Screaming Frog CLI Command Builder

How to Use the Screaming Frog CLI Command Builder

• Choose your terminal: Select PowerShell, Command Prompt, macOS Terminal or Linux. The builder changes the executable, quoting and line continuation syntax automatically.
• Select a crawl source: Crawl a website, URL list, sitemap, Google Sheet, existing crawl or arguments file.
• Add crawl options: Run headless, load a saved Spider configuration, enable supported APIs and choose whether to save the completed crawl.
• Pick your exports: Search Screaming Frog tab exports, bulk exports, reports and custom summary columns without memorising menu syntax.
• Copy the command: The final CLI command updates as you work and flags missing requirements before you run it.

PowerShell, Command Prompt, macOS and Linux

Screaming Frog uses different executable conventions across operating systems and shells. PowerShell commonly runs the Windows CLI executable from the current folder with .\ScreamingFrogSEOSpiderCli.exe, while macOS can invoke the application launcher directly and Linux can use screamingfrogseospider. The builder handles those differences for you.

Export Tabs, Bulk Exports and Reports

Tab exports export the data visible within a Screaming Frog tab and filter, such as Internal:All or Response Codes:Client Error (4xx). Bulk exports are useful for relationship data such as inlinks, outlinks, broken-link sources and canonical inlinks. Reports generate dedicated reports such as Crawl Overview or Redirect Chains.

Using Screaming Frog Configuration Files

The CLI does not need to reproduce every setting from the Screaming Frog interface. Save complex crawl settings such as JavaScript rendering, exclusions, custom extraction or other Spider configuration in a .seospiderconfig file, then add it to the command with --config.

Built Against Screaming Frog SEO Spider 24.3

The command and export vocabulary in this tool is based on the CLI help output from Screaming Frog SEO Spider 24.3. Screaming Frog can add or change CLI options between releases, so check your installed version if a generated argument is not recognised.