my-crawl4ai

name

my-crawl4ai

description

**ALWAYS use when user mentions:** "crawl4ai", "web scraping", "crawl a site", "extract web content", "scrape data from URL", or needs to extract web content as markdown/JSON. **DO NOT use for:** Browser automation (clicking, filling forms, screenshots, testing web apps) — use @skills/agent-browser for those. Set up and use crawl4ai for web crawling/scraping using uv, just, and project-based workflows. Assumes uv for Python and just for task automation.

crawl4ai

Web crawling with crawl4ai using modern Python tooling: uv, just, and project-based workflows.

Quick Start

# One-off crawl (any directory)
uvx --from crawl4ai crwl https://example.com --format markdown

# Project-based setup (recommended)
mkdir -p ./my-crawler && cd ./my-crawler
uv init --name crawler --python 3.12
uv add "crawl4ai[basic,browser,markdown]"
uv run python -c "import crawl4ai; crawl4ai.setup()"

Prerequisites

• uv — Python package manager (install: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh)
• just — Task runner (optional, install: cargo install just or package manager)
• Shell — bash, zsh, or fish (all examples are POSIX-compatible)
• Disk space — ~200MB for browser binaries (downloaded once)

Reference Files

This skill references detailed guides for specific situations:

Read this	When you need to...
references/setup-workflow.md	Set up a new crawler project from scratch
references/code-templates.md	Get ready-to-use code for batch crawling, auth, screenshots
references/integration-guides/typescript.md	Use crawl4ai from a TypeScript/Node project

Always check reference files when:

• Setting up a new project → read setup-workflow.md
• Need code examples → read code-templates.md
• Working with TypeScript → read integration-guides/typescript.md

When to Use What

Situation	Approach
Quick one-page crawl	uvx CLI — uvx --from crawl4ai crwl URL
Regular crawling needs	Python API — dedicated project directory
From TypeScript project	uvx via bun.$ or MCP server
Isolated/containerized	Docker — unclecode/crawl4ai:latest

---

Project Setup

Read references/setup-workflow.md for detailed steps.

1. Create Project

mkdir -p ./my-crawler
cd ./my-crawler
uv init --name crawler --python 3.12

2. Add Dependencies

# Recommended: basic + browser + markdown (smaller than [all])
uv add "crawl4ai[basic,browser,markdown]"

# Or full install with all features
uv add "crawl4ai[all]"

3. Setup Browser (one-time)

uv run python -c "import crawl4ai; crawl4ai.setup()"

4. Create Justfile

# justfile

_default:
    @just --list

install:
    uv sync

crawl url *args:
    uv run python -m crawler "{{url}}" {{args}}

example:
    uv run python src/crawler/quick.py https://example.com

setup-browser:
    uv run python -c "import crawl4ai; crawl4ai.setup()"

clean:
    rm -rf data/raw/* data/processed/*

---

Code Templates

Read references/code-templates.md for full templates.

Basic Single Page

# src/crawler/quick.py
import asyncio
import sys
from pathlib import Path
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler

async def main(url: str):
    async with AsyncWebCrawler() as crawler:
        result = await crawler.arun(url=url)
        print(result.markdown)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    url = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "https://example.com"
    asyncio.run(main(url))

Batch Crawler

# src/crawler/batch.py
import asyncio
from pathlib import Path
from crawl4ai import AsyncWebCrawler, BrowserConfig, CrawlerRunConfig

async def crawl_urls(urls: list[str], output_dir: Path):
    config = CrawlerRunConfig(cache_mode=True)
    
    async with AsyncWebCrawler() as crawler:
        for url in urls:
            result = await crawler.arun(url=url, config=config)
            output_file = output_dir / f"{url.replace('/', '_')}.md"
            output_file.write_text(result.markdown)

---

TypeScript Integration

Read references/integration-guides/typescript.md for full details.

Option 1: uvx CLI via bun

// scripts/crawl.ts
import { $ } from "bun";

const result = await $`uvx --from crawl4ai crwl ${url} --format markdown`.text();
// Process result in TypeScript

Option 2: MCP Server

# Terminal 1: Start MCP server
uvx --from crawl4ai crawl4ai-mcp

# In your TS code, call via MCP client
const crawlResult = await mcpClient.call("crawl", { url, format: "markdown" });

Option 3: Data Pipeline

Separate crawler project and TypeScript app sharing data directory:

# Crawler project (Python + uv) runs on schedule
# TypeScript app reads from shared data location

# justfile in TS project:
sync-crawl-data:
    rsync -av ./crawler-data/raw/ ./data/crawled/

---

Shell Integration (Optional)

Add to your shell configuration (e.g., .bashrc, .zshrc, config.fish):

# System-wide: quick crawls from any directory
alias crawl='uvx --from crawl4ai crwl'

Or for project-specific:

# Project-based: requires justfile in project directory
alias crawl-proj='cd ./my-crawler && just crawl'

---

Common Agent Mistakes

Mistake 1: Using crawl4ai for browser automation

• ❌ Wrong: "Click the login button and take a screenshot"
• ✅ Right: Use @skills/agent-browser for clicking, filling forms, screenshots
• Rule: crawl4ai = content extraction, agent-browser = interaction automation

Mistake 2: Not reading reference files when setting up

• ❌ Wrong: Trying to write setup steps from memory
• ✅ Right: Read references/setup-workflow.md for complete step-by-step setup
• Rule: Reference files exist for a reason — use them

Mistake 3: Skipping browser setup

• ❌ Wrong: Running crawler without crawl4ai.setup() first
• ✅ Right: Always run browser setup before first use (one-time)
• Rule: Check error messages for "browser not found" → run setup

Mistake 4: Confusing one-off vs project approaches

• ❌ Wrong: Creating a full project for a single URL crawl
• ✅ Right: Use uvx --from crawl4ai crwl URL for one-off crawls
• Rule: Project setup only for recurring crawling needs

Mistake 5: Not using justfile

• ❌ Wrong: Typing long uv run python ... commands repeatedly
• ✅ Right: Create justfile with common tasks (just crawl <url>)
• Rule: Save time with task automation

---

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Browser not found	Run uv run python -c "import crawl4ai; crawl4ai.setup()"
Chromium download fails	Check internet, try export PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=0
Permission denied	Ensure ~/.cache/crawl4ai is writable
Memory issues	Reduce max_concurrent in CrawlerRunConfig
Headless fails	Set headless=False temporarily to debug

---

Project Structure Reference

./my-crawler/
├── .python-version          # Python version file
├── pyproject.toml           # uv project config
├── justfile                 # Task automation
├── README.md
├── data/
│   ├── raw/                 # Crawled content
│   └── processed/           # Transformed data
└── src/
    └── crawler/
        ├── __init__.py
        ├── quick.py         # Single URL
        ├── batch.py         # Multiple URLs
        ├── auth.py          # Authenticated crawling
        └── config.py        # Shared configurations