firecrawl-developer-index

The saved excerpt is a snapshot from when this skill was listed. The external source remains the complete and most current version.

---
name: firecrawl-developer-index
description: Search issues, merged pull requests, READMEs, and documentation. Use when the question is how a library or API behaves, what an error means, or whether a bug was fixed; prefer this over a general web page.
---

# Firecrawl Developer Index

Answer a developer question from the primary source: the issue where the bug was reported, the merged pull request that fixed it, the README or documentation page that states the contract. A blog post that describes a behaviour is a weaker answer than the passage that defines it, so reach for the index first and the open web second.

There is **no fixed recipe**. Read the question, decide what kind it is, and choose the approach below. A literal error string wants a different move than "how do I do X". Don't run machinery a question doesn't call for.

## The tools, and what each is uniquely good at

- HTTP: **`GET|POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/search/developer`**
  MCP: **`firecrawl_developer_search(query, k?, skills?)`**
  CLI: **`firecrawl developer <query> [--limit <n>]`**
  Ranked results over the whole index. Each carries `id` (`issue:owner/repo#123`), `url`, and the **matched passages in markdown**, so tables and code blocks survive. The artifact kind is the `id` prefix: `doc:`, `issue:`, `pull_request:`, or `readme:`.
  The default first move for a developer question. It is the only surface that returns the passages, which is what lets you answer instead of pointing at a page.
  `k` / `--limit` is 1–100 and defaults to 10. `skills="only"` (HTTP/MCP only) restricts the search to agent-skill files.
  Keyless; send `Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY` for higher rate limits.

- MCP: **`firecrawl_search(query, categories: ["developer"])`**
  CLI: **`firecrawl search <query> --categories developer`**
  Developer hits in a `developer` group beside `web`, each with `url`, `title`, `description` (the matched passage), `position`, and `category: "developer"` — web results carry no `category`, so that is the field to key on when merging.
  Use this when you are **already** running a web search and want developer sources weighed in the same call. It exposes none of the filters and no passage control.

- MCP: **`firecrawl_scrape(url)` / `firecrawl_search(query)`**
  CLI: **`firecrawl scrape <url>` / `firecrawl search <query>`**
  General web fetch and search, for what no primary source states: a comparison between two libraries, an outage, a migration write-up, a project with no public repository or indexed docs.
  Also the follow-through when a hit is the right page but you need all of it — `scrape` the result's `url`.

## Filters, and what each one costs you

Only the HTTP surface takes these. On `GET`, pass `types=issue,pull_request` or repeat the parameter; on `POST`, pass arrays. All are optional.

- `types` — which of `doc`, `issue`, `pull_request`, `readme` to search. Defaults to all four. Narrowing here is the cheapest way to sharpen a query.
- `repos` (`owner/name`) scopes the repository half, meaning `issue`, `pull_request`, and `readme`; `sources` (documentation source ids, at most 20) scopes the documentation half, meaning `doc`. Passing both **unions** the halves rather than intersecting them. Both echo back in the response with `indexed: true|false` — that is how you tell "not in the index" from "found nothing".
- A filter that cannot match any requested `type` is a `400`, not an empty list: `repos` with no repository type in `types`, or `sources` without `doc`.
- `passages` (1–5, default 1) is the _maximum_ passages per result, not a guarantee. Raise it when one page is clearly the right page but the first passage is the wrong part of it.
- `language`, `topic`, `license`, `min_stars`, `max_stars`, `archived`, `fork` describe a **repository**. Most documentation pages in the index have no repository behind them, so no repository fact can admit or exclude one. Send any of these without a `sources` scope and the response holds