tavily crawl

Crawl a website and extract content from multiple pages. Supports saving each page as a local markdown file.

Before running any command

If tvly is not found on PATH, install it first:

bash

curl -fsSL https://cli.tavily.com/install.sh | bash && tvly login

Do not skip this step or fall back to other tools.

See tavily-cli for alternative install methods and auth options.

When to use

You need content from many pages on a site (e.g., all /docs/)
You want to download documentation for offline use
Step 4 in the workflow: search → extract → map → crawl → research

Quick start

bash

# Basic crawl
tvly crawl "https://docs.example.com" --json

# Save each page as a markdown file
tvly crawl "https://docs.example.com" --output-dir ./docs/

# Deeper crawl with limits
tvly crawl "https://docs.example.com" --max-depth 2 --limit 50 --json

# Filter to specific paths
tvly crawl "https://example.com" --select-paths "/api/.*,/guides/.*" --exclude-paths "/blog/.*" --json

# Semantic focus (returns relevant chunks, not full pages)
tvly crawl "https://docs.example.com" --instructions "Find authentication docs" --chunks-per-source 3 --json

Options

Option	Description
`--max-depth`	Levels deep (1-5, default: 1)
`--max-breadth`	Links per page (default: 20)
`--limit`	Total pages cap (default: 50)
`--instructions`	Natural language guidance for semantic focus
`--chunks-per-source`	Chunks per page (1-5, requires `--instructions`)
`--extract-depth`	`basic` (default) or `advanced`
`--format`	`markdown` (default) or `text`
`--select-paths`	Comma-separated regex patterns to include
`--exclude-paths`	Comma-separated regex patterns to exclude
`--select-domains`	Comma-separated regex for domains to include
`--exclude-domains`	Comma-separated regex for domains to exclude
`--allow-external / --no-external`	Include external links (default: allow)
`--include-images`	Include images
`--timeout`	Max wait (10-150 seconds)
`-o, --output`	Save JSON output to file
`--output-dir`	Save each page as a .md file in directory
`--json`	Structured JSON output

Crawl for context vs. data collection

For agentic use (feeding results to an LLM):

Always use --instructions + --chunks-per-source. Returns only relevant chunks instead of full pages — prevents context explosion.

bash

tvly crawl "https://docs.example.com" --instructions "API authentication" --chunks-per-source 3 --json

For data collection (saving to files):

Use --output-dir without --chunks-per-source to get full pages as markdown files.

bash

tvly crawl "https://docs.example.com" --max-depth 2 --output-dir ./docs/

Tips

Start conservative — --max-depth 1, --limit 20 — and scale up.
Use --select-paths to focus on the section you need.
Use map first to understand site structure before a full crawl.
Always set --limit to prevent runaway crawls.

tavily crawl

Before running any command

When to use

Quick start

Options

Crawl for context vs. data collection

Tips

See also