Quickstart

Make your first Context.dev request with cURL or an official SDK, then check the result. To have a coding agent do the setup, use the Agent quickstart.

1. Get an API key

Create an account, then copy a secret key from the API keys page. Set it in the shell where you’ll run the example:

export CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY="ctxt_secret_..."

Keep the key on your server. Don’t commit it or put it in browser code. API keys covers permissions and rotation.

2. Choose your client

cURL needs no installation. For an SDK, run the matching command; SDKs lists runtime requirements and shared defaults. These commands work on macOS, Linux, or WSL.

npm install context.dev
npm install --save-dev tsx

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install context.dev

gem install context.dev

go mod init example.com/context-quickstart
go get github.com/context-dot-dev/context-go-sdk/v2

composer require context-dev/context-dev-php guzzlehttp/guzzle

curl --version

Skip go mod init if your project already has a go.mod. Save the SDK example in a file and run it with the matching command:

Client	File	Run
cURL	No file needed	Paste the command into your terminal.
TypeScript	`example.mts`	`npx tsx example.mts`
Python	`example.py`	`python example.py`
Ruby	`example.rb`	`ruby example.rb`
Go	`main.go`	`go run main.go`
PHP	`example.php`, beside `vendor`	`php example.php`

3. Make a request

This request fetches example.com and returns its main content as Markdown. formats chooses the outputs, and one request can combine several.

import ContextDev from "context.dev";

const client = new ContextDev({ apiKey: process.env.CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY });

const page = await client.web.scrape({
  url: "https://example.com",
  formats: { markdown: true },
  sharedParams: { mainContentOnly: true },
});

console.log(page.markdown.data);

import os
from context.dev import ContextDev

client = ContextDev(api_key=os.environ["CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY"])

page = client.web.scrape(
    url="https://example.com",
    formats={"markdown": True},
    shared_params={"main_content_only": True},
)

print(page.markdown.data)

require "cgi/core"
require "context_dev"

client = ContextDev::Client.new(api_key: ENV.fetch("CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY"))

page = client.web.scrape(
  url: "https://example.com",
  formats: {markdown: true},
  shared_params: {main_content_only: true},
)

puts page.markdown.data

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "os"

    contextdev "github.com/context-dot-dev/context-go-sdk/v2"
    "github.com/context-dot-dev/context-go-sdk/v2/option"
)

func main() {
    client := contextdev.NewClient(option.WithAPIKey(os.Getenv("CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY")))

    page, err := client.Web.Scrape(context.Background(), contextdev.WebScrapeParams{
        URL:          "https://example.com",
        Formats:      contextdev.WebScrapeParamsFormats{Markdown: contextdev.Bool(true)},
        SharedParams: contextdev.WebScrapeParamsSharedParams{MainContentOnly: contextdev.Bool(true)},
    })
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    fmt.Println(page.Markdown.Data)
}

<?php

require __DIR__.'/vendor/autoload.php';

use ContextDev\Client;

$client = new Client(apiKey: getenv('CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY'));

$page = $client->web->scrape(
    formats: ['markdown' => true],
    url: 'https://example.com',
    sharedParams: ['mainContentOnly' => true],
);

echo $page->markdown->data, PHP_EOL;

curl https://api.context.dev/v1/web/scrape \
  --request POST \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $CONTEXT_DEV_API_KEY" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "formats": { "markdown": true },
    "sharedParams": { "mainContentOnly": true }
  }'

4. Check the result

The SDK examples print the page’s Markdown, which starts with # Example Domain. cURL prints the whole JSON response. It always contains all nine outputs, and each one has requested, success, and data:

Response (trimmed)

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "markdown": {
    "requested": true,
    "success": true,
    "data": "# Example Domain\n\nThis domain is for use in documentation examples without needing permission."
  },
  "html": { "requested": false, "success": null, "data": null },
  "metadata": { "title": "Example Domain" },
  "cache_metadata": { "status": "miss", "age_ms": 0 },
  "request_id": "3f1c2a6e-8b4d-4c1e-9f0a-2d7b5e6c8a91"
}

A 200 response can still contain a failed output, so check success before you read data. A failed output has success: false and data: null; the other outputs are unaffected. Outputs you didn’t request have success: null. Cached outputs can be up to three days old by default. Set maxAgeMs: 0 to fetch a fresh copy; Freshness and caching has the details.

Try another API

Every endpoint uses the same key and Authorization header. Send one of these, then follow its guide for options:

API	Send	Guide
Scrape, other formats	Add `html`, `screenshot`, `images`, `bytes`, `parse`, `highlights`, `json`, or `product` to `formats`	Scrape
Map URLs	`GET /web/urls` with `domain=stripe.com`	Map URLs
Crawl	`POST /web/crawl` with `url` and `maxPages`	Crawl
Search	`POST /web/search` with `query`	Search
Answers	`POST /web/answers` with `task` and an example object in `json_format`	Answers
Parse	`POST /parse` with the file’s bytes as the body	Parse
Brand	`POST /brand/retrieve` with `"type": "by_domain"` and `domain`	Brand
Styleguide	`GET /web/styleguide` with `domain=stripe.com`	Styleguide
People (beta)	`POST /people/enrich` with a person’s `email`	People
News	`POST /news/search` with `searchBy` naming a company	News
Batches	`POST /batch/submit` with `input` listing URLs	Batches
Monitors	`POST /monitors` with `name` and `target`	Monitors

If the request fails

Status	What to do
`401`	Read `error_code`. `NOT_FOUND` means the key is missing or wrong in this process, `USAGE_EXCEEDED` means your organization doesn’t have enough credits, and `DISABLED` means the key was turned off.
`400`	Read `message` and `error_code`, fix the request, and don’t retry it unchanged.
`408`	The request reached its `timeoutOpts` deadline. See Timeouts.
`429`	This API key hit its rate limit. Wait for the `Retry-After` window, then retry.

Troubleshooting covers other statuses and error codes.

Next steps

Scrape

Combine formats, filter page content, and handle dynamic pages.

Brand

Look up company logos, colors, and profile details.

Production checklist

Plan timeouts, retries, and key permissions before launch.

API reference

Check every parameter and response field.

Get started

Web data

Company and people data

Automation

Account and billing

Production

1. Get an API key

2. Choose your client

3. Make a request

4. Check the result

Try another API

If the request fails

Next steps

Scrape

Brand

Production checklist

API reference

​1. Get an API key

​2. Choose your client

​3. Make a request

​4. Check the result

​Try another API

​If the request fails

​Next steps

Scrape

Brand

Production checklist

API reference

1. Get an API key

2. Choose your client

3. Make a request

4. Check the result

Try another API

If the request fails

Next steps