Web Scraping Pro

Advanced scraping that handles modern anti-bot protections.

When to Use

• Regular web_fetch returns 403/Cloudflare
• Need to scrape JavaScript-rendered content
• Want structured data extraction (not just HTML)
• Dealing with bot protection (Cloudflare, Akamai)

Quick Start

Option 1: Jina Reader (Easiest, Free)

# Just prepend r.jina.ai to any URL
curl "https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com"

# Or use the script
node skills/web-scraping-pro/scripts/jina-fetch.js "https://example.com"

Option 2: Crawl4AI (Most Powerful, Free)

# Install
pip install crawl4ai
playwright install

# Use via script
python skills/web-scraping-pro/scripts/crawl4ai-fetch.py "https://example.com"

Option 3: Firecrawl (API, has free tier)

# Set API key
export FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=your_key

# Fetch
node skills/web-scraping-pro/scripts/firecrawl-fetch.js "https://example.com"

Available Scripts

scripts/jina-fetch.js

Fetch via Jina Reader API. Free, no setup, handles most sites.

• ✅ Free unlimited
• ✅ Returns clean markdown
• ❌ Some sites block

scripts/crawl4ai-fetch.py

Full browser scraping with Crawl4AI. Most capable option.

• ✅ Free, local
• ✅ Handles JS rendering
• ✅ Built-in extraction
• ❌ Slower, needs setup

scripts/firecrawl-fetch.js

Firecrawl API for reliable scraping.

• ✅ Very reliable
• ✅ Clean output
• ❌ Paid after free tier

scripts/multi-fetch.js

Try multiple methods in fallback order.

scripts/extract-structured.py

Extract structured data (tables, lists, specific elements).

Jina Reader Features

# Basic fetch (returns markdown)
curl "https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com"

# Search (returns search results)
curl "https://s.jina.ai/your+search+query"

# With options
curl "https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com" \
  -H "X-Return-Format: text" \
  -H "X-Target-Selector: main"

Crawl4AI Features

from crawl4ai import WebCrawler

crawler = WebCrawler()
crawler.warmup()

result = crawler.run(
    url="https://example.com",
    word_count_threshold=10,
    extraction_strategy="LLMExtractionStrategy",  # AI extraction
    chunking_strategy="RegexChunking"
)

print(result.markdown)  # Clean markdown
print(result.extracted_content)  # Structured data

Comparison

Tool	Cloudflare	JS Render	Speed	Cost
Jina Reader	⭕ Some	✅ Yes	Fast	Free
Crawl4AI	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Slow	Free
Firecrawl	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Fast	Freemium
Browser skill	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	Slow	Free

Tips

1. Start with Jina - It's free and works for most sites
2. Fallback to Crawl4AI - When Jina fails
3. Use selectors - Target specific elements for cleaner output
4. Rate limit - Add delays between requests
5. Cache results - Don't re-scrape unchanged content

Handling Common Issues

Cloudflare Challenge

# Use Crawl4AI with stealth
python skills/web-scraping-pro/scripts/crawl4ai-fetch.py "https://site.com" --stealth

JavaScript Content

# Jina handles most JS
# For complex SPAs, use Crawl4AI with wait
python skills/web-scraping-pro/scripts/crawl4ai-fetch.py "https://spa.com" --wait 5000

Rate Limiting

# Use batch script with delays
node skills/web-scraping-pro/scripts/batch-scrape.js urls.txt --delay 3000