URL Crawler

Crawls websites using Tavily Crawl API and saves each page as a separate markdown file in a flat directory structure.

Prerequisites

Tavily API Key Required – Get your key at https://tavily.com

Add to ~/.claude/settings.json:

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

Restart Claude Code after adding your API key.

When to Use

Use this skill when the user wants to:

• Crawl and extract content from a website
• Download API documentation, framework docs, or knowledge bases
• Save web content locally for offline access or analysis

Usage

Execute the crawl script with a URL and optional instruction:

python scripts/crawl_url.py <URL> [--instruction "guidance text"]

Required Parameters

• URL: The website to crawl (e.g., https://docs.stripe.com/api)

Optional Parameters

• --instruction, -i: Natural language guidance for the crawler (e.g., “Focus on API endpoints only”)
• --output, -o: Output directory (default: <repo_root>/crawled_context/<domain>)
• --depth, -d: Max crawl depth (default: 2, range: 1-5)
• --breadth, -b: Max links per level (default: 50)
• --limit, -l: Max total pages to crawl (default: 50)

Output

The script creates a flat directory structure at <repo_root>/crawled_context/<domain>/ with one markdown file per crawled page. Filenames are derived from URLs (e.g., docs_stripe_com_api_authentication.md).

Each markdown file includes:

• Frontmatter with source URL and crawl timestamp
• The extracted content in markdown format

Examples

Basic Crawl

python scripts/crawl_url.py https://docs.anthropic.com

Crawls the Anthropic docs with default settings, saves to <repo_root>/crawled_context/docs_anthropic_com/.

With Instruction

python scripts/crawl_url.py https://react.dev --instruction "Focus on API reference pages and hooks documentation"

Uses natural language instruction to guide the crawler toward specific content.

Custom Output Directory

python scripts/crawl_url.py https://docs.stripe.com/api -o ./stripe-api-docs

Saves results to a custom directory.

Adjust Crawl Parameters

python scripts/crawl_url.py https://nextjs.org/docs --depth 3 --breadth 100 --limit 200

Increases crawl depth, breadth, and page limit for more comprehensive coverage.

Important Notes

• API Key Required: Set TAVILY_API_KEY environment variable (loads from .env if available)
• Crawl Time: Deeper crawls take longer (depth 3+ may take many minutes)
• Filename Safety: URLs are converted to safe filenames automatically
• Flat Structure: All files saved in <repo_root>/crawled_context/<domain>/ directory regardless of original URL hierarchy
• Duplicate Prevention: Files are overwritten if URLs generate identical filenames