crw-parse — local file extraction

When to use

• The source is a file on disk (PDF), not a web page.
• Step 5 in the crw ladder. If you have a URL, use crw-scrape (step 2) instead — scrape handles remote PDFs via URL. If you want a typed JSON object from a page, see crw-extract (step 6).
• PDF only. DOCX, XLSX, and other office formats are not yet supported (unlike Firecrawl's document endpoint). If you have a non-PDF document, convert it to PDF first or use an external tool.

Quick start

CLI — crw scrape auto-detects a local file path and routes to the PDF parser; there is no separate crw parse subcommand:

crw scrape report.pdf                         # → markdown to stdout
crw scrape report.pdf --format json --extract '{"type":"object","properties":{"title":{"type":"string"}}}' -o out.json

MCP (inside an agent harness):

crw_parse_file(
  contentBase64="<base64-encoded PDF bytes>",
  filename="report.pdf",
  formats=["markdown"],
  maxLength=0
  # For structured JSON output:
  # formats=["json"],
  # jsonSchema={"type":"object","properties":{"title":{"type":"string"}}}
)

REST — multipart upload, 50 MB limit, PDF only:

curl -X POST "$CRW_API_URL/v2/parse" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $CRW_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@report.pdf" \
  -F 'options={"formats":["markdown"]}'

Options

Need	CLI (crw scrape <path>)	MCP field	REST options field
Output format	--format markdown|json|text|links	formats	formats
Structured JSON	--extract '<schema>'	jsonSchema + formats:["json"]	jsonSchema + formats:["json"]
AI summary	--summary	formats:["summary"]	formats:["summary"]
Summary prompt	--prompt "TEXT"	—	summaryPrompt
Limit output chars	—	maxLength (0 = unbounded)	maxContentChars
Force parser	—	parsers:["pdf"]	parsers:["pdf"]

Formats json and summary require a server-side LLM configured in [extraction.llm] of the server config (or via crw setup for the CLI).

Honest gaps

• PDF only. The server rejects anything without a %PDF- magic header.
• No OCR. Scanned/image-only PDFs have no extractable text layer; they return empty markdown with a warning. There is no attempt_scanned option — scanned PDFs are a known gap.
• 50 MB cap on REST uploads (per-route hard limit). The CLI passes bytes in-process, so it shares the same underlying limit.
• LLM required for json/summary. Without a configured LLM the request returns a 400.

Tips

• Read the result, don't stream it. For large PDFs, write to .crw/ and grep/head the output: crw scrape big.pdf -o .crw/big.md.
• MCP requires base64. Read the file in your agent, base64-encode the bytes, pass as contentBase64. The filename field is optional but helps with error messages.
• Scanned PDFs return empty markdown — no warning field. If the PDF has no extractable text layer, the REST response returns empty markdown with no warning field in the envelope. A warning (e.g. warning: pdf_partial_text) only appears on the CLI's stderr, never in the REST/MCP response. If you get empty markdown, assume a scanned/image-only PDF and handle it at call-site.

See also

• crw-scrape — fetch a URL (including a remote PDF served over HTTP)
• crw-extract — typed JSON object from a page against a schema
• crw — ladder overview and routing rules