How to Create an AI Agent That Scrapes the Web for Information with Just One API Call
In the world of AI automation, one of the coolest things you can do is create an agent that can search the web, gather relevant results, and even scrape the content and take screenshots — all by using a single API call. Imagine being able to ask an AI agent to find you articles on any topic, and it delivers relevant content, including screenshots, without any coding on your part. Sounds like magic? Well, it’s all possible, and I’m going to show you exactly how to set it up.
Let’s dive into a simple demo of how this AI agent works and how you can set it up too, using Firecrawl and n8n.
Step 1: The AI Agent in Action
Imagine you need to find articles about AI, automation, and help on Reddit, and you want to gather specific information. Here’s what you can ask the agent: “Find me 3 articles on Reddit that have the words AI, automation, and help in the title.”
Once you ask, the AI agent uses Firecrawl Search to get the results. It finds the articles, scrapes the content, and even takes screenshots for you. No more scrolling endlessly through search results!
Demo Results:
By using just a single command, the agent retrieves the information and even provides a markdown version of the search results!
Step 2: How Does It Work?
So, how is this magic happening? Let’s break it down:
The API Request: When you ask the AI agent a question, it sends a Firecrawl search request with parameters like the keywords you want, the website to search on (Reddit, in this case), and the number of results.
Processing the Search: The agent processes the search results, scrapes the content of the page, and formats it for you. It even takes a screenshot of the page.
Returning Results: The AI provides the results in markdown format, along with clickable links and a screenshot to ensure you have all the necessary data at your fingertips.
Example Query:
The query was simple: search for AI, automation, and help on Reddit.
The agent sent over these parameters in the search request:
Step 3: Setting Up the Agent (No Coding Required!)
Step-by-Step Setup
Set Up Firecrawl:
Integrate with n8n:
Test the Search:
Once set up, you can ask the AI agent to search for specific terms and let it do the work for you. The results will come with links and screenshots of the web pages.
Step 4: The Power of Customization
You can customize the queries as needed, adding filters like:
In the demo, I showed how we could stack search parameters, like filtering out “agent” from a Forbes article search.
Example:
We searched for “artificial intelligence” articles on Forbes but excluded any mentions of “agent” in the title.
The results were spot-on, with screenshots and markdown snippets of the articles.
Step 5: Fine-Tuning the Results
To improve the agent’s responses, we configured it to understand search query operators and how to format them. By adding clear instructions, the agent knows how to construct the search queries and return the results in the best format.
For example, when searching for “OpenAI” articles, we set the agent to return markdown content and a screenshot of the full page.
Conclusion: Unleash the Power of AI Search
With this AI agent, you can search the web, get content from any page, and capture it in a format that suits your needs. Whether you want to scrape data for research, gather articles, or monitor web content for changes, this tool can help you do it efficiently.
The best part? No coding skills needed. Just a few clicks to configure, and you’re ready to automate your data gathering.
So go ahead, try it out! If you want more in-depth tutorials and templates, join my free school community and get access to exclusive resources.
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