FireCrawl Local Dev Loop

Overview

Set up a fast, reproducible local development workflow for FireCrawl.

Prerequisites

• Completed firecrawl-install-auth setup
• Node.js 18+ with npm/pnpm
• Code editor with TypeScript support
• Git for version control

Instructions

Step 1: Create Project Structure

my-firecrawl-project/
├── src/
│   ├── firecrawl/
│   │   ├── client.ts       # FireCrawl client wrapper
│   │   ├── config.ts       # Configuration management
│   │   └── utils.ts        # Helper functions
│   └── index.ts
├── tests/
│   └── firecrawl.test.ts
├── .env.local              # Local secrets (git-ignored)
├── .env.example            # Template for team
└── package.json

Step 2: Configure Environment

set -euo pipefail
# Copy environment template
cp .env.example .env.local

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Start development server
npm run dev

Step 3: Setup Hot Reload

{
  "scripts": {
    "dev": "tsx watch src/index.ts",
    "test": "vitest",
    "test:watch": "vitest --watch"
  }
}

Step 4: Configure Testing

import { describe, it, expect, vi } from 'vitest';
import { FireCrawlClient } from '../src/firecrawl/client';

describe('FireCrawl Client', () => {
  it('should initialize with API key', () => {
    const client = new FireCrawlClient({ apiKey: 'test-key' });
    expect(client).toBeDefined();
  });
});

Output

• Working development environment with hot reload
• Configured test suite with mocking
• Environment variable management
• Fast iteration cycle for FireCrawl development

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Solution
Module not found	Missing dependency	Run npm install
Port in use	Another process	Kill process or change port
Env not loaded	Missing .env.local	Copy from .env.example
Test timeout	Slow network	Increase test timeout

Examples

Mock FireCrawl Responses

vi.mock('@firecrawl/sdk', () => ({
  FireCrawlClient: vi.fn().mockImplementation(() => ({
    // Mock methods here
  })),
}));

Debug Mode

set -euo pipefail
# Enable verbose logging
DEBUG=FIRECRAWL=* npm run dev

Resources

• FireCrawl SDK Reference
• Vitest Documentation
• tsx Documentation

Next Steps

See firecrawl-sdk-patterns for production-ready code patterns.