How to Use Firecrawl in Openclaw: Web Scraping Guide
Quick Start with Firecrawl
Firecrawl is a powerful web scraping tool that converts websites into clean, LLM-ready data. Integrating it with Openclaw lets your agents fetch and process web content intelligently. This guide walks you through the setup in under 5 minutes.
For more web scraping options, check out our guide on Exec Tool Openclaw. If you're new to Openclaw's tool ecosystem, you might also want to read about Elevated Mode Openclaw for advanced permissions.
Step 1: Get Your API Key
Create an account on Firecrawl and generate an API key from your dashboard.
Step 2: Configure Openclaw
Add the following configuration to your ~/.Openclaw/Openclaw.json file:
{
"tools": {
"web": {
"fetch": {
"firecrawl": {
"apiKey": "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY_HERE",
"baseUrl": "https://api.firecrawl.dev",
"onlyMainContent": true,
"maxAgeMs": 172800000,
"timeoutSeconds": 60
}
}
}
}
}
Step 3: Test the Integration
Once configured, your Openclaw agent can fetch web content using Firecrawl. Example prompt:
Fetch the content from https://example.com/docs and summarize the key features
The agent will automatically use Firecrawl to scrape the page and return clean, structured content.
Configuration Options Explained
- onlyMainContent: Filters out navigation, ads, and footers
- maxAgeMs: Cache duration in milliseconds (172800000 = 48 hours)
- timeoutSeconds: Maximum wait time for page load
Troubleshooting & Best Practices
- Rate limits: Firecrawl has usage limits based on your plan. Monitor your dashboard.
- JavaScript-heavy sites: Increase timeoutSeconds for SPAs that take longer to render.
- Cache wisely: Set maxAgeMs based on how frequently the target content changes.
- API key security: Never commit your key to version control. Use environment variables or Openclaw's secure config.
With Firecrawl integrated, your Openclaw agents can now extract clean data from any website, making research and content analysis workflows seamless.
