---
summary: "Firecrawl search, scrape, and web_fetch fallback"
read_when:
  - You want Firecrawl-backed web extraction
  - You need a Firecrawl API key
  - You want Firecrawl as a web_search provider
  - You want anti-bot extraction for web_fetch
title: "Firecrawl"
---

OpenClaw can use **Firecrawl** in three ways:

- as the `web_search` provider
- as explicit plugin tools: `firecrawl_search` and `firecrawl_scrape`
- as a fallback extractor for `web_fetch`

It is a hosted extraction/search service that supports bot circumvention and caching,
which helps with JS-heavy sites or pages that block plain HTTP fetches.

## Get an API key

1. Create a Firecrawl account and generate an API key.
2. Store it in config or set `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY` in the gateway environment.

## Configure Firecrawl search

```json5
{
  tools: {
    web: {
      search: {
        provider: "firecrawl",
      },
    },
  },
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      firecrawl: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          webSearch: {
            apiKey: "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY_HERE",
            baseUrl: "https://api.firecrawl.dev",
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
```

Notes:

- Choosing Firecrawl in onboarding or `openclaw configure --section web` enables the bundled Firecrawl plugin automatically.
- `web_search` with Firecrawl supports `query` and `count`.
- For Firecrawl-specific controls like `sources`, `categories`, or result scraping, use `firecrawl_search`.
- `baseUrl` defaults to hosted Firecrawl at `https://api.firecrawl.dev`. Self-hosted overrides are allowed only for private/internal endpoints; HTTP is accepted only for those private targets.
- `FIRECRAWL_BASE_URL` is the shared env fallback for Firecrawl search and scrape base URLs.

## Configure Firecrawl scrape + web_fetch fallback

```json5
{
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      firecrawl: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          webFetch: {
            apiKey: "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY_HERE",
            baseUrl: "https://api.firecrawl.dev",
            onlyMainContent: true,
            maxAgeMs: 172800000,
            timeoutSeconds: 60,
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}
```

Notes:

- Firecrawl fallback attempts run only when an API key is available (`plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webFetch.apiKey` or `FIRECRAWL_API_KEY`).
- `maxAgeMs` controls how old cached results can be (ms). Default is 2 days.
- Legacy `tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.*` config is auto-migrated by `openclaw doctor --fix`.
- Firecrawl scrape/base URL overrides follow the same hosted/private rule as search: public hosted traffic uses `https://api.firecrawl.dev`; self-hosted overrides must resolve to private/internal endpoints.
- `firecrawl_scrape` rejects obvious private, loopback, metadata, and non-HTTP(S) target URLs before forwarding them to Firecrawl, matching the `web_fetch` target-safety contract for explicit Firecrawl scrape calls.

`firecrawl_scrape` reuses the same `plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webFetch.*` settings and env vars.

### Self-hosted Firecrawl

Set `plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webSearch.baseUrl`,
`plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webFetch.baseUrl`, or `FIRECRAWL_BASE_URL`
when you run Firecrawl yourself. OpenClaw accepts `http://` only for loopback,
private-network, `.local`, `.internal`, or `.localhost` targets. Public custom
hosts are rejected so Firecrawl API keys are not sent to arbitrary endpoints by
accident.

## Firecrawl plugin tools

### `firecrawl_search`

Use this when you want Firecrawl-specific search controls instead of generic `web_search`.

Core parameters:

- `query`
- `count`
- `sources`
- `categories`
- `scrapeResults`
- `timeoutSeconds`

### `firecrawl_scrape`

Use this for JS-heavy or bot-protected pages where plain `web_fetch` is weak.

Core parameters:

- `url`
- `extractMode`
- `maxChars`
- `onlyMainContent`
- `maxAgeMs`
- `proxy`
- `storeInCache`
- `timeoutSeconds`

## Stealth / bot circumvention

Firecrawl exposes a **proxy mode** parameter for bot circumvention (`basic`, `stealth`, or `auto`).
OpenClaw always uses `proxy: "auto"` plus `storeInCache: true` for Firecrawl requests.
If proxy is omitted, Firecrawl defaults to `auto`. `auto` retries with stealth proxies if a basic attempt fails, which may use more credits
than basic-only scraping.

## How `web_fetch` uses Firecrawl

`web_fetch` extraction order:

1. Readability (local)
2. Firecrawl (if selected or auto-detected as the active web-fetch fallback)
3. Basic HTML cleanup (last fallback)

The selection knob is `tools.web.fetch.provider`. If you omit it, OpenClaw
auto-detects the first ready web-fetch provider from available credentials.
Today the bundled provider is Firecrawl.

## Related

- [Web Search overview](/tools/web) -- all providers and auto-detection
- [Web Fetch](/tools/web-fetch) -- web_fetch tool with Firecrawl fallback
- [Tavily](/tools/tavily) -- search + extract tools