Quick: copy this and run

Auth (hosted only): Authorization: Bearer $CRW_API_KEY. Self-hosted (http://localhost:3000) needs no header.

Body:

{ "query": string, "limit": number (default 5, max 20), "lang"?: "en", "tbs"?: "qdr:d|w|m|y", "sources"?: ["web"|"news"|"images"] }

Python (stdlib only — defaults to hosted, fails loudly if key is missing)

#!/usr/bin/env python3 """Search CRW and print top results as JSON.""" import json, os, sys, urllib.request API_KEY = os.environ.get("CRW_API_KEY") # Default to the hosted API. Self-hosting? Set CRW_API_URL=http://localhost:3000 BASE = os.environ.get("CRW_API_URL", "https://api.fastcrw.com") URL = f"{BASE}/v1/search" headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"} if API_KEY: headers["Authorization"] = f"Bearer {API_KEY}" elif BASE.startswith("https://api.fastcrw.com"): sys.exit("error: CRW_API_KEY is required for the hosted API. " "Get one at https://fastcrw.com (1000 free credits) " "or set CRW_API_URL=http://localhost:3000 to self-host.") req = urllib.request.Request( URL, data=json.dumps({"query": "renewable energy trends 2024", "limit": 3}).encode(), headers=headers, method="POST", ) with urllib.request.urlopen(req) as r: body = json.loads(r.read()) # body == {"success": true, "data": [...]} # Results live under body["data"]. Each row has `title`, `url`, `snippet`, # `description`, `position`, `score`, `category` — print the LLM-ready subset. print(json.dumps( [{"title": x["title"], "url": x["url"], "snippet": x["snippet"]} for x in body["data"]], indent=2, )) # Run with: python3 search.py (file is python3-only — no `python` alias needed)

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.fastcrw.com/v1/search \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $CRW_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"query":"renewable energy trends 2024","limit":3}'

CLI (one-shot LLM-ready output)

The crw CLI projects directly to the title/url/snippet schema with --json --fields — no jq reshape needed:

# Install: brew install us/crw/crw (or: cargo install crw-cli) crw search "renewable energy trends 2024" --json --fields title,url,snippet --limit 3 # Available fields: title, url, description, snippet, position, score, category # --json is shorthand for --format json (also accepts --format text|markdown) # Self-hosted: no auth. Hosted: export CRW_API_KEY=crw_live_...

Response shape

{ "success": true, "data": [ {"url": "https://...", "title": "...", "description": "...", "snippet": "...", "position": 1, "score": 9.5} ] }

Other endpoints

POST /v1/scrape {"url":"...","formats":["markdown"]} — one URL → markdown

POST /v1/map {"url":"...","limit":50} — discover URLs

POST /v1/crawl {"url":"...","maxPages":5} — async multi-page; poll GET /v1/crawl/{id}

POST /v1/scrape with formats:["json"] + jsonOptions.schema — structured extract

Compatibility Matrix

What "Compatible" Means Here

CRW's recommended API for new integrations is native /v1. For existing Firecrawl v2 SDK projects, a base-URL swap to /firecrawl/v2 covers the request-shape overlap with minimal code changes. Validate the documented behavioral differences below before moving production traffic.

How you point the SDK depends on the language: the JS/TS SDK honours a /firecrawl path in apiUrl (so it reaches /firecrawl/v2/*), while the Python SDK drops the path and lands on the equivalent root /v2/* — same engine. See Migrate from Firecrawl for the exact apiUrl / api_url values.

Supported alignment

Area	Status
`/v1/scrape`, `/v1/crawl`, `/v1/map` route shape	Supported
`limit`, `maxPages`, `max_pages` for crawl caps	Supported
Numeric `waitFor` for JS rendering	Supported
`cssSelector`, `xpath`, `chunkStrategy`, `filterMode`	Supported

Known differences

Area	Current behavior
Screenshot output	Supported, but only on an instance with a capture-capable browser tier (Chrome or Playwright). Check `screenshot.supported` on `GET /v1/capabilities`
`success` semantics	`success: false` when target returns HTTP 4xx/5xx with minimal content; `success: true` with `warning` when target returns error status but has real content
JS waiting	Numeric delay only; no selector-based wait primitive
`extract` format	Accepted as alias for `json`. Use `formats: ["json"]` with `jsonSchema` for structured extraction
SDKs	Official packages: `crw` (Python 0.16.0) and `crw-sdk` (TypeScript 0.16.0)

Treat this page as the source of truth during migrations.

If you are not migrating Firecrawl code, start with Choose Your Endpoint and the native /v1 routes instead.

Migration Checklist

If you are moving an existing Firecrawl-style integration:

verify scrape, crawl, and map request bodies against real targets,
confirm how your code interprets success, warning, and target-side HTTP statuses,
check GET /v1/capabilities for the features you depend on (screenshots, for example, need a capture-capable browser tier),
and compare output quality, not just endpoint shape.

Compatibility at the request level is useful, but output semantics and operational behavior matter just as much.

Example Evaluation Workflow

A practical migration test usually looks like this:

take one production URL that already works in the old integration,
run it through scrape with the same high-level options,
compare markdown quality, warnings, and target status behavior,
repeat the test on one JS-heavy page and one failure-prone page,
only then update the calling code.

That sequence catches the gap between request-shape compatibility and output-quality compatibility.

When Compatibility Is "Good Enough"

Compatibility is good enough when your migration goal is:

preserving the existing mental model,
keeping endpoint names and common options familiar,
and minimizing changes in the application layer.

It is not good enough if your current system depends on features this page already marks as unsupported or behaviorally different.

Common Mistakes

Treating /firecrawl/v2 as the default API for a new CRW build. Use /v1 unless you are migrating Firecrawl v2 SDK code.
Assuming route-name compatibility means output semantics are identical.
Migrating a whole workload before testing warning handling and failure cases.
Assuming a capability is present without calling GET /v1/capabilities, and then discovering the gap in production.

Use this page with output formats and error codes so your migration covers both payload shape and operational behavior.

CRW — open-source web scraper & crawler (Firecrawl-compatible)