# Scrape.it quickstart

Every compute call requires a free user-owned API key. Start at https://scrape.it/auth/start, confirm any permanent work or personal mailbox, and verify an authenticated proxy. Paste `user:password@host:port` or a complete proxy URL; Scrape.it detects SOCKS5h, HTTP, or HTTPS when the protocol is omitted. The vendor is inferred from the gateway host. Unknown hosts are rejected. Temporary email domains and `+` aliases are rejected. The onboarding flow saves the verified normalized proxy as encrypted connector ciphertext and generates the first command for you.

```bash
export SCRAPEIT_API_KEY="sit_live_REPLACE_ME"
export SCRAPEIT_PROXY_CONNECTOR_ID="pxy_REPLACE_ME"

curl https://api.scrape.it/v1/scrape \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SCRAPEIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "proxyConnectorId": "'"$SCRAPEIT_PROXY_CONNECTOR_ID"'",
    "format": "markdown",
    "render": false
  }'
```

You may replace `proxyConnectorId` with one request-scoped authenticated `proxy` URL. Never send both. Use https://scrape.it/openapi.json as the normative contract.

Optional: if the target returns `javascript-required` and you have a saved `cap_…` connector, retry with `captcha.connectorId` and `captcha.mode` `on_challenge`. Without that ID, the error is final for the request. See https://scrape.it/captcha.md.

Map, batch, and crawl need `destination.storageConnectorId`. Create an access key that can write only to one bucket, save it once with `POST /v1/connectors/storage`, then use the returned `sto_…`. Scrape.it infers AWS S3, R2, or B2 from the host. Do not send an account-root key. Custom domains and generic S3-compatible endpoints are not supported. Without storage, keep using `/v1/scrape`; the page is in the JSON response and is not stored for you.

Use this from Claude Code, Codex, Grok CLI, OpenCode, Cursor, Aider, or curl. Do not paste API keys, proxy URLs, or captcha keys into chatgpt.com, claude.ai, grok.com, or other default web chats — those UIs cannot call the API and should not receive your key. A coding agent should read credentials from environment variables. For help, email support@scrape.it.