curl-cffi

name	curl-cffi
description	Fetch web content with browser impersonation using curl_cffi. Use when web_fetch is unavailable or returns blocked/empty responses, or when TLS fingerprint-based blocking is detected. Triggers include "fetch URL", "scrape page", "impersonate browser", or any web fetch that fails with built-in tools.

curl-cffi — Impersonated Web Fetch

Fetches web pages with browser impersonation, bypassing TLS fingerprint-based blocking. Supports HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 out of the box.

Prerequisite: uv must be installed. Run curl-cffi via:

uvx --from git+https://github.com/lexiforest/curl_cffi curl-cffi

When to use

• When web_fetch is unavailable or returns blocked/empty responses
• When a website requires a real browser TLS fingerprint
• When you need to fetch API endpoints, HTML pages, or JSON resources

CLI Usage

Replace uvx --from git+https://github.com/lexiforest/curl_cffi curl-cffi with the shortcut CURL_CFFI below.

CURL_CFFI METHOD URL [REQUEST_ITEMS...] [FLAGS]

• METHOD is required: get, post, put, delete, patch, head, options, trace, query (case-insensitive).
• URL is required. Bare domains default to https://. A leading colon is a localhost shortcut (:3000 → http://localhost:3000). An explicit port other than 443 uses http://.

Common patterns

# Simple GET (impersonates Chrome by default)
CURL_CFFI get https://httpbin.org/get

# Body only (best for parsing)
CURL_CFFI get --body https://httpbin.org/get

# POST JSON data
CURL_CFFI post https://httpbin.org/post name=John age:=30

# Custom header
CURL_CFFI get https://httpbin.org/get X-My-Header:value

# Impersonate Safari
CURL_CFFI get -i safari https://example.com

# HTTP/3
CURL_CFFI get --http3 https://example.com

Key flags

Flag	Short	Description
--body	-b	Print response body only
--headers		Print response headers only
--verbose	-v	Print full request + response
--impersonate	-i	Browser to impersonate (default: chrome)
--json	-j	Serialize data as JSON (default)
--form	-f	Serialize data as form fields
--proxy		Proxy URL
--timeout		Timeout in seconds
--follow / --no-follow		Follow/don't follow redirects (default: follow)
--http3		Use HTTP/3

Request item syntax

Syntax	Meaning	Example
Header:Value	HTTP header	Content-Type:application/json
Header:	Remove header	Accept:
param==value	Query parameter	page==2
field=value	JSON/form string field	name=John
field:=json	JSON field (interpreted)	age:=30
@filepath	File upload	@photo.jpg

Batch execution

The run subcommand executes multiple requests from a file:

CURL_CFFI run requests.http
CURL_CFFI run session.har
CURL_CFFI run --no-session requests.http

Supported formats: .http / .rest (HTTP Request in Editor format) and .har (HTTP Archive).

Tips

• Always use --body (-b) when fetching content for parsing, to suppress headers and syntax highlighting.
• Use -i safari or -i chrome to impersonate specific browsers.
• Default timeout is generous; set --timeout for slow sites.