Crawlcat public API

Crawlcat public REST API — automate technical SEO site audits from scripts, CI, or your backend. OpenAPI 3.1 contract, multi-language code examples (Python, Ruby, Go, Java, TypeScript, and more), and links to the Help Center.

Connect Google Search Console in the app, crawl your sites, export Copy for AI markdown for Cursor, Claude, or Codex, and read issues, pages, and crawl logs over HTTP. Same billing and plan limits as app.crawl.cat. Official MCP server for ChatGPT, Cursor, and Claude Desktop: mcp.crawl.cat.

The live API runs at https://api.crawl.cat/v1. This repository is the GitHub developer hub for REST examples and documentation links.

Keywords: SEO audit API · site crawler API · technical SEO · OpenAPI · REST API · MCP server · Copy for AI · LLM report export · web crawl automation

Useful links: Live API · Help Center · Web app · Website · Community · Related repos

What you can build

• List and import SEO audit sites for an account
• Start and stop site crawls, poll progress, and read audit history
• Export Copy for AI markdown for Cursor, Claude, or Codex
• Read issues, pages, and crawl logs for automation and dashboards

Typical integrations: CI SEO checks, agency reporting, internal tooling, AI agent workflows via MCP.

Quick start

1. Create a Crawlcat account.
2. Open Settings → API and create an API key. Copy it once (sd_live_…).
3. Call the API with Authorization: Bearer <your-key>.

export CRAWLCAT_API_KEY="sd_live_your_key_here"

curl -sS "https://api.crawl.cat/v1/me" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CRAWLCAT_API_KEY" | head -c 400

More examples: examples/ (Shell, Python, Ruby, PHP, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Java).

Authentication

Header	Value
Authorization	Bearer sd_live_…

Keys are created in the app. Only a hash is stored server-side; the full secret is shown once at creation. Revoked keys return 401.

OAuth access tokens from the MCP sign-in flow are also accepted on /v1/*.

Core endpoints

Method	Path	Purpose
GET	/v1/me	Account, plan, and credit wallet
GET	/v1/sites	List imported sites
POST	/v1/sites	Import a site by URL
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}	Site overview and latest audit metrics
PATCH	/v1/sites/{siteId}/settings	Update audit settings
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/audits	Audit history (paginated)
POST	/v1/sites/{siteId}/audits	Start an audit
POST	/v1/sites/{siteId}/audits/stop	Stop the active audit
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/audits/progress	Poll crawl progress
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/llm-report	Copy for AI markdown export
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/issues	Grouped issue list
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/issues/{issueType}/urls	Affected URLs for an issue
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/issues/{issueType}/llm-report	Issue-scoped LLM export
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/pages	Page explorer (paginated)
GET	/v1/sites/{siteId}/crawl-log	Crawl log (paginated, filterable)

OpenAPI (machine-readable contract):
https://api.crawl.cat/v1/openapi.json

Generate a client with your favorite OpenAPI toolchain.

Billing

Site crawls use plan page limits and Premium capability gates — not the credit wallet. Wallet balance applies to site chat and other AI features.

GET /v1/me returns plan and wallet balance so your integration can gate features or show usage.

Details: What uses credits in the Help Center.

Rate limits

Limits apply per account, not per API key:

• 120 requests / minute on account reads (GET /v1/me)
• 20 requests / minute on POST /v1/sites (import)
• 30 requests / minute on POST /v1/sites/{siteId}/audits (start audit)

Responses include standard rate-limit headers. 429 and 503 may include Retry-After.

Useful links

Live API

Resource	URL
API base URL	https://api.crawl.cat/v1
Health check	https://api.crawl.cat/health
OpenAPI 3.1 (JSON)	https://api.crawl.cat/v1/openapi.json

Help Center

Resource	URL
Help Center home	docs.crawl.cat
API overview	docs.crawl.cat/api/api-overview
MCP server	docs.crawl.cat/api/mcp-server
What uses credits	docs.crawl.cat/billing/what-uses-credits
Credit usage history	docs.crawl.cat/billing/credit-usage-history

The interactive reference on docs sends try-it-out requests through a proxy to the live API (use a test key with care).

Web app

Resource	URL
Web app	app.crawl.cat
Sign up	app.crawl.cat/signup
Log in	app.crawl.cat/login
Create & manage API keys	app.crawl.cat/settings/api
Billing & plans	app.crawl.cat/settings/billing
Credit usage history	app.crawl.cat/settings/credit-usage

Website

Resource	URL
Marketing site	crawl.cat
Pricing	crawl.cat/pricing
Public API feature page	crawl.cat/features/public-api
Agents hub	crawl.cat/agents
Product features hub	crawl.cat/features

Community & support

Resource	URL
Discord	discord.gg/knR7Xr94Mp
LinkedIn	linkedin.com/company/crawl-cat
Support	support@crawl.cat

When you contact support, include the X-Request-ID header from the API response.

Related repos

Resource	URL
Code examples (this repo)	examples/
GitHub: API examples	github.com/crawlcat/crawlcat-public-api
GitHub: agent skills	github.com/crawlcat/crawlcat-skills
MCP server docs	docs.crawl.cat/api/mcp-server

Local testing

Point examples at a local API with CRAWLCAT_API_BASE=http://localhost:3003/v1 (see examples/_config.example.env).

License

Documentation and examples in this repository are provided under Apache-2.0 unless noted otherwise.