Crawl Skill

Crawl websites to extract content from multiple pages. Ideal for documentation, knowledge bases, and site-wide content extraction.

Authentication

The script uses OAuth via the Tavily MCP server. No manual setup required - on first run, it will:

• Check for existing tokens in ~/.mcp-auth/

• If none found, automatically open your browser for OAuth authentication

Note: You must have an existing Tavily account. The OAuth flow only supports login — account creation is not available through this flow. Sign up at tavily.com first if you don't have an account.

Alternative: API Key

If you prefer using an API key, get one at https://tavily.com and add to ~/.claude/settings.json :

{ "env": { "TAVILY_API_KEY": "tvly-your-api-key-here" } }

Quick Start

Using the Script

./scripts/crawl.sh '<json>' [output_dir]

Examples:

Basic crawl

./scripts/crawl.sh '{"url": "https://docs.example.com"}'

Deeper crawl with limits

./scripts/crawl.sh '{"url": "https://docs.example.com", "max_depth": 2, "limit": 50}'

Save to files

./scripts/crawl.sh '{"url": "https://docs.example.com", "max_depth": 2}' ./docs

Focused crawl with path filters

./scripts/crawl.sh '{"url": "https://example.com", "max_depth": 2, "select_paths": ["/docs/.", "/api/."], "exclude_paths": ["/blog/.*"]}'

With semantic instructions (for agentic use)

./scripts/crawl.sh '{"url": "https://docs.example.com", "instructions": "Find API documentation", "chunks_per_source": 3}'

When output_dir is provided, each crawled page is saved as a separate markdown file.

Basic Crawl

curl --request POST
--url https://api.tavily.com/crawl
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY"
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--data '{ "url": "https://docs.example.com", "max_depth": 1, "limit": 20 }'

Focused Crawl with Instructions

curl --request POST
--url https://api.tavily.com/crawl
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY"
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--data '{ "url": "https://docs.example.com", "max_depth": 2, "instructions": "Find API documentation and code examples", "chunks_per_source": 3, "select_paths": ["/docs/.", "/api/."] }'

API Reference

Endpoint

POST https://api.tavily.com/crawl

Headers

Header Value

Authorization

Bearer <TAVILY_API_KEY>

Content-Type

application/json

Request Body

Field Type Default Description

url

string Required Root URL to begin crawling

max_depth

integer 1 Levels deep to crawl (1-5)

max_breadth

integer 20 Links per page

limit

integer 50 Total pages cap

instructions

string null Natural language guidance for focus

chunks_per_source

integer 3 Chunks per page (1-5, requires instructions)

extract_depth

string "basic"

basic or advanced

format

string "markdown"

markdown or text

select_paths

array null Regex patterns to include

exclude_paths

array null Regex patterns to exclude

allow_external

boolean true Include external domain links

timeout

float 150 Max wait (10-150 seconds)

Response Format

{ "base_url": "https://docs.example.com", "results": [ { "url": "https://docs.example.com/page", "raw_content": "# Page Title\n\nContent..." } ], "response_time": 12.5 }

Depth vs Performance

Depth Typical Pages Time

1 10-50 Seconds

2 50-500 Minutes

3 500-5000 Many minutes

Start with max_depth=1 and increase only if needed.

Crawl for Context vs Data Collection

For agentic use (feeding results into context): Always use instructions

• chunks_per_source . This returns only relevant chunks instead of full pages, preventing context window explosion.

For data collection (saving to files): Omit chunks_per_source to get full page content.

Examples

For Context: Agentic Research (Recommended)

Use when feeding crawl results into an LLM context:

curl --request POST
--url https://api.tavily.com/crawl
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY"
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--data '{ "url": "https://docs.example.com", "max_depth": 2, "instructions": "Find API documentation and authentication guides", "chunks_per_source": 3 }'

Returns only the most relevant chunks (max 500 chars each) per page - fits in context without overwhelming it.

For Context: Targeted Technical Docs

curl --request POST
--url https://api.tavily.com/crawl
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY"
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--data '{ "url": "https://example.com", "max_depth": 2, "instructions": "Find all documentation about authentication and security", "chunks_per_source": 3, "select_paths": ["/docs/.", "/api/."] }'

For Data Collection: Full Page Archive

Use when saving content to files for later processing:

curl --request POST
--url https://api.tavily.com/crawl
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY"
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--data '{ "url": "https://example.com/blog", "max_depth": 2, "max_breadth": 50, "select_paths": ["/blog/."], "exclude_paths": ["/blog/tag/.", "/blog/category/.*"] }'

Returns full page content - use the script with output_dir to save as markdown files.

Map API (URL Discovery)

Use map instead of crawl when you only need URLs, not content:

curl --request POST
--url https://api.tavily.com/map
--header "Authorization: Bearer $TAVILY_API_KEY"
--header 'Content-Type: application/json'
--data '{ "url": "https://docs.example.com", "max_depth": 2, "instructions": "Find all API docs and guides" }'

Returns URLs only (faster than crawl):

{ "base_url": "https://docs.example.com", "results": [ "https://docs.example.com/api/auth", "https://docs.example.com/guides/quickstart" ] }

Tips

• Always use chunks_per_source for agentic workflows - prevents context explosion when feeding results to LLMs

• Omit chunks_per_source only for data collection - when saving full pages to files

• Start conservative (max_depth=1 , limit=20 ) and scale up

• Use path patterns to focus on relevant sections

• Use Map first to understand site structure before full crawl

• Always set a limit to prevent runaway crawls