firecrawl/rules/install.md

name, description

name	description
firecrawl-cli-installation	Install the official Firecrawl CLI and handle authentication. Package: https://www.npmjs.com/package/firecrawl-cli Source: https://github.com/firecrawl/cli Docs: https://docs.firecrawl.dev/sdks/cli

Firecrawl CLI Installation

Quick Setup (Recommended)

npx -y firecrawl-cli@latest init -y --browser

This installs firecrawl-cli globally, authenticates via browser, and installs core and workflow skills. Build skills are a separate step: firecrawl setup build.

This setup is safe to re-run when the CLI is missing, stale, or only partially configured.

If firecrawl is already installed and you want to update it first:

npm update -g firecrawl-cli

Skills are installed globally across all detected coding editors by default.

To install skills manually:

firecrawl setup skills
firecrawl setup build
firecrawl setup workflows

Manual Install

npm install -g firecrawl-cli@latest

Verify

First check status:

firecrawl --status

--status shows auth state, concurrency (max parallel jobs — run parallel operations up to that limit), and remaining API credits.

Then run one small real request to prove install, auth, and output all work:

mkdir -p .firecrawl
firecrawl scrape "https://firecrawl.dev" -o .firecrawl/install-check.md

The install is healthy when both commands succeed.

Authentication

Authenticate using the built-in login flow:

firecrawl login --browser

This opens the browser for OAuth authentication. Credentials are stored securely by the CLI.

Auth and credit errors are terminal

An Unauthorized: Invalid token or insufficient-credits error is terminal for that call: verify config once with firecrawl --status, then report the blocking reason and stop. Retrying the same call yields the same error.

If authentication fails

Ask the user how they'd like to authenticate:

1. Login with browser (Recommended) - Run firecrawl login --browser
2. Enter API key manually - Run firecrawl login --api-key "<key>" with a key from firecrawl.dev

If you cannot obtain a key and the user cannot sign up, search, scrape, and interact still work without an API key on the keyless free tier (rate-limited). Commands that need an account — crawl, map, download, agent, monitor, credit-usage, and the feedback commands — prompt an interactive login when no credentials are set. Browser login or an API key remains preferred for the best results. See agent onboarding for the full set of onboarding paths.

Command not found

If firecrawl is not found after installation:

1. Ensure npm global bin is in PATH
2. Try: npx firecrawl-cli@latest --version
3. Reinstall: npm install -g firecrawl-cli@latest