Neura Market Logo

Firecrawl Search, Scrape, and Web Fetch Fallback Integration

This page explains how to use Firecrawl as a web search provider, explicit plugin tools, or a fallback extractor for web_fetch. It covers installation, keyless access, and API key configuration for developers.

Read this when

  • You want Firecrawl-backed web extraction
  • You want keyless Firecrawl Search (Free) or keyless web_fetch
  • You need a Firecrawl API key for search or higher limits
  • You want Firecrawl as a web_search provider
  • You want anti-bot extraction for web_fetch

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 and search service that handles bot circumvention and caching, making it useful for JS-heavy sites or pages that block plain HTTP requests.

Install plugin

Install the official plugin, then restart Gateway:

openclaw plugins install @openclaw/firecrawl-plugin
openclaw gateway restart

Keyless access and API keys

Firecrawl registers two web_search providers:

  • Firecrawl Search (firecrawl), uses the hosted /v2/search API with your key; auto-detected when a key is present.
  • Firecrawl Search (Free) (firecrawl-free), uses the hosted keyless starter tier, no API key required. It is opt-in only and never auto-selected, since selecting it sends your search queries to Firecrawl's free tier.

The explicitly selected Firecrawl web_fetch fallback is also keyless. The explicit firecrawl_search and firecrawl_scrape tools require an API key. Add FIRECRAWL_API_KEY in the gateway environment or configure it for higher limits.

{
  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 installed Firecrawl plugin automatically.
  • Pick Firecrawl Search (Free) in onboarding (or set provider: "firecrawl-free") to run keyless with no API key. The keyed Firecrawl Search provider sends plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webSearch.apiKey or FIRECRAWL_API_KEY.
  • 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 or 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.
  • Firecrawl search requests default to a 30-second timeout; firecrawl_search's timeoutSeconds parameter overrides it per call.

Configure Firecrawl web_fetch fallback

{
  tools: {
    web: {
      fetch: {
        provider: "firecrawl", // explicit selection enables keyless fallback
      },
    },
  },
  plugins: {
    entries: {
      firecrawl: {
        enabled: true,
        config: {
          webFetch: {
            baseUrl: "https://api.firecrawl.dev",
            onlyMainContent: true,
            maxAgeMs: 172800000,
            timeoutSeconds: 60,
          },
        },
      },
    },
  },
}

Notes:

  • The explicitly selected Firecrawl web_fetch fallback works without an API key. When configured, OpenClaw sends plugins.entries.firecrawl.config.webFetch.apiKey or FIRECRAWL_API_KEY for higher limits.
  • Choosing Firecrawl during onboarding or openclaw configure --section web enables the plugin and selects Firecrawl for web_fetch unless another fetch provider is already configured.
  • firecrawl_scrape requires an API key.
  • maxAgeMs controls how old cached results can be (ms). Default is 172,800,000 ms (2 days).
  • onlyMainContent defaults to true; timeoutSeconds defaults to 60.
  • Legacy tools.web.fetch.firecrawl.* and tools.web.search.firecrawl.* config is auto-migrated by openclaw doctor --fix.
  • Firecrawl scrape and base URL overrides follow the same hosted or private rule as search: public hosted traffic uses https://api.firecrawl.dev; self-hosted overrides must resolve to private or 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, including its required API key.

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

Use this when you want Firecrawl-specific search controls instead of generic web_search. Requires an API key.

Parameters:

  • query
  • count (1-100)
  • sources
  • categories
  • includeDomains / excludeDomains (hostnames only; mutually exclusive)
  • tbs (time filter, for example qdr:d, qdr:w, sbd:1)
  • location and country (geo-targeting)
  • scrapeResults
  • timeoutSeconds

firecrawl_scrape

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

Parameters:

  • url
  • extractMode
  • maxChars
  • onlyMainContent
  • maxAgeMs
  • proxy
  • storeInCache
  • timeoutSeconds

Stealth / bot circumvention

firecrawl_scrape and the web_fetch Firecrawl fallback default to proxy: "auto" plus storeInCache: true unless the caller overrides those parameters. firecrawl_search and the web_search Firecrawl provider have no proxy or storeInCache controls; stealth proxy mode only applies to scrape and fetch requests.

Firecrawl's proxy mode controls bot circumvention (basic, stealth, or 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. Configured fetch provider, such as Firecrawl (when selected, or auto-detected from configured credentials)
  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. The official Firecrawl plugin provides that fallback.