crewAIInc/crewAI · error · RuntimeError

FirecrawlApp not properly initialized

Error message

FirecrawlApp not properly initialized

What it means

RuntimeError raised at the top of FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool._run when self._firecrawl is falsy — i.e. the FirecrawlApp client was never constructed. Normally __init__ guarantees the client exists, so this fires when construction was bypassed or partially completed (mocked init, subclass skipping super().__init__, or an init path that raised after the check).

Source

Thrown at lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/firecrawl_crawl_website_tool/firecrawl_crawl_website_tool.py:109

                "You are missing the 'firecrawl-py' package. Would you like to install it?"
            ):
                import subprocess

                try:
                    subprocess.run(["uv", "add", "firecrawl-py"], check=True)  # noqa: S607
                    from firecrawl import FirecrawlApp

                    self._firecrawl = FirecrawlApp(api_key=self.api_key)
                except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
                    raise ImportError("Failed to install firecrawl-py package") from e
            else:
                raise ImportError(
                    "`firecrawl-py` package not found, please run `uv add firecrawl-py`"
                ) from None

    def _run(self, url: str) -> Any:
        if not self._firecrawl:
            raise RuntimeError("FirecrawlApp not properly initialized")

        url = validate_url(url)
        return self._firecrawl.crawl(url=url, poll_interval=2, **self.config)


try:
    from firecrawl import FirecrawlApp  # noqa: F401

    if not getattr(FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool, "_model_rebuilt", False):
        FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool.model_rebuild()
        FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool._model_rebuilt = True  # type: ignore[attr-defined]
except ImportError:
    pass

View on GitHub (pinned to 754d7323be)

Solutions

1. Construct the tool normally: FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool(api_key=...) so _firecrawl is set.
2. In tests, inject a mock: tool._firecrawl = MagicMock().
3. Don't swallow exceptions from __init__; a failed init should discard the instance, not leave it runnable.

Example fix

# before
tool = FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool.__new__(FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool)
tool._run('https://x.com')  # RuntimeError

# after
tool = FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool(api_key=FIRECRAWL_API_KEY)
tool._run('https://x.com')

if not getattr(tool, '_firecrawl', None):
    raise RuntimeError('crawl tool has no FirecrawlApp client; rebuild via constructor')

def crawl_tool_ready(tool) -> bool:
    return bool(getattr(tool, '_firecrawl', None))

try:
    out = tool._run(url)
except RuntimeError as e:
    if 'not properly initialized' in str(e):
        tool = FirecrawlCrawlWebsiteTool(api_key=KEY)
        out = tool._run(url)
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling tool._run(url) on an instance created without a completed __init__ (e.g. __new__, model_copy, or a test mock that leaves _firecrawl unset/None).

Common situations: Unit tests with half-mocked tools; Pydantic reconstruction paths; an earlier exception during __init__ being swallowed by a broad except, leaving a half-built object that is then run.

Related errors

• FirecrawlApp not properly initialized
• FirecrawlApp not properly initialized
• Client not initialized
• Client is not initialized
• Failed to initialize MCP Adapter: {e}

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f1233c9f8087fc9. Report an issue: GitHub.