hermes-webclaw

name	hermes-webclaw
description	Hermes Agent plugin that replaces the bundled Firecrawl plugin with native WebClaw v1 API support — search, scrape/extract, and crawl. Install when the user wants to use WebClaw as their web backend in Hermes, set up WEBCLAW_API_KEY, or switch from Firecrawl to WebClaw.
license	AGPL-3.0
compatibility	Hermes Agent ≥ 0.13.0, Python 3.11+, httpx
metadata	{"author":"jal-co","version":"1.0.0","webclaw-api":"v1","hermes-plugin-kind":"backend"}

hermes-webclaw

Hermes Agent plugin providing native WebClaw v1 API support as a drop-in replacement for the bundled Firecrawl plugin.

What is WebClaw?

WebClaw is a fast, open-source web extraction toolkit built in Rust. It extracts clean markdown, JSON, or LLM-optimized text from any website using HTTP with browser-grade TLS impersonation — no headless browser required. 118ms average response time.

What this plugin does

Registers a WebSearchProvider subclass (webclaw) that Hermes's built-in web_search, web_extract, and web_crawl tools route through, plus 9 dedicated tools for the full WebClaw v1 API surface:

Tool	WebClaw endpoint	What it does
webclaw_scrape	/v1/scrape	Single URL extraction — CSS filtering, screenshots, mobile UA, page Q&A
webclaw_search	/v1/search	Web search with optional parallel scraping of result URLs
webclaw_crawl	/v1/crawl	Async BFS site crawl with depth/page limits, sitemap seeding
webclaw_extract	/v1/extract	LLM-powered structured data extraction via JSON schema or prompt
webclaw_summarize	/v1/summarize	LLM-powered page summarization
webclaw_diff	/v1/diff	Content change tracking against a previous snapshot
webclaw_map	/v1/map	Sitemap discovery via sitemap.xml and robots.txt
webclaw_batch	/v1/batch	Multi-URL extraction in a single concurrent request
webclaw_brand	/v1/brand	Brand identity extraction — colors, fonts, logo, favicon

Install

1. Get a WebClaw API key

Sign up at webclaw.io and create an API key from the dashboard. Keys are prefixed with wc_.

2. Copy plugin files to Hermes

Run the install script on the Hermes host:

bash scripts/install.sh

Or manually:

PLUGIN_DIR=/usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/plugins/web/webclaw
mkdir -p "$PLUGIN_DIR"
cp scripts/plugin.yaml  "$PLUGIN_DIR/plugin.yaml"
cp scripts/__init__.py   "$PLUGIN_DIR/__init__.py"
cp scripts/provider.py   "$PLUGIN_DIR/provider.py"

3. Set the API key

Add to ~/.hermes/.env:

WEBCLAW_API_KEY=wc_your_key_here

4. Set WebClaw as the web backend

Edit ~/.hermes/config.yaml:

web:
  backend: webclaw

Or set per-capability:

web:
  search_backend: webclaw
  extract_backend: webclaw
  crawl_backend: webclaw

5. (Optional) Disable Firecrawl

Both plugins register as web providers. If Firecrawl has credentials configured, disable it to avoid conflicts:

mv /usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/plugins/web/firecrawl \
   /usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/plugins/web/firecrawl.disabled

6. Restart the gateway

sudo systemctl restart hermes-gateway

7. Verify

Check the gateway logs for WebClaw registration:

journalctl -u hermes-gateway --no-pager -n 20 | grep -i webclaw

Or run hermes tools and confirm WebClaw appears as the web backend.

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Description
WEBCLAW_API_KEY	Yes	Your WebClaw API key (wc_...). Get one at webclaw.io.
WEBCLAW_BASE_URL	No	Override API base URL. Default: https://api.webclaw.io.

Self-hosting WebClaw

If running webclaw-server locally:

WEBCLAW_API_KEY=your_secret
WEBCLAW_BASE_URL=http://your-server:3000

Uninstall

rm -rf /usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/plugins/web/webclaw
# If you renamed Firecrawl, restore it:
mv /usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/plugins/web/firecrawl.disabled \
   /usr/local/lib/hermes-agent/plugins/web/firecrawl
sudo systemctl restart hermes-gateway

Credits

Powered by WebClaw by @0xMassi.