• DATA
  • REPORTS
  • ANALYSIS
  • HUMAN

How to research live web topics with your AI

Connect Firecrawl to your AI client once. From then on, your agent can browse the live web and scrape specific pages for you.

Ask AI about this page

Short answer

How can I use my AI to research live web topics?

Your AI uses Firecrawl to perform web searches and extract clean Markdown from the best results. This gives your agent structured, readable data to build reports or answer questions about current events. You get a breakdown of how the agent handles the search and extraction process.

Research outcomes

What your agent produces

The results of a web search task.

DATA

Clean Markdown content

The AI pulls text in Markdown format from search results. You get structured data that is easy for your agent to parse and reason over.

REPORTS

Automated summaries

Your agent compiles the scraped data into organized summaries. This turns raw web text into actionable intelligence for your specific task.

ANALYSIS

Deep topic dives

By pulling from multiple top results, your agent builds a broader understanding of a topic. It moves past single-page snapshots to give you a full picture.

HUMAN

Final verification

The AI provides the source links and the extracted text. You decide which findings are accurate and which require a second look.

The workflow

What your AI does when the search starts.

The agent handles the heavy lifting of finding and cleaning web data.

  1. Find relevant sources

    Your agent identifies the most useful websites for your specific query. It looks for high-quality matches across the live web.

    search_web

  2. Extract page content

    The agent visits the top results to pull the actual text. It ignores the junk like ads and navigation menus.

    search_web

  3. Convert to Markdown

    The scraped HTML is turned into clean Markdown. This makes the content much easier for your agent to read and analyze.

    search_web

  4. Synthesize findings

    Your agent looks at all the gathered Markdown to answer your question. It organizes the facts into the format you requested.

    search_web

Try it

Copy these to start.

Use these prompts to kick off a research task.

Starting points

Swap the bracketed text for your actual research targets.

Firecrawl Connector

You're all set. Choose your MCP client and follow the setup instructions.

Connector linkhttps://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_H3lslwPhMfSWLHyTzOylzN5WvZ9uNMEMQ6eYZqT4/mcp

Claude Desktop

Follow the steps below to connect in seconds.

  1. 1In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Connectors.
  2. 2Click “Add custom connector” and paste the connector link above as the remote MCP server URL.
  3. 3Click Add and start a new chat — Firecrawl capabilities are ready to use.
Configuration · claude_desktop_config.jsonCopy
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "firecrawl-mcp": {
      "url": "https://edge.vinkius.com/vk_preview_H3lslwPhMfSWLHyTzOylzN5WvZ9uNMEMQ6eYZqT4/mcp"
    }
  }
}
Copy into chat04

  • Search the web for the latest updates on [topic] and summarize the key findings in Markdown.

  • Find the top three articles about [company] and extract their main arguments.

  • Research [industry trend] and create a bulleted list of recent developments from the last month.

  • Search for [product name] reviews and give me a summary of the common pros and cons found in the top results.

  • Claude
  • ChatGPT
  • Cursor
  • VS Code
  • Windsurf
  • Claude Code
  • JetBrains
  • Cline

Start here

Connect Firecrawl once, then ask.

Click the link to connect your account. Your credentials stay encrypted, and you can immediately start using these tools in your preferred AI client.

Connect Firecrawl to your AI

FAQ

How this task behaves

  • 01

    Can the AI browse any website?

    No. The AI can only access websites that are publicly available on the web and not blocked by robots.txt or paywalls.

  • 02

    Does the AI save the websites it visits?

    No. The AI extracts the content for your current session, but it does not store or archive the websites for you to browse later.

  • 03

    Can the AI buy things or sign up for accounts?

    No. This connector is for reading and searching. It cannot perform actions like making purchases or creating user accounts on websites.

  • 04

    Will the AI change the content on the web?

    No. The AI only reads and extracts data. It has no ability to edit, delete, or post content to any website.

  • 05

    What format is the data in?

    The AI extracts content as clean Markdown, which makes it easy for your agent to process.

  • More questions about Firecrawl? The Connector page answers them. See everything the Firecrawl Connector can do

Connect Firecrawl to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT & more