Cli

cli.py command surface

Command	Inputs / flags	What it does
profiles	(none)	Opens the interactive profile manager, lets you list, create, delete saved browser profiles that live in ~/.crawl4ai/profiles.
browser status	–	Prints whether the always-on builtin browser is running, shows its CDP URL, PID, start time.
browser stop	–	Kills the builtin browser and deletes its status file.
browser view	--url, -u URL (optional)	Pops a visible window of the builtin browser, navigates to URL or about:blank.
config list	–	Dumps every global setting, showing current value, default, and description.
config get	key	Prints the value of a single setting, falls back to default if unset.
config set	key value	Persists a new value in the global config (stored under ~/.crawl4ai/config.yml).
examples	–	Just spits out real-world CLI usage samples.
crawl	url (positional)
--browser-config,-B path
--crawler-config,-C path
--filter-config,-f path
--extraction-config,-e path
--json-extract,-j [desc]*
--schema,-s path
--browser,-b k=v list
--crawler,-c k=v list
--output,-o all,json,markdown,md,markdown-fit,md-fit (default all)
--output-file,-O path
--bypass-cache,-b (flag, default true — note flag reuse)
--question,-q str
--verbose,-v (flag)
--profile,-p profile-name	One-shot crawl + extraction. Builds BrowserConfig and CrawlerRunConfig from inline flags or separate YAML/JSON files, runs AsyncWebCrawler.run(), can route through a named saved profile and pipe the result to stdout or a file.
(default)	Same flags as crawl, plus --example	Shortcut so you can type just crwl https://site.com. When first arg is not a known sub-command, it falls through to crawl.

* --json-extract/-j with no value turns on LLM-based JSON extraction using an auto schema, supplying a string lets you prompt-engineer the field descriptions.

Quick mental model
profiles = manage identities,
browser ... = control long-running headless Chrome that all crawls can piggy-back on,
crawl = do the actual work,
config = tweak global defaults,
everything else is sugar.

Quick-fire “profile” usage cheatsheet

Scenario	Command (copy-paste ready)	Notes
Launch interactive Profile Manager UI	crwl profiles	Opens TUI with options: 1 List, 2 Create, 3 Delete, 4 Use-to-crawl, 5 Exit.
Create a fresh profile	crwl profiles → choose 2 → name it → browser opens → log in → press q in terminal	Saves to ~/.crawl4ai/profiles/<name>.
List saved profiles	crwl profiles → choose 1	Shows name, browser type, size, last-modified.
Delete a profile	crwl profiles → choose 3 → pick the profile index → confirm	Removes the folder.
Crawl with a profile (default alias)	crwl https://site.com/dashboard -p my-profile	Keeps login cookies, sets use_managed_browser=true under the hood.
Crawl + verbose JSON output	crwl https://site.com -p my-profile -o json -v	Any other crawl flags work the same.
Crawl with extra browser tweaks	crwl https://site.com -p my-profile -b "headless=true,viewport_width=1680"	CLI overrides go on top of the profile.
Same but via explicit sub-command	crwl crawl https://site.com -p my-profile	Identical to default alias.
Use profile from inside Profile Manager	crwl profiles → choose 4 → pick profile → enter URL → follow prompts	Handy when demo-ing to non-CLI folks.
One-off crawl with a profile folder path (no name lookup)	crwl https://site.com -b "user_data_dir=$HOME/.crawl4ai/profiles/my-profile,use_managed_browser=true"	Bypasses registry, useful for CI scripts.
Launch a dev browser on CDP port with the same identity	crwl cdp -d $HOME/.crawl4ai/profiles/my-profile -P 9223	Lets Puppeteer/Playwright attach for debugging.