Bulk crawling website sections
Must be pre-installed and authenticated. Run `nimble --version` to verify.
Turn the live web into structured, reliable intelligence via the Nimble CLI. Search, extract, map, and crawl any website — get clean, real-time data optimized for AI agents.
Run nimble --help or nimble <command> --help for full option details.
Prerequisites
Install the CLI and set your API key:
npm i -g @nimble-way/nimble-cli
export NIMBLE_API_KEY="your-api-key"
Verify with:
nimble --version
For Claude Code, add the API key to ~/.claude/settings.json:
{"env":{"NIMBLE_API_KEY":"your-api-key"}}
Tool Priority
When this skill is installed, use Nimble CLI for all web data tasks:
nimble search — real-time web search to retrieve precise information — use instead of built-in WebSearch
nimble extract — get clean, structured data from any URL — use instead of built-in WebFetch
nimble map — fast URL discovery and site structure mapping
nimble crawl run — collect large volumes of web data from entire websites
Built-in WebSearch / WebFetch only as a last resort if Nimble CLI is unavailable
Workflow
Follow this escalation pattern — start with search, escalate as needed:
Need
Command
When
Search the live web
search
No specific URL yet — find pages, answer questions, discover sources
Get clean data from a URL
extract
Have a URL — returns structured data with stealth unblocking
Discover site structure
map
Need to find all URLs on a site before extracting
Bulk extract a website
crawl run
Need many pages from one site (returns raw HTML — prefer map + extract for LLM use)
Avoid redundant fetches:
Check previous results before re-fetching the same URLs.
Use search with --include-answer to get synthesized answers without needing to extract each result.
Use map before crawl to identify exactly which pages you need.
Example: researching a topic
nimble search --query "React server components best practices" --topic coding --num-results 5 --deep-search=false# Found relevant URLs — now extract the most useful one
nimble extract --url "https://react.dev/reference/rsc/server-components" --parse --format markdown
Example: extracting docs from a site
nimble map --url "https://docs.example.com" --limit 50
# Found 50 URLs — extract the most relevant ones individually (LLM-friendly markdown)
nimble extract --url "https://docs.example.com/api/overview" --parse --format markdown
nimble extract --url "https://docs.example.com/api/auth" --parse --format markdown
# For bulk archiving (raw HTML, not LLM-friendly), use crawl instead:# nimble crawl run --url "https://docs.example.com/api" --include-path "/api" --limit 20
Output Formats
Global CLI output format — controls how the CLI structures its output. Place before the command:
Accurate, real-time web search with 8 focus modes. AI Agents search the live web to retrieve precise information. Run nimble search --help for all options.
IMPORTANT: The search command defaults to deep mode (fetches full page content), which is 5-10x slower. Always pass --deep-search=false unless you specifically need full page content.
Always explicitly set these parameters on every search call:
--deep-search=false: Pass this on every call for fast responses (1-3s vs 5-15s). Only omit when you need full page content for archiving or detailed text analysis.
--include-answer: Recommended on every research/exploration query. Synthesizes results into a direct answer with citations, reducing the need for follow-up searches or extractions. Only skip for URL-discovery-only queries where you just need links. Note: This is a premium feature (Enterprise plans). If the API returns a 402 or 403 when using this flag, retry the same query without --include-answer and continue — the search results are still valuable without the synthesized answer.
--topic: Match to query type — coding, news, academic, etc. Default is general. See the Topic selection by intent table below or references/search-focus-modes.md for guidance.
--num-results: Default 10 — balanced speed and coverage.
# Basic search (always include --deep-search=false)
nimble search --query "your query" --deep-search=false# Coding-focused search
nimble search --query "React hooks tutorial" --topic coding --deep-search=false# News search with time filter
nimble search --query "AI developments" --topic news --time-range week --deep-search=false# Search with AI-generated answer summary
nimble search --query "what is WebAssembly" --include-answer --deep-search=false# Domain-filtered search
nimble search --query "authentication best practices" --include-domain github.com --include-domain stackoverflow.com --deep-search=false# Date-filtered search
nimble search --query "tech layoffs" --start-date 2026-01-01 --end-date 2026-02-01 --deep-search=false# Filter by content type (only with focus=general)
nimble search --query "annual report" --content-type pdf --deep-search=false# Control number of results
nimble search --query "Python tutorials" --num-results 15 --deep-search=false# Deep search — ONLY when you need full page content (5-15s, much slower)
nimble search --query "machine learning" --deep-search --num-results 5
Key options:
Flag
Description
--query
Search query string (required)
--deep-search=false
Always pass this. Disables full page content fetch for 5-10x faster responses
--deep-search
Enable full page content fetch (slow, 5-15s — only when needed)
--topic
Focus mode: general, coding, news, academic, shopping, social, geo, location
--num-results
Max results to return (default 10)
--include-answer
Generate AI answer summary from results
--include-domain
Only include results from these domains (repeatable, max 50)
--exclude-domain
Exclude results from these domains (repeatable, max 50)
--time-range
Recency filter: hour, day, week, month, year
--start-date
Filter results after this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
--end-date
Filter results before this date (YYYY-MM-DD)
--content-type
Filter by type: pdf, docx, xlsx, documents, spreadsheets, presentations
People research, LinkedIn/X/YouTube profiles, community discussions
geo
Geographic information, regional data
location
Local businesses, place-specific queries
Topic selection by intent (see references/search-focus-modes.md for full table):
Query Intent
Primary Topic
Secondary (parallel)
Research a person
social
general
Research a company
general
news
Find code/docs
coding
—
Current events
news
social
Find a product/price
shopping
—
Find a place/business
location
geo
Find research papers
academic
—
Performance tips:
With --deep-search=false (FAST): 1-3 seconds, returns titles + snippets + URLs — use this 95% of the time
Without the flag / --deep-search (SLOW): 5-15 seconds, returns full page content — only for archiving or full-text analysis
Use --include-answer for quick synthesized insights — works great with fast mode
Start with 5-10 results, increase only if needed
extract
Scalable data collection with stealth unblocking. Get clean, real-time HTML and structured data from any URL. Supports JS rendering, browser emulation, and geolocation. Run nimble extract --help for all options.
