Firecrawl CLI Installation

Quick Setup (Recommended)

npx -y firecrawl-cli@1.16.2 init -y --browser

This installs firecrawl-cli globally, authenticates via browser, and installs core, build, and workflow skills.

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 workflows

Manual Install

npm install -g firecrawl-cli@1.16.2

Verify

First check status:

firecrawl --status

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.

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

Command not found

If firecrawl is not found after installation:

1. Ensure npm global bin is in PATH
2. Try: npx firecrawl-cli@1.16.2 --version
3. Reinstall: npm install -g firecrawl-cli@1.16.2