firecrawl instruct
Interact with scraped pages in a live browser session. Scrape a page first, then use natural language prompts or code to click, fill forms, navigate, and extract data.
When to use
- Content requires interaction: clicks, form fills, pagination, login
scrapefailed because content is behind JavaScript interaction- You need to navigate a multi-step flow
- Last resort in the workflow escalation pattern: search → scrape → map → crawl → instruct
- Never use instruct for web searches — use
searchinstead
Quick start
# 1. Scrape a page (scrape ID is saved automatically)
firecrawl scrape "<url>"
# 2. Interact with the page using natural language
firecrawl interact --prompt "Click the login button"
firecrawl interact --prompt "Fill in the email field with test@example.com"
firecrawl interact --prompt "Extract the pricing table"
# 3. Or use code for precise control
firecrawl interact --code "agent-browser click @e5" --language bash
firecrawl interact --code "agent-browser snapshot -i" --language bash
# 4. Stop the session when done
firecrawl interact stopOptions
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
--prompt <text> | Natural language instruction (use this OR --code) |
--code <code> | Code to execute in the browser session |
--language <lang> | Language for code: bash, python, node |
--timeout <seconds> | Execution timeout (default: 30, max: 300) |
--scrape-id <id> | Target a specific scrape (default: last scrape) |
-o, --output <path> | Output file path |
Profiles
Use --profile on the scrape to persist browser state (cookies, localStorage) across scrapes:
# Session 1: Login and save state
firecrawl scrape "https://app.example.com/login" --profile my-app
firecrawl interact --prompt "Fill in email with user@example.com and click login"
# Session 2: Come back authenticated
firecrawl scrape "https://app.example.com/dashboard" --profile my-app
firecrawl interact --prompt "Extract the dashboard data"Read-only reconnect (no writes to profile state):
firecrawl scrape "https://app.example.com" --profile my-app --no-save-changesTips
- Always scrape first —
interactrequires a scrape ID from a previousfirecrawl scrapecall - The scrape ID is saved automatically, so you don't need
--scrape-idfor subsequent interact calls - Use
firecrawl interact stopto free resources when done - For parallel work, scrape multiple pages and interact with each using
--scrape-id
See also
- firecrawl-scrape — try scrape first, escalate to instruct only when needed
- firecrawl-search — for web searches (never use instruct for searching)
- firecrawl-agent — AI-powered extraction (less manual control)