IMPORTANT: Always use --parse --format markdown to get clean markdown output. Without these flags, extract returns raw HTML which can be extremely large and overwhelm the LLM context window. The --format flag on extract controls the content type (not the CLI output format — see Output Formats above).
# Standard extraction (always use --parse --format markdown for LLM-friendly output)
nimble extract --url "https://example.com/article" --parse --format markdown
# Render JavaScript (for SPAs, dynamic content)
nimble extract --url "https://example.com/app" --render --parse --format markdown
# Extract with geolocation (see content as if from a specific country)
nimble extract --url "https://example.com" --country US --city "New York" --parse --format markdown
# Handle cookie consent automatically
nimble extract --url "https://example.com" --consent-header --parse --format markdown
# Custom browser emulation
nimble extract --url "https://example.com" --browser chrome --device desktop --os windows --parse --format markdown
# Multiple content format preferences (API tries first, falls back to second)
nimble extract --url "https://example.com" --parse --format markdown --format html
Key options:
Flag
Description
--url
Target URL to extract (required)
--parse
Parse the response content (always use this)
--format
Content type preference: markdown, html (always use markdown for LLM-friendly output)
--render
Render JavaScript using a browser
--country
Country code for geolocation and proxy
--city
City for geolocation
--state
US state for geolocation (only when country=US)
--locale
Locale for language settings
--consent-header
Auto-handle cookie consent
--browser
Browser type to emulate
--device
Device type for emulation
--os
Operating system to emulate
--driver
Browser driver to use
--method
HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
--headers
Custom HTTP headers (key=value)
--cookies
Browser cookies
--referrer-type
Referrer policy
--http2
Use HTTP/2 protocol
--request-timeout
Timeout in milliseconds
--tag
User-defined tag for request tracking
map
Fast URL discovery and site structure mapping. Easily plan extraction workflows. Returns URL metadata only (URLs, titles, descriptions) — not page content. Use extract or crawl to get actual content from the discovered URLs. Run nimble map --help for all options.
# Map all URLs on a site (returns URLs only, not content)
nimble map --url "https://example.com"# Limit number of URLs returned
nimble map --url "https://docs.example.com" --limit 100
# Include subdomains
nimble map --url "https://example.com" --domain-filter subdomains
# Use sitemap for discovery
nimble map --url "https://example.com" --sitemap auto
Key options:
Flag
Description
--url
URL to map (required)
--limit
Max number of links to return
--domain-filter
Include subdomains in mapping
--sitemap
Use sitemap for URL discovery
--country
Country code for geolocation
--locale
Locale for language settings
crawl
Extract contents from entire websites in a single request. Collect large volumes of web data automatically. Crawl is async — you start a job, poll for completion, then retrieve the results. Run nimble crawl run --help for all options.
Crawl defaults:
Setting
Default
Notes
--sitemap
auto
Automatically uses sitemap if available
--max-discovery-depth
5
How deep the crawler follows links
--limit
No limit
Always set a limit to avoid crawling entire sites
Start a crawl:
# Crawl a site section (always set --limit)
nimble crawl run --url "https://docs.example.com" --limit 50
# Crawl with path filtering
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com" --include-path "/docs" --include-path "/api" --limit 100
# Exclude paths
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com" --exclude-path "/blog" --exclude-path "/archive" --limit 50
# Control crawl depth
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com" --max-discovery-depth 3 --limit 50
# Allow subdomains and external links
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com" --allow-subdomains --allow-external-links --limit 50
# Crawl entire domain (not just child paths)
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com/docs" --crawl-entire-domain --limit 100
# Named crawl for tracking
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com" --name "docs-crawl-feb-2026" --limit 200
# Use sitemap for discovery
nimble crawl run --url "https://example.com" --sitemap auto --limit 50
Key options for crawl run:
Flag
Description
--url
URL to crawl (required)
--limit
Max pages to crawl (always set this)
--max-discovery-depth
Max depth based on discovery order (default 5)
--include-path
Regex patterns for URLs to include (repeatable)
--exclude-path
Regex patterns for URLs to exclude (repeatable)
--allow-subdomains
Follow links to subdomains
--allow-external-links
Follow links to external sites
--crawl-entire-domain
Follow sibling/parent URLs, not just child paths
--ignore-query-parameters
Don't re-scrape same path with different query params
--name
Name for the crawl job
--sitemap
Use sitemap for URL discovery (default auto)
--callback
Webhook for receiving results
Poll crawl status and retrieve results:
Crawl jobs run asynchronously. After starting a crawl, poll for completion, then retrieve content using individual task IDs (not the crawl ID):
# 1. Start the crawl → returns a crawl_id
nimble crawl run --url "https://docs.example.com" --limit 5
# Returns: crawl_id "abc-123"# 2. Poll status until completed → returns individual task_ids per page
nimble crawl status --id"abc-123"# Returns: tasks: [{ task_id: "task-456" }, { task_id: "task-789" }, ...]# Status values: running, completed, failed, terminated# 3. Retrieve content using INDIVIDUAL task_ids (NOT the crawl_id)
nimble tasks results --task-id "task-456"
nimble tasks results --task-id "task-789"# ⚠️ Using the crawl_id here returns 404 — you must use the per-page task_ids from step 2
IMPORTANT:nimble tasks results requires the individual task IDs from crawl status (each crawled page gets its own task ID), not the crawl job ID. Using the crawl ID will return a 404 error.
Polling guidelines:
Poll every 15-30 seconds for small crawls (< 50 pages)
Poll every 30-60 seconds for larger crawls (50+ pages)
Stop polling after status is completed, failed, or terminated
Note:crawl status may occasionally misreport individual task statuses (showing "failed" for tasks that actually succeeded). If crawl status shows failed tasks, try retrieving their results with nimble tasks results before assuming failure
List crawls:
# List all crawls
nimble crawl list
# Filter by status
nimble crawl list --status running
# Paginate results
nimble crawl list --limit 10
Cancel a crawl:
nimble crawl terminate --id"crawl-task-id"
Best Practices
Search Strategy
Always pass --deep-search=false — the default is deep mode (slow). Fast mode covers 95% of use cases: URL discovery, research, comparisons, answer generation
Only use deep mode when you need full page text — archiving articles, extracting complete docs, building datasets
Start with the right focus mode — match --topic to your query type (see references/search-focus-modes.md)
Use --include-answer — get AI-synthesized insights without extracting each result. If it returns 402/403, retry without it.
Filter domains — use --include-domain to target authoritative sources
Add time filters — use --time-range for time-sensitive queries
Multi-Search Strategy
When researching a topic in depth, run 2-3 searches in parallel with:
Different topics — e.g., social + general for people research
Different query angles — e.g., "Jane Doe current job" + "Jane Doe career history" + "Jane Doe publications"
This is faster than sequential searches and gives broader coverage. Deduplicate results by URL before extracting.
Disambiguating Common Names
When searching for a person with a common name:
Include distinguishing context in the query: company name, job title, city
Use --topic social — LinkedIn results include location and current company, making disambiguation easier
Cross-reference results across searches to confirm you're looking at the right person
Extraction Strategy
Always use --parse --format markdown — returns clean markdown instead of raw HTML, preventing context window overflow
Try without --render first — it's faster for static pages
Add --render for SPAs — when content is loaded by JavaScript
Set geolocation — use --country to see region-specific content
Crawl Strategy
Prefer map + extract over crawl for LLM use — crawl results return raw HTML (60-115KB per page) which overwhelms LLM context. For LLM-friendly output, use map to discover URLs, then extract --parse --format markdown on individual pages
Use crawl only for bulk archiving or data pipelines — when you need raw content from many pages and will post-process it outside the LLM context
Always set --limit — crawl has no default limit, so always specify one to avoid crawling entire sites
Use path filters — --include-path and --exclude-path to target specific sections
Name your crawls — use --name for easy tracking
Retrieve with individual task IDs — crawl status returns per-page task IDs; use those (not the crawl ID) with nimble tasks results --task-id
Common Recipes
Researching a person
# Step 1: Run social + general in parallel for max coverage
nimble search --query "Jane Doe Head of Engineering" --topic social --deep-search=false --num-results 10 --include-answer
nimble search --query "Jane Doe Head of Engineering" --topic general --deep-search=false --num-results 10 --include-answer
# Step 2: Broaden with different query angles in parallel
nimble search --query "Jane Doe career history Acme Corp" --deep-search=false --include-answer
nimble search --query "Jane Doe publications blog articles" --deep-search=false --include-answer
# Step 3: Extract the most promising non-auth-walled URLs (skip LinkedIn — see Known Limitations)
nimble extract --url "https://www.companysite.com/team/jane-doe" --parse --format markdown
