# Firecrawl Search

> Searches the web and optionally extracts full page content, returning results as JSON files.

- Skill: `scoheart/firecrawl-search` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add scoheart/firecrawl-search`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/scoheart/firecrawl-search/raw
- Safety review: PASS (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Research & Search, Docs & Writing, Web & Frontend, Web Research
- Tags: Firecrawl, Json, Web Scraping, Web Search
- Author: Scoheart (https://skillmd.com/u/scoheart)
- Updated: 2026-08-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/scoheart/firecrawl-search

---


# firecrawl search

Web search with optional content scraping. Returns search results as JSON, optionally with full page content.

## When to use

- You don't have a specific URL yet
- You need to find pages, answer questions, or discover sources
- First step in the [workflow escalation pattern](firecrawl-cli): search → scrape → map → crawl → interact

## Quick start

```bash
# Basic search
firecrawl search "your query" -o .firecrawl/result.json --json

# Search and scrape full page content from results
firecrawl search "your query" --scrape -o .firecrawl/scraped.json --json

# News from the past day
firecrawl search "your query" --sources news --tbs qdr:d -o .firecrawl/news.json --json
```

## Options

| Option                               | Description                                   |
| ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------- |
| `--limit <n>`                        | Max number of results                         |
| `--sources <web,images,news>`        | Source types to search                        |
| `--categories <github,research,pdf>` | Filter by category                            |
| `--tbs <qdr:h\|d\|w\|m\|y>`          | Time-based search filter                      |
| `--location`                         | Location for search results                   |
| `--country <code>`                   | Country code for search                       |
| `--scrape`                           | Also scrape full page content for each result |
| `--scrape-formats`                   | Formats when scraping (default: markdown)     |
| `-o, --output <path>`                | Output file path                              |
| `--json`                             | Output as JSON                                |

## Tips

- **`--scrape` fetches full content** — don't re-scrape URLs from search results. This saves credits and avoids redundant fetches.
- Always write results to `.firecrawl/` with `-o` to avoid context window bloat.
- Use `jq` to extract URLs or titles: `jq -r '.data.web[].url' .firecrawl/search.json`
- Naming convention: `.firecrawl/search-{query}.json` or `.firecrawl/search-{query}-scraped.json`

## See also

- [firecrawl-scrape](../firecrawl-scrape/SKILL.md) — scrape a specific URL
- [firecrawl-map](../firecrawl-map/SKILL.md) — discover URLs within a site
- [firecrawl-crawl](../firecrawl-crawl/SKILL.md) — bulk extract from a site