How do I install the Firecrawl Parse skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add firecrawl/firecrawl-parse in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Firecrawl Parse safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Firecrawl Parse?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Firecrawl Parse free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Firecrawl Parse?

firecrawl (@firecrawl) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Firecrawl Parse by firecrawl — Agent Skill

Name: Firecrawl Parse
Author: firecrawl

Firecrawl Parse

Efficiently extract and convert the contents of any local file—such as PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, or HTML—into clean, well-formatted markdown saved to disk. Use this skill whenever the user requests to parse, read, or extract information from a file on their computer, including phrases like “parse this PDF”, “convert this document”, “read this file”, “extract text from”, or when a local file path (not a URL) is provided. This skill offers advanced options like generating AI-powered summaries and answering questions based on the file's content. Prefer this tool over `scrape` when handling local files to deliver precise, structured outputs for downstream tasks.

firecrawl 62493b1 3.0 KB Updated Sep 17, 2026

File contents

firecrawl parse

MCP note

This is a local-filesystem operation — it reads a file (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, etc.) on your machine — so it runs through the firecrawl CLI rather than the bundled (hosted) Firecrawl MCP, which cannot access local files. Install the CLI if you haven't: npm install -g firecrawl-cli (see the firecrawl-cli skill). To parse a document at a URL instead, use the MCP-backed firecrawl-scrape skill.

Turn a local document into clean markdown on disk. Supports PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, HTML/HTM/XHTML.

When to use

You have a file on disk (not a URL) and want its text as markdown
User drops a PDF/DOCX and asks what it says, or to summarize it
Use scrape instead when the source is a URL

Quick start

Always save to .firecrawl/ with -o — parsed docs can be hundreds of KB and blow up context if streamed to stdout. Add .firecrawl/ to .gitignore.

mkdir -p .firecrawl

# File → markdown
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -o .firecrawl/paper.md

# AI summary
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -S -o .firecrawl/paper-summary.md

# Ask a question about the doc
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -Q "What are the main conclusions?" \
  -o .firecrawl/paper-qa.md

Then head, grep, rg etc., or incrementally read the file - don't load the whole thing at once.

Options

Option	Description
`-S, --summary`	AI-generated summary
`-Q, --query <prompt>`	Ask a question about the parsed content
`-o, --output <path>`	Output file path — always use this
`-f, --format <fmt>`	`markdown` (default), `html`, `summary`
`--timeout <ms>`	Timeout for the parse job
`--timing`	Show request duration

Tips

Quote paths with spaces: firecrawl parse "./My Doc.pdf" -o .firecrawl/mydoc.md.
Max upload size: 50 MB per file.
Credits: ~1 per PDF page; HTML is 1 flat.
Check .firecrawl/ before re-parsing the same file.
To check your credit balance (recommended for batch processing and similar workflows), use the firecrawl credit-usage command.

---name: firecrawl-parsedescription: Efficiently extract and convert the contents of any local file—such as PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, or HTML—into clean, well-formatted markdown saved to disk. Use this skill whenever the user requests to parse, read, or extract information from a file on their computer, including phrases like “parse this PDF”, “convert this document”, “read this file”, “extract text from”, or when a local file path (not a URL) is provided. This skill offers advanced options like generating AI-powered summaries and answering questions based on the file's content. Prefer this tool over `scrape` when handling local files to deliver precise, structured outputs for downstream tasks.---# firecrawl parse## MCP noteThis is a **local-filesystem** operation — it reads a file (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, etc.) on your machine — so it runs through the `firecrawl` CLI rather than the bundled (hosted) Firecrawl MCP, which cannot access local files. Install the CLI if you haven't: `npm install -g firecrawl-cli` (see the `firecrawl-cli` skill). To parse a document at a URL instead, use the MCP-backed `firecrawl-scrape` skill.Turn a local document into clean markdown on disk. Supports **PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, HTML/HTM/XHTML**.## When to use- You have a file on disk (not a URL) and want its text as markdown- User drops a PDF/DOCX and asks what it says, or to summarize it- Use `scrape` instead when the source is a URL## Quick startAlways save to `.firecrawl/` with `-o` — parsed docs can be hundreds of KB and blow up context if streamed to stdout. Add `.firecrawl/` to `.gitignore`.```bashmkdir -p .firecrawl# File → markdownfirecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -o .firecrawl/paper.md# AI summaryfirecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -S -o .firecrawl/paper-summary.md# Ask a question about the docfirecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -Q "What are the main conclusions?" \ -o .firecrawl/paper-qa.md```Then `head`, `grep`, `rg` etc., or incrementally read the file - don't load the whole thing at once.## Options| Option | Description || ---------------------- | --------------------------------------- || `-S, --summary` | AI-generated summary || `-Q, --query <prompt>` | Ask a question about the parsed content || `-o, --output <path>` | Output file path — **always use this** || `-f, --format <fmt>` | `markdown` (default), `html`, `summary` || `--timeout <ms>` | Timeout for the parse job || `--timing` | Show request duration |## Tips- Quote paths with spaces: `firecrawl parse "./My Doc.pdf" -o .firecrawl/mydoc.md`.- Max upload size: **50 MB** per file.- Credits: ~1 per PDF page; HTML is 1 flat.- Check `.firecrawl/` before re-parsing the same file.- To check your credit balance (recommended for batch processing and similar workflows), use the `firecrawl credit-usage` command.## See also- [firecrawl-scrape](../firecrawl-scrape/SKILL.md) — same idea for URLs

Frequently asked questions