wiki/public/raw/how-to-use-firecrawl.md

How to use Firecrawl

Import external articles as markdown posts using Firecrawl. Get your API key and configure environment variables for local imports and AI chat.

---

Type: post Date: 2025-12-26 Reading time: 2 min read Tags: tutorial, firecrawl, import

How to use Firecrawl

You found an article you want to republish or reference. Copying content manually takes time. Firecrawl scrapes web pages and converts them to markdown automatically.

What it is

Firecrawl is a web scraping service that turns any URL into clean markdown. This app uses it in two places: the import script for creating draft posts, and the AI chat feature for fetching page content.

Who it's for

Developers who want to import external articles without manual copying. If you republish content or need to reference external sources, Firecrawl saves time.

The problem it solves

Manually copying content from websites is slow. You copy text, fix formatting, add frontmatter, and handle images. Firecrawl does this automatically.

How it works

The import script scrapes a URL, extracts the title and description, converts HTML to markdown, and creates a draft post in content/blog/. The AI chat feature uses Firecrawl to fetch page content when you share URLs in conversations.

How to try it

Step 1: Get your API key

Visit firecrawl.dev and sign up. Copy your API key. It starts with fc-.

Step 2: Set up local imports

Add the key to .env.local in your project root:

FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=fc-your-api-key-here

Now you can import articles:

npm run import https://example.com/article

This creates a draft post in content/blog/. Review it, set published: true, then run npm run sync.

Step 3: Enable AI chat scraping

If you use the AI chat feature, set the same key in your Convex Dashboard:

1. Go to dashboard.convex.dev
2. Select your project
3. Open Settings > Environment Variables
4. Add FIRECRAWL_API_KEY with your key value
5. Deploy: npx convex deploy

The AI chat can now fetch content from URLs you share.

That's it. One API key, two places to set it, and you're done.