firecrawl-parse

What the source does

• FilesystemNone observedNo reads or writes in the source
• NetworkNone observedNo outbound calls in the source
• ShellNone observedNo commands run in the source
• DependenciesPinnedNothing floats
• SecretsNone foundNo keys in source

Five audit layers

Gates applied: no behavioural pass, no license.

Audit 0.4.1 · source sha ca9cfb73adc1 · 28 Oct 2026Report an issue or request a re-scan

• Publisherfirecrawl GitHub organizationOwner of the repository this skill is read from
• Source folderfirecrawl/cli/skills/firecrawl-parseThe exact folder we audited
• LicenceNot declaredAs the repository states it
• Commit pinned for this verdictca9cfb73adc1A new audit runs when the source changes
• Repository statusNot archivedPushed today
• Sandboxed runNot runSkills are read, not executed; layer L4 is skipped

Its description: Convert a local file (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, ...) to markdown, or answer questions about its content. Use whenever the input is a file path, not a URL.

---
name: firecrawl-parse
description: |
  Convert a local file (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, HTML, ...) to markdown, or answer questions about its content. Use whenever the input is a file path, not a URL.
allowed-tools:
  - Bash(firecrawl *)
  - Bash(npx firecrawl-cli *)
---

# firecrawl parse

Turn a local document into clean markdown on disk. Supports **PDF, DOCX, DOC, ODT, RTF, XLSX, XLS, HTML/HTM**.

## Quick start

Always save to `.firecrawl/` with `-o` — parsed docs can be hundreds of KB and blow up context if streamed to stdout. Add `.firecrawl/` to `.gitignore`.

```bash
mkdir -p .firecrawl

# File → markdown
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -o .firecrawl/paper.md

# AI summary
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -S -o .firecrawl/paper-summary.md

# Ask a question about the doc
firecrawl parse ./paper.pdf -Q "What are the main conclusions?" \
  -o .firecrawl/paper-qa.md
```

Then read the output incrementally with `head`, `grep`, or `rg`.

Run `firecrawl parse --help` for the full option list.

**Done when:** the markdown, summary, or answer is written under `.firecrawl/` and you have inspected it with bounded reads.

## Tips

- Quote paths with spaces: `firecrawl parse "./My Doc.pdf" -o .firecrawl/mydoc.md`.
- Max upload size: **50 MB** per file.
- Credits: ~1 per PDF page; HTML is 1 flat.
- Check `.firecrawl/` before re-parsing the same file.
- To check your credit balance (recommended for batch processing and similar workflows), use `firecrawl credit-usage` (requires authentication).

## See also

- [firecrawl-scrape](../firecrawl-scrape/SKILL.md) — same idea for URLs
- [firecrawl-build-scrape](https://github.com/firecrawl/skills/tree/main/skills/build/firecrawl-build-scrape) — building document extraction into an app instead of running it here

Excerpt, first 1,762 characters of SKILL.md, verbatim from the audited commit. It is text from someone else’s repository, quoted so you can judge it before your agent reads it.

git clone https://github.com/firecrawl/cli
git -C cli checkout ca9cfb73adc1

Works in

1. 2026-10-28
   ✓SAFE B 89 / 100

   first audit · source ca9cfb73adc1

Questions about firecrawl-parse

• github.com/firecrawl/cli/tree/main/skills/firecrawl-parse — the audited source at commit ca9cfb73adc1 and every finding aboveObserved · 28 Oct 2026

Spotted something wrong? Report a correction · Methodology