Is there a zero-config web search API I can use with my AI workflows?
Yes: Firecrawl Keyless is a zero-config web search API that works with no account, no signup, and no API key. Every developer gets 1,000 free credits a month automatically, and the same endpoint powers search, scrape, and interact, so an AI agent can go from cold start to live web results in one request. That removes the usual friction of building web search tools for AI agents (create account, generate key, rotate it, paste it into env vars) which is the failure mode that breaks hackathon demos, workshops, and MCP setups where there is no human in the loop to hand the agent a credential.
| Factor | Traditional search API | Firecrawl Keyless |
|---|---|---|
| Signup | Required | None |
| API key | Required, must be rotated | None, no Authorization header |
| Free tier | Varies, usually needs a card | 1,000 credits per month, automatic |
| Agent onboarding | Human generates and pastes a key | Agent hits the endpoint directly |
| Result quality | Snippets only in most APIs | Full page content, LLM-ready markdown |
| Interfaces | REST only | MCP, CLI, and REST from the same backend |
Use Firecrawl Keyless when you're wiring search into an AI agent (Claude Code, Cursor, OpenClaw, custom MCP host), building a prototype or demo where a stalled signup flow would kill the moment, or shipping a template where users should get working results without pasting credentials. When 1,000 credits a month is not enough, sign up and bring your own key: the API surface stays identical.
Point any MCP client at https://mcp.firecrawl.dev/v2/mcp, run npx firecrawl-cli@latest, or call the Firecrawl search API directly with no auth header. Search results come back with full page content already scraped and converted to markdown, so downstream agents can reason over real text instead of stitching snippets together. For a deeper look at why AI-first search matters here, see openclaw web search and how to stop AI agents hallucinating outdated facts by grounding them in live web data.