| name | firecrawl-parse |
| description | Efficiently extract and convert the contents of any local file—such as PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, or HTML—into clean, well-formatted markdown saved to disk. Use this skill whenever the user requests to parse, read, or extract information from a file on their computer, including phrases like “parse this PDF”, “convert this document”, “read this file”, “extract text from”, or when a local file path (not a URL) is provided. This skill offers advanced options like generating AI-powered summaries and answering questions based on the file's content. Prefer this tool over `scrape` when handling local files to deliver precise, structured outputs for downstream tasks.
|
| allowed-tools | ["Bash(firecrawl *)","Bash(npx firecrawl *)"] |
firecrawl parse
MCP note
This is a local-filesystem operation — it reads a file (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, etc.) on your machine — so it runs through the firecrawl CLI rather than the bundled (hosted) Firecrawl MCP, which cannot access local files. Install the CLI if you haven't: npm install -g firecrawl-cli (see the firecrawl-cli skill). To parse a document at a URL instead, use the MCP-backed firecrawl-scrape skill.
Turn a local document into clean markdown on disk. Supports PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, HTML/HTM/XHTML.
When to use
- You have a file on disk (not a URL) and want its text as markdown
- User drops a PDF/DOCX and asks what it says, or to summarize it
- Use
scrape instead when the source is a URL
Quick start
Always save to .firecrawl/ with -o — parsed docs can be hundreds of KB and blow up context if streamed to stdout. Add .firecrawl/ to .gitignore.
mkdir -p .firecrawl
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -o .firecrawl/paper.md
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -S -o .firecrawl/paper-summary.md
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -Q "What are the main conclusions?" \
-o .firecrawl/paper-qa.md
Then head, grep, rg etc., or incrementally read the file - don't load the whole thing at once.
Options
| Option | Description |
|---|
-S, --summary | AI-generated summary |
-Q, --query <prompt> | Ask a question about the parsed content |
-o, --output <path> | Output file path — always use this |
-f, --format <fmt> | markdown (default), html, summary |
--timeout <ms> | Timeout for the parse job |
--timing | Show request duration |
Tips
- Quote paths with spaces:
firecrawl parse "./My Doc.pdf" -o .firecrawl/mydoc.md.
- Max upload size: 50 MB per file.
- Credits: ~1 per PDF page; HTML is 1 flat.
- Check
.firecrawl/ before re-parsing the same file.
- To check your credit balance (recommended for batch processing and similar workflows), use the
firecrawl credit-usage command.
See also